I think Wii Fit is messing with my head...

I've lost almost 20kg or 44lbs by exercising on my Wii Fit. Yesterday i weighed myself on digital scales and I was 76.7kg. I then weighed myself right after on the Wii and I was 77.4kg. Has anyone else found heir Wii to be unreliable? Which should I use? Wii or scales?

Help!

No scales are perfect, there will often be around a 2kg discrepancy between any given pair of scales, so it's impossible to say which is correct- possibly both are wrong. In any case, as long as you are losing, does a 700gm discrepancy really matter that much? It does not represent a huge amount of weight, so isn't something you should be letting mess with your head!

The scales at the doctor's office are supposed to be the most accurate, so maybe weigh yourself there next time you go and then see whether your Wii or ordinary scales are the closest.

koshianha is right!

i weight myself with both my wii fit and my scales and they are never the same. for one, the wii fit takes into account the possible weight of your clothes, where as most home scales do not. i really wouldn't worry about a kg difference, your weight will probably fluctuate that much or more just between morning and evening. just think you probably eat at least that much weight in food a day, let alone the water you drink etc :)

always congratulate yourself for *loosing* not for what the scales actually say. they will never stay at one precise weight.

Thats funny because my wii board is right on the money with my digital scale. I usually just weigh myself on my wii. But it is true ur weight can fluctuate that much in a single day from everything you ate and drank.

Hi, I just played with the wii for the first time Saturday and I am still sore! lol. Obviously it's great excercise and I think I am going to buy one. I am just curious, how often do you excercise with it and for how long, etc. 44 lbs is awesome! How long did that take?

I've also noticed that my Wii weight is about 4 pounds more than my home scale, and 2 pounds more than the doctor's office scale. As others have said, as long as the numbers are going down it doesn't really matter which scale you use. But if you want to lose a quick kilogram, you could always set your wii scale to subtract more weight automatically!

I've always heard that you should weigh yourself on the same scale always, because no two scales will ever say the same thing.

it could also depend on where you have it in your house.  If I move my scale into the kitchen I get a slightly different reading than in my bathroom.

Josie has the very valid thought. If you were using the wii fit on carpet your scale won't work right.

What exactly do you do with the wii fit? Does it come with the programs or do you purchase them seperatly? I was thinking of buying one, but cant find any info!

Everyone is correct about how different scales are always likely to give you different weights. Just stick to using one of them to measure your progress; a loss is still a loss either way.

To test the accuracy of a scale, you can weigh yourself, step off, get a free weight, and then step on again and see if the difference between this weight and your previous weight is the weight of the free weight. (For example, the first time you weigh yourself, the scale reads 140 pounds, you step off, get a 5-pound weight then step back on. If the scale reads 145 pounds, then it's pretty darn accurate.)

I love my Wii fit..if nothing else it is great for just getting you moving bits of your body you might not normally think about exercising.  I like the balance things because they are the most fun for me but the hula hoop and stepping things are great for getting the sweat going.  I even do the running things which is amazing because I spent most of my time in school trying to do anything in gym that involved running in any form.

I find that scale has me a bit higher than my own scale but then my own scale always has me higher than the 'official' scale at my weighin at the doctor's office.  So, I just use the wii one as a guide to how much I have lost vs what the actual weight is in reality.

wii fit told me i'd gained 6 pounds overnight that 21000 extra cals in one day? I don't think so!!! I'd been dead good so i starting using the digi scales!

I have a Wii Fit and a Health-O-Meter precision digital scale, and today I took an hour and compared them side-by-side. I found that they read within <0.5 pound of each other when used on a solid hard floor, and with the leg extensions on the Wii. 

I'm very satisfied with the accuracy of the Wii scale function.

However, the Wii will weigh in 7.6 to 8.8 pounds lighter when used on carpet, or on the exercise mat, or without the leg extensions.  So, I simply do the Body Scan with the Wii on the floor, then move it onto the carpet and/or fitness mat for the workout session.

I love my Wii Fit and heartily recommend it. I also just started with My Fitness Coach  and I love it!  You . Will. Sweat.

Though I don't personally own a wii fit, i've heard many many many stories of people "gaining 10 pounds in a day" on the wii fit, or having it not match the trend of a real scale.  So, personally, I wouldn't trust it.

My wii fit is only 1 lbs off my digital scale.  "trust it" yes I do.  But my wii fit is on hardwood floor.  NOT carpet.  As others have noted that makes a difference.

We put our Wii Fit board on a piece of leftover bookshelf on our carpet and it seemed to help.  It's within a pound of my "old school dial scale".  Although, my scale has me 1lb lighter than Wii.  When I do my weekly weigh in, I check both , but usually go with the scale number. 

I do love Wii fit though, the Yoga is my morning workout, then I do the new EA Active at night.  That is a crazy workout!

Make sure your Wii Fit is on a hard surface, like a tile or hardwood floor. I've found a 3 - 4 kg variance between weighing in on a hard vs. soft surface.

Also, you may want to check that you've installed the leg extensions (buried in the packaging, you'll have to dig them out, if you haven't already.)

I spent an hour or so messing around with the Wii and a precision Health-o-meter digital scale, and comparing the two under various conditions and surfaces. I found that the Wii is accurate to within less than a kilo (half a pound) when used on a  hard surface with the leg extensions.

I think if you Body Scan on a hard floor, then move the Wii Fit to your fitness mat for your workout, you'll see a better result.

Good luck, please let me know how that works out for you.

- Dan Ader

my wii fit is on a hard wooden floor, and it told me i'd put on 8lbs in a day last week! i nearly fainted! but then I weighed myself on normal scales and had actually lost 1lb. I've fallen out with it now and bought EA active personal trainer instead! i think the wii fit can be quite de-motivating. especially the way that it plays that horrible trumpet music and makes your 'mii' fat when you put weight on!

 I think that maybe the balance boards are all a little different, as some of my friends have had the same problem, but some say it's dead on with their scales.

x

elle909 wrote:

> . .bought EA active personal trainer . .

I use both 'Wii Fit" and 'My Fitness Coach" but I haven't tried EA Active.

Any idea as to how they compare? Does Active use the balance board? (MFC does not.)

- Dan

I haven't tried my fitness coach, but i definately prefer EA to the wii fit (bearing in mind i've only had it for 2 days). It has a 30 day challenge mode, which i've just started, and you get a tailor made 20 min to 30 min workout 5 times a week, which get harder each time, and concentrate on working difference areas of the body each day. I personally have averages on burning around 120 cals (thats on medium impact), but you can choose the intensity of the workouts. It will tell you how many calories you've burned based on your weight and how hard you're working.

The kind of exercises i've experienced so far are:

tennis drills, boxing drills, running/walking/high knees and kick ups on a track (major sweating here!!), lunges, bicep/shoulder curls, in line skating (uses balance board).. and i think thats it for now but you get new stuff each day and i've only done 2 workouts so far.

You can combine it with the balance board for some exercises, but it doesn't use it for measuring your weight which i guess is one negative. It comes with an elastic rope thing (sorry i don't know what it's called!!) so you can do bicep curls and shoulder exercises too.

You can also pick exercises outside of your programme to isolate certain areas, and make your own workouts if you don't like the ones they pick. I think the main thing I like is that it is a lot more active than the wii fit. I do love the little games on the wii fit which is why i will still use it, but i feel with EA i am working my body more, i sweat more and i feel the burn!!!

Also, I love that you can make a person that looks like you (ish).. which is not a wii-mii AND it doesn't play a trumpet noise and make you look like a out-of-propertion marshmallow cartoon character when you put on a few pounds, which has always really de-motivated me!

Last bits, it has a journal where you can choose to do a survey about your lifestyle everyday (food eaten, amount of sleep, stress levels, water intake e.t.c), and it will tell you where you're going wrong. It also has an area to store other exercises you have done. You can pick which music you listen to, it has like dance, electro, hip hop etc, you can pick a genre, all genres, or make your own playlist. Or turn it off and use your own. Plus you can turn the trainers voice off which will be good once i get the hang of it! And, if it can tell you're not doing the exercises right, it will pick up where you're going wrong and tell you how to do it properly.

Nothing against the wii fit, and i am still using it for the yoga, and for the boxing and hula hooping games. However other than that, I feel the wii fit is good for slowly easing you into exercise, whereas I feel i need a little bit more.

Sorry for the over-sized rant!!! Hope this is a comprehensive-enough review.

elle xx