News Nintendo apologises for Wii Fit

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2008/05/19/nintendo-apologises-for-wii-fit/1

Nintendo has issued an apology to Wii Fit owners who may have been offended by the results of a Wii Fit weigh-in as a result of a faulty BMI measurement.

 

Anyone got the waaahmbulance number to hand?

 

Huh, I already guessed it was a poor judge of fitness when it told me I was a stone and a half overweight (I ain't by the way) but I always knew that the BMI isn't a definitive measure anyway. Its already well known that it can't account for bone density or heavily built individuals. I mean take someone who is a bodybuilder, they will have a lot of weight for their size and age but a simple BMI measurement will interpert this as being a lard arse.

However the notion of people being distraught over this, come on get real!!! Some folk need a good bitch slap over some of the this things they come out with.

 

I just made everyone in the office look at me strangely when I let out a really loud involuntary laugh at that!

 

This was bound to happen though.

BMI really isn't suitable for this sort of thing as it is a statistical measurement for dealing with large sample sizes (whole populations). I don't know of any other way they could get Wii Fit to work but this was always gonna be the big problem. BMI isn't suitable for people with stockier builds because it doesn't take frame size into account so they'll be considered overweight even if they don't have a lot of body fat. As it was designed for average adults (and it doesn't even suit most races/cultures) leading sedentary lifestyles, it's unsuitable for children and teens, athletes and bodybuilders,pregnant or nursing women, people over 65, people who exercise regularly.... the list goes on and on.

The number of people who can play the game and get an accurate fitness measurement based on BMI is going to be a small fraction of the people who actually use Wii Fit. Besides, Body Fat ( and thus 'additional' Weight) and Fitness are two separate issues so maybe the game should have been called Wii Fat?

 

I'm not fat, I'm big boned. Beefcake. BEEFCAKE!

 

bmi is the most inaccurate, outdated concept ever concieved by whoever thought it up 30 years ago or whenever they did. I'm a weightlifter and according to bmi i have been over weight since i was 18 because i lifted weights, i have 16% bodyfat right now but measure 29 on the bmi, thats 4 points more than i 'should' have but it doesnt bother me because after my first testing it has been explained to me. That is the one major advantage of what has happened though, hopefully more people will be aware of its generalisation and choose to ignore it, too many people who will by wii fit to get fit would be put off by recieving such poor results, atleast maybe they have a chance to learn and understand.

 

BMI only works with people that are fat and want to find out are these actually obese
its blatently obvious that a well built (mussely) person isnt goin to be obese, same as a skinny peson the same height as a well built person of the same height is obviously not going to be the same weight

% bodyfat is more accurate as far as i know

 

if you are clueless enough to assume that a wiiboard (which is essentially a slightly clever pair of scales) , can tell you how fit you actually are then...... meh

 

BMI is not ideal but it's from "the most inaccurate, outdated concept ever". It's just a ratio between your height and weight, and if you understand that there's no problem. For > 90% of people, having a BMI outside of normal limits means you're overweight - 'fat' if you like. Like everything, there are exceptions to the 'rule' (people with a lot of muscle, children, pregnancy etc) and you have to take into account that the rule is not for everyone. Unfortunately the general public seem unable to understand this, maybe Nintendo didn't explain it very well.

Didn't this start because some 11 year old girl was told she was fat and had a hissy fit? Well there's two things wrong here 1) children do not fit into the normal BMI limits, 2) a lot of children these days ARE fat, this girl was probably no exception. Having said all that, this is a computer game that tells you you're fat almost as soon as you turn it on - nice move Nintendo.

 

that gave me a weird idea... maybe require to not be fat so it lets you play, basically have the game tell you to go out and do sports until your not fat anymore

(no, I'm not really being serious)

 

*pokes* at least they admit their errors! not to mention it was in the manual.

 

Why doesn't it let you put in extra options i.e. how much you can lift on a bench press, this is if you do weights for example.

But for the majority of the British public, who have not done weights, if you have a high BMI, it's because you are fat, period.

 

It's not really nintendo's fault, go to an NHS hospital, they'll weight you, measure your height and tell you exactly the same thing, it's just a flaw with the BMI system. You'll know if the BMI system is wrong for yourself.

Pretty retarded of the gamers really, surely there are disclaimers?

 

You know, it's really not that bad of an idea.

 

who is buying this game, that is fit?

isn't it kind of a given that if you are buying this game (and care if you are fat or not) that you would be overweight?

" i work out 5 hours a day, and am totally fit, i am going to buy wii fit, to make me fitter"
yeah.....right.

 

i've got friends who are "fit" who bought the game for the balance games and the fact it's a bit of a laugh to play anyway.

sooo scarrmrcc, plenty of people

 

Anyone who buys this as a fitness tool is just stupid anyway. Marketing it as a fitness tool is just wrong, people are idiots and believe it.

Its a game and toy, not fitness.

Please excuse me while i put on a fitness video and jump up and down on my bathroom scales untill they break and tell me im 5 stone.

 

QFT

 

I didn't buy it as a fitness tool, I bought for the fun factor of the balance games and considering how much fun they are I'd say it was money well spent.

Although I will say that some of the yoga poses are quite tricky and the advanced ones can be quite challenging.