
Video games can occasionally be the source of some pretty disheartening self-realizations -- like the time Rock Band revealed that you've been lied to your entire life about your angelic singing voice, or when Vampire Rain made you realize that you have incredibly poor taste in video games. However, something tells us these revelations are a bit less heartbreaking than those about to be unleashed by Nintendo's latest best-seller, Wii Fit -- especially when the heart in question is the fragile, butter-soaked heart of an overweight child.
Or an average-weighted child, for that matter. You see, Wii Fit measures the user's Body Mass Index (BMI), a weight/height ratio commonly calculated by physicians, though the use of BMI measurements in children is criticized by many dietitians for its frequent inaccuracy. Nintendo recently issued an apology following an incident involving the hurtful labeling of a "solidly built" 10-year-old girl. So, it's like an electronic, $90 version of our fifth-grade gym teacher? We're sold!













(Page 1) Reader Comments
BMI=Bogus
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Most people here can benefit and obtain very useful information utilizing BMI. These experts can criticize all they want, but we know the REAL reason they don't like it, this unhealthy obsession with putting self-esteem above personal health and well being. Hiding the facts don't help anyone and leads a child to a shortened, unhealthy life that does little more than drain medical resources for very preventable problems.
The interesting thing is that I recently had a body weight analysis done as part of a wellness program at work, and found (surprisingly) that 180 lbs would put me dangerously underweight--200 lbs is a healthy weight given my body composition. And I'm not a bodybuilder or anything like that, I just genetically have more muscle and bone mass than many others my height.
So give the whole BMI thing a rest. It's an antiquated system that has been replaced with several far more accurate ways of analyzing body fat (one of which simply requires taking your shoes off and standing on a scale with special electrical leads on it).
Yet you just stated you were 235. You ARE fat... which is exactly what the BMI tells you. And I don't know where you got the idea that 180 is dangerously underweight for someone 6' tall. That's pure bullshit. Also, the BMI charts give a range, they don't say you should weigh exactly 180 if you are 6'.
Laughing Target is exactly right, for the average person BMI works very well. The people for whom it is normally incorrect are those that have above average muscle mass. Most of these people are beyong the need to worry about their BMI anyway.
Im not fat, Im just big boned!!
"And I don't know where you got the idea that 180 is dangerously underweight for someone 6' tall. That's pure bullshit."
That's funny, because I got it from dietician with an MA who used bioelectrical impedence to determine my body fat percentage: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_fat_percentage
I'll be sure to let her know that some internet troll said her education and science is 'pure bullshit.'
"Also, the BMI charts give a range, they don't say you should weigh exactly 180 if you are 6'."
According to the BMI charts, I should weigh between 140 to 180 lbs for my height. I would look like a coke fiend at those weights.
Laughing Target is, as per usual, a know-nothing jackass (with a great icon). Different people are just built differently, and a healthy weight for one 6' tall man may be totally different than a healthy weight for another 6' tall man. "All human beings aren't identical? That's unpossible!"
here is the BMI chart
18.5 or less Underweight -- N/A
18.5 - 24.9 Normal -- N/A
25.0 - 29.9 Overweight Increased High
30.0 - 34.9 Obese High Very High
35.0 - 39.9 Obese Very High Very High
40 or greater Extremely Obese Extremely High Extremely High
Since you are 6 foot tall
At 200 lbs that puts you at 27 for your BMI and at your current what that puts you at 29.3 whch is the overwieght category. Your recommended weigth is 140-185.
Now the key here is body fat percentagein fact they also use waist size to determine risk. However being that I am 6 foot tall large frame and used to work at all the time I also seriously doubt that you who do not work out would be seriously underweight at 180. You may in fact be on the low end of fat percentages-you body fat percentage can be too low. However merely being overwieght in the BMI is not a bad thing either it just means you have to watch your weight or think about a little it does not mean you are unhealthy though. At 235 I would consider losing weight BTW I know I weigh 225 and am not obese either I know my target weigth is around 185-190 and I also know my body fat percentage from low density X-ray scans which are more accurate than your system.
The BMI is not perfect but it is a better guide than just throwing a weight on the screen. Since it gives a number that is a ratio between weigth and height.
I've actually lost 25 lbs so far on my current diet, by the way. I've known about the science for far too long, and I decided to do something about it. My beef is with the BMI system, which is a fossil, scientifically speaking--it was developed in the mid 19th century, for crying out loud. Check out the wikipedia article on the subject if you want to see the math behind the system (spoiler alert: it assumes tall people are just 'scaled up' versions of short people).
I can't comment on why my body fat percentage came back as low as it did. I really expected different results than I got. I happen to have relatively muscular legs (genetics I suppose, I'm no marathon runner), maybe that's it. I have broad shoulders too, so who knows? But I will say that I've actually given up on previous diets out of frustration because I thought I was still overweight thanks to the BMI system--and yeah, now I'm a little annoyed that I was at a healthy weight and shouldn't have gotten discouraged.
The biggest problem with the BMI system, though, is that as much as it was 'off base' for me, it's even worse for children. Healthy children at various stages have inherently higher body fat percentages than their adult counterparts. This facilitates their various growth spurts. I'm surprised nintendo was careless enough to put out a fitness product on their kid-friendly system that doesn't take age into account. And yeah, in a country where anorexia and bulemia are major health concerns, self-esteem does matter.
Oh, and I'm not particularly angry. I just don't happen to enjoy when someone pointedly calls me fat. I also don't like it when people point it out when I get a zit. Do you enjoy that sort of thing?
BMI is just a load. its an OK guide, but you can't take it to heart.
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I hate to ask, but our society grooming the ultimate generation of fucking pussies?
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Yes
Time for folks to face reality, being told fantasy then having the truth thrown in your face is what's causing these problems and piling on more fantasy won't fix anything. Our society isn't desensitizing, it is overly sensitive and is in need of serious desensitizing if we're going to fix these problems.
Fuck you!
Yes, it has.
If someday we make fun of some kid on these comments, for example, and s/he decides to kill himself, are all those people who commented screwed, even if just in jest?
Being fat is acceptable, but it's better to be thinner for many reasons. To be frank, in a country where healthcare isn't free i don't see how such a thing reaches the heights of concerns. Can it be that the free market isn't as universally applicable as people would like it to be?
Just keep repeating that to yourself next time a morbidly obese person sits next to you on the bus or plane.
There's a big difference between fat, and morbidly obese. Seriously someone needs to tell these people to get on a fucking treadmill and work out.
You have two choices in life:
1) Be fat, and live with it. Deal with the related hardships.
2) Do something, you fatass! Lose a few pounds. Cut out some unhealthy food choices, get in some more physical exercise.
It isn't healthy being excessively overweight. A few extra pounds isn't gonna kill you, though.
Haha, I'd LOVE to see them try to enforce that.
The other half are total dicks.
Uh oh. Well it was nice to know you comments section...
Also, +1 for Team American ref, Korova.
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Then maybe that 11yr old girl should have learned from her parents NOT to listen to everything that she hears. Or maybe she could listen to her parents when they say "What that game says isn't true; you're not fat." OR... maybe she can just take a look around her and see that she's thinner than 75% of the local population. I don't know, I'm just sayin.
Also, I'm so, so, SO sick of looking everywhere in this damn country and seeing nothing but Americans who are way too emotionally weak and self-conscious. I'm tired of hearing people state that they're only going to drink skim milk because your any other milk is sooooo unhealthy, and that it's a sin to eat anything that's not labeled "Non-fat" of something that more than two calories just because that's what the TV says and they don't have enough sense to take things with a grain of salt. Why does modern American society lack a backbone? How irksome... I think I'm moving to Canada.
but seriously, wii fit is just making sure all those girls begin with bolimia and then continue with anorexia when wii stripper pole comes out in a few years
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One thing about 'obese' people that upset me is when I go to an amusement park and their fat asses try and try to get their fat ass shoved into the roller coaster. The process takes an additional 15 mins for them to realize they can't fit.
/rant
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Seriosly, Self Esteem does nothing for you in a real, competitive world where your expected to deliver, and we should be telling these kids when they lost, and to fix it, and if they start to bitch and moan about how they got there feelings hurt, thats something for them to resolve and fix on there own. They need to learn now that there feelings aren't going to matter on things like a college application, or a job interview.
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Grow up, quit your bitching and get on the treadmill you fat fuck
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The bigger picture is this just continues the pussification of america where we reward last place, sue the county or state or whatever when our kids hurt themselves playing in a regular park, and tell our kids it's ok to take up 3/4 of an elevator by themselves.
It really fucking sucks.
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1 Year later
Wii Plastic surgery is released.
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One of my cousins has a kid and he's an obese kid, one of the husband or another cousin trains junior league soccer teams and she told him to get the kid in one, so he agreed, and got him into a game, of cour se the kid got depressed he could never run as fast and as long as all the other kids and he dropped out after one game, his mom hates the guy for what happened. The only fault here is the kid's mom, rather than get him into dieting and exercise she wants to avoid the reality... just wait until he starts looking at women and getting rejected...
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