I’ve always been skeptical of ‘exergames’ – games that promise to get you off your feet and into a less sedentary form of entertainment. My suspicions have recently been proven right by a study done in Houston, USA, by the Children’s Nutrition Research Center at the Baylor College of Medicine.

While previous studies conducted in a laboratory have shown that adults and children who engage in active video games go on to participate in moderate or even vigourous physical activity, the Baylor team wanted to know what actually did happened at home.

In experiments conducted over 13 weeks in homes with children aged nine to twelve who didn’t yet have a game console, the Baylor team found “no evidence that children receiving the active video games were more active in general, or at any time, than children receiving the inactive video games.”

In simple terms, the Wii Fit doesn’t actually encourage any more activity than usual.

So parents, save that money you were going to blow on a Wii Fit and take your kid out cycling, instead.

(Source: NY Times; Photo: tenstarshd.com)