30 Day Workout Challenge

I actually did use “Wii Fit Plus” for almost 30 days, but I originally wasn't going to talk about it. It's not a real exercise program, right?

Wrong. It is advertised as one and encourages you to use it daily to keep your weight under control. And each time I looked at my weight graph, I saw those first weeks where absolutely nothing was happening, or worse, I was gaining weight in the strangest yo-yo pattern. I finally decided people deserved to know, and a review was needed. I did not do a full 30 days, because it was clearly not working and sticking with it for a few more days would have been pointless.

“Wii Fit” was such a horrendous failure and yet I know when the Wii first came out, “Wii Fit” was a huge seller. It gave people hope that video games could help them lose weight. And while I do think video games can help, I think “Wii Fit” is a poor contender. It's not even suited for someone just getting started and trying to get in the rhythm of exercising. The lack of results of any kind would make anyone in such a position stop trying pretty quickly. Had I been less motivated, I know I would have given up after seeing my weight jump upward despite daily exercise.

As an avid gamer, I also saw the benefit and bought the Wii Fit along with a few exercise games many, many years ago. It's been sitting unused for a while now, but when I decided I wanted to get in shape, I pulled it out, blew off the dust and gave it a shot. To me, this seemed the perfect way to start exercising after years of laziness. It could start me off somewhat easy, motivate me with achievements that my gamer self loves and get me accustomed to having an exercise schedule.

I used “EA Sports Active,” specifically the 6 week challenge, which I completed in a little less than a month.

Why did I complete it so early? Well, there are too many rest days. It requires 3 rest days be scheduled before it will let you start the challenge. Because it uses the same schedule each week (instead of working out a certain number of days then resting), this can end up being really strange and ultimately you'll end up being told to rest on days when you're ready to get to business. The game does not stop you from getting in extra days on rest days thankfully. So I ended up taking only one rest day each week.

Each workout is 25 – 30 minutes long.

Peripheral equipment:

Balance board – “EA Sports Active” is compatible with the Wii Fit balance board. It amps up the difficulty of some exercises, such as kick boxing. However, I do think it lessens the difficulty of others, such as rafting or paddling.

Resistance band – The game came with a resistance band, but it might as well be a rubber band for how thin and weak it is, even for someone who hasn't exercised in years. I highly recommend getting a better resistance band, such as the ones by Beach Body, or getting some small weights and getting used to holding them along with the Wiimote and nunchuk.

Weight loss/Aerobics:

I did not lose much weight while doing the 6 week challenge for “EA Sports Active.” My weight fluctuated within the range that one could expect for normal daily changes. I believe this was because there was simply not enough aerobic workouts sprinkled in with the rest of the exercises. Everyday focused very heavily on lots of squats and seemed to end with some ab work. While there were a few aerobic days that were quite intense, they were few and far between; definitely not enough to help with taking pounds off.