Wii Fit calls young girl “overweight”
May 7th, 2008
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by Jamie Nischan · Filed Under: In the news
Recently in an online forum a couple of parents have been making a huge stink about the Wii Fit labeling a young relative of theirs as being “overweight”.
Their claim is that the young girl is healthy, athletic, and into sports and that this type of label can reinforce negative body image.
My take? I think that before people band together to crucify Nintendo we should all take a look at what kind of scale they are using to determine their body composition profiles.
After a little research I found that the Wii Fit uses the universal BMI scale. A scale not known for its accuracy when determining the body composition of athletic individuals. Heck my BMI is 27 which is overweight and “prone for health risks”.
So take a moment before you go blaming video games for childhood body image problems and do a little research. This scale has been used for over 100 years and yes it is outdated but when it comes to determining the body composition of mass amounts of people it actually still works pretty well.
3 Responses to “Wii Fit calls young girl “overweight””
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Jamie Nischan HFS, CES
My wife just told me that our back-order copy of Wii Fit was delivered by UPS this morning. I’m waiting for it to label me with “I’m Shocked You’re Still Breathing Unassisted” or some such nonsense. =)
We unpacked the Wii Fit board and it looks pretty neat. I watched the E3 youtube video and got all excited until I started reading that the max weight is 330 lbs.
I’m thinking there will be a patch in the near future that’ll at the very least let you bypass the weigh-in and still use the software. This is ridiculous.
I agree. At the very least. Otherwise I’m sure a lot of people will be very disappointed.
Nintendo has to know that adults will be using their products. And if they plan on getting into the business of fitness then they’ll have to recognize that adults come in all shapes and sizes.