It’s the Christmas season and Nintendo Wiis are flying off the shelves.

Many reasons have been cited for the Wii’s phenomenal success, and one of them is the radical overhaul that Nintendo gave its game controllers. Wii controllers are wireless, motion-sensitive, and a whole lot more fun than their button/joystick-based predecessors.

I’ve heard more than one parent tell me that they would rather their kids be playing with the Wii than conventional video games. “At least it gets them moving.”

Well we now have some data to evaluate just how much energy the kids are in fact expending. The influential British Medical Journal yesterday published the results of a study to examine whether computer games can contribute to the recommended daily exercise needs of children.

The conclusion? Wii players expended signficantly (51%) more energy than those playing sedentary games (using XBOX 360 as the proxy). BUT, “these increases were of insufficient intensity to contribute towards recommendations for children's daily exercise.”

In other words, parents, don’t let the Wii become a substitute for real exercise.

Read more at:

British Medical Journal – link to the original published study