![]() ![]() It might be easy to just write Wii Fit off as a well-intentioned game that used a common index for its time, but even then, the game was inconsistent with what it considered to be a good and bad BMI. Wii Fit took none of these nuances into account. Although BMI remains in use by some health and medical professionals, the relationship between health and weight is complicated, and being classified as “overweight” does not inherently mean someone is unhealthy. Experts also say that the index does not take into account muscle mass, and can’t determine your actual health. ![]() Rebecca Puhl, a psychologist who specializes in weight stigma, told Polygon over email that “there are limitations in the use of BMI and it should not be used alone to classify an individual’s health status.” Her statement is echoed by dozens of articles examining the potential limitations of BMI in recent years. This was the first complication with Wii Fit’s treatment of health: it used an imprecise measurement of health. Sure, there were some workarounds to avoid this segment, but they required knowledge the average person might not have. Each person starting out the game got assigned a Wii Fit Age. Then the game crunches all the numbers and calculates a “Wii Fit Age,” which is a single number meant to quantify your fitness level. Once all that is done, Wii Fit displays your body mass index (BMI), a flawed measurement that uses your height-to-weight ratio to classify people as obese, overweight, ideal, or underweight. The inherent Zen ideal of balance is aspirational, but the issue is that Wii Fit locks these minigames behind a “Body Test.” During this segment, the game asks you for personal information like height and age, weighs you, and gives you a small balance test meant to assess your starting point. The game also suggested that players could maintain “wonderful posture” by checking in with Wii Fit every day. A message in Wii Fit warned, “A particularly unbalanced lifestyle could lead to fat accumulation… and even trigger a condition known as metabolic syndrome,” a group of risk factors for heart disease and diabetes. The aim wasn’t to transform you into an athlete, but to help you hone your inner balance. The minigames had you doing silly antics, such as leaning on the balance board to control a soccer player or jumping on it to mimic a ski jump. Released in 2007, Wii Fit offered a suite of sporty minigames played with a balance board peripheral that you stood on like a weight scale. Based on dozens of testimonials on TikTok that were reviewed by Polygon, she’s not alone in that. “It caused me to want to hide things from my friends out of fear of judgment, which has stuck with me almost 14 years later,” she said. Tinisha Osu, a 21-year-old student, told Polygon over Instagram messages that she was only 8 when Wii Fit made her feel ashamed of her weight. ![]() But sometimes, good intentions aren’t enough.Įven now, in 2021, Wii Fit players are still dealing with the consequences of a Nintendo game that harmed their self-esteem back when they were children. And Wii Fit, a video game ostensibly about health, was a logical progression of Nintendo’s fitness games. The Wii, which got people off the couch and moving, was the perfect encapsulation of that ongoing concern with wellness. At least, that’s the message the company tries to broadcast through health-conscientious developments like step counters and memory games. Nintendo wants to make exercise easy and fun. ![]()
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