Wii Sports Experiment sheds nine pounds
By Darren Murph 
posted January 18th 2007 1:41PM
posted January 18th 2007 1:41PM
While some folks are struggling just to stay out of the hospital when getting too amped up playing their Wii, Mickey DeLorenzo, a 25-year-old living in Philadelphia, decided to meld exercise and gaming together and further substantiate the most obvious research study of the year. His Wii Sports Experiment started in December of last year and ran for six whole weeks, and while he sought to keep his eating habits constant, he devoted 30 minutes per day to Wii Sports and monitored his weight, BMI, calories burned per session, body fat percentage, heart rate, and physical soreness. Mickey started out at 182 pounds, and after a month and a half of Wii workouts, whittled his weight down to 172 pounds, which he found quite amazing considering that this was the first substantial loss he had attained in over two years, and he never even cut back on the Eat 'N Park cookies (or similar). Moreover, according to The American Council on Exercise, he went from the "acceptable" category to the "fitness" category, and seemed to gain a huge boost of self-esteem in the process. So if the Subway diet just doesn't mesh with your taste buds, and you're desperate to find an excuse to game it up instead of going for a jog, be sure to hit the read link for all the encouragement you'd ever need, and click on through for a bit of footage from the entire process.[Via SMH]
His waist is just covering the door knob.
Look at the distance between his neck and the position of the window in the before and after picture. He moved over to the left. That's distance is enough to cover the door knob with his waist in the after picture.
I wonder what his wii sports age was?
That's a pretty interesting experiment.
Kick ass!!! Wii rules!
So yeah, that 9 pounds lost is totally because of the Wii. It had nothing to do with running for 6 weeks.
Um. HE didn't run. The PROGRAM ran. As in, he stuck to this regimen for 6 weeks. As in, you should be in a reading comprehension program that runs for 6 weeks.
He didn't "RUN" he "Ran the experiment" which means he played the Wii for 6 weeks.
We don't have "Eat'n'Parks" in the Philly area. From about Harrisburg west, we do. I played the WII in GameStops for about 30min at a time and got alot of upper body movment when using Zelda fishing so this really doesn't suprise me at all.
Is it just me or does he look exactly the same?
Gil,
your vision is 20/20, right?
Look again at man's waistline - he definitely lost a few pounds.
Once he's lost more than 20 you'll notice a difference in the overall appearance.
"Is it just me or does he look exactly the same?"
With the exception of a looser pair of pants and some judicious use of the Photoshop clone tool on his lovehandles. (The side shots at his site are similarly doctored.)
No sir, I'm not buying this. I buy that it *could* happen, but not that it did in this case. This guy's trying to get attention, and he succeeded.
Wow this deserves something like free subway for life.
I don't mean to be picky, but where once there was a door handle and love handles, there is now a red blur. Looks somewhat photoshopped to me, even if he did lose the weight.
Well, if I needed a justification to go buy a wii, here it is.
The slight sag in his wasteband is likely tell tale enough for most people. I'd say it yet more promising news for those gamers who could do to lose a good deal of weight. I could lose 30 pounds and not miss it and I figured the Wii would help since my lifestyle changed (now commuting an hour to work instead of walking 15 minutes each way), but I've been literally sick since I got the thing and can't keep a regularly scheduled gaming session because of my snots and coughs all over the place.
I have seen a lot of people diss on the exercise value of this because you CAN just flick the wiimote. How about a scoop of STFU? :) Like Mickey says, you need to get up and move. When I box, I'm trying to actually BOX (though the controller does NOT react right to ACTUAL boxing moves) with full motion.
What happen to the door knob?
He is clearly standing more to the left in the 'after' picture. His body is blocking the doorknob.
Ha ha! The Joy of Tech was right!
I turn weeklings into Wii-Men!
http://www.geekculture.com/joyoftech/joyarchives/906.html
No clone tool, it's just blurry. look at the left arm:
large picture:
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/149/358854545_0cc450662b_o.jpg
Ha ha! The Joy of Tech was right!
"I turn weaklings into Wii-Men!"
http://www.geekculture.com/joyoftech/joyarchives/906.html
Maybe now my lady will let me spend the cash on a Wii :P
What happened to the door handle in the after picture?
Will this guy now replace Jarret as the fat boy slim?
looks like he forgot to de-interlace his video. sigh.....
I was all set to believe this, until I actually got around to looking at the site.
The video you've embedded above looks suspiciously-nicely-done enough, but the Rocky homage video is way too nice to be plausible. It's got multiple fixed camera positions, which one regular dude could indeed do, but only if he had a buddy to mind the camera while he ran past it. Otherwise, though, I'll only believe video like that if the person running is Les Stroud.
Why would you do that, if you were genuine? Why? Unless, of course, you wanted to make a funny promotional Wii video, because someone was paying you to do it.
In this debased modern age, the above makes me 90% sure that this is Fake Viral Bullshit Example #12734.
"Honest and accurate", huh?
I want to believe. I really do. But, as yet, I am unable to.
Interesting but anyone serious about doing video games to get / stay in shape should look at DDR series on PS2 / PSOne / XBox / Dreamcast / etc
the door knob isn't missing, he's just standing further to the left in the second picture, and he's covering the doorknob.
You geeks need to go back to the eye doctor and get some new coke bottles. Or maybe a bigger monitor :-)
"Oh, the doorknob is missing, fake, fake!"
No it isn't you fools. Look at his arm - he is just standing further to the left in the shot. You can see wall under his right forearm, and the doorknob is behind his body.
Its not a fake pic...
the door handle is behind him the 2nd one.
If you follow your mouse up from those racing stripes on the wooden floor and go straight up, you'll see in the left photo that the door handle is about a half a mouse-pointer to the right. If you do the same on the picture on the right, the door handle would be directly behind him.
In fact, that blur that people are commenting about is probably the door handle out-of-focus.
He moved to the left in the picture, resize both doors in photoshop or whatever and you can see that the door knob would appear behind him.
You can tell by his chest anyway that weight is lost.
- Tin Foil hats?
(hope this doesn't show up twice - tried to add comment and doesn't look like it's showing up)
Anyone serious about playing video games to exercise should look at the DDR series on PS2 / PS / XBox / Dreamcast / etc.
And I lost 20lbs just from eating correctly. Its amazing what can happen just fom eating less. I didn't cut out any types of food, I just ate correct proportions.
But I see no change in anything in this photo. But even with my 20lbs I lost, I could tell my pants were loose. went from 40's to 38's. And the only change in the before and after photos I could see was that my belly button was more flat with my stomach, and not facing slightly downward.
Agreed
This looks fun and ok for exercise (simply because you're moving around) but anyone serious about playing video games to do exercise should look at the DDR series on PS2 / XBox / PS / Dreamcast / etc. DDR will give you an honest aerobic exercise (sustained heart rate at 120-140bpm for over 10minutes if you play at a reasonable level)
Doh - sorry about the double post
David, the experiment ran for 6 weeks, not him.
I made this for the people who said the door knob is missing:
http://www.basicfunction.com/doorknob.swf
Next thing we'll hear is that he's a terrorist...
That's nifty and all but it doesn't account for the camera also being moved a little to the left. Notice there is less window showing in the upper left even though the beginning left wall is exactly the same. No, the whole knob wouldn't be there but you should see just a tiny bit of gold. But assuming your little animation is correct and camera angle means nothing, why blur the mid section on second photo? He was obviously using the smudge tool, look at the molding under the word After on the second image. It's not about hating or calling people terrorist it's about not being sheep.
No offense, but this is pretty old news.
My wife and I have lost 10lbs each since new years by walking 6 miles/wk. For most people it just doesnt take a lot.
--J.B. (5'11" 185lbs)
http://www.thesimexchange.com/ (Not my webpage, but pretty cool)
Not to belittle your exercise (walking 6 miles/week takes more commitment than I'd put to it) but if the end result is the same, I'd rather play video games than walk :)
Look at the window in the door - he's standing much more to the left in the picture on the right, so he's just standing in front of the doorknob. What a bunch of freakin haters... is everyone out to trick you? It's not like he lost 50 pounds and became a muscleman in 6 weeks -- he just worked out using the Wii and saw a difference. I think it's great for the platform.
I play video games too. I guess what i was saying is that most american's just need a little excercise. 6 mi/wk is literally nothing. 2 laps a day around our complex and rest on the 7th day. We have a dog, and she has lost a couple lbs too. Unfortunately our dog doesnt play video games.
http://www.thesimexchange.com/
Actually you should still be able to see some of the knob even though he's moved a tad. Secondly how is it he was able to take the first shot sharply and the second one only blurry under his arms. I'm not saying he didn't lose weight, just that he most certainly did doctor the photo. Which begs the question of why would someone take meticulous records only to screw up the photo?
Just a note. His poses are what actually make it looks like he is more buff. His head tilted up in the first photo causes your neck muscles to bulge more. His arms are turned in the first photo and doesn't show as much muscle definition, but his arms are turned differently and shows the muscles better in the second photo. The lower pants in the second photo makes it look like he is thinner.
In addition the brighter second photo looks better and is another way to trick the mind. Looks to me like he just took one photo after the other.
Honestly does it matter if its fake or not. Who cares, the guy got more of a work out playing the Wii than sitting on the couch or at a computer. Thats pretty much the basis of the article.
Did he loose 9 pounds or 7, was it doctored or real, did we truly land on the moon? Who cares. The point is that physically, if your going to play a game, an active system like the Wii (Or DDR) is going to be healthier than a non active one.
Take it for what it is, an excuse to actually ENJOY working out by gaming.
when people start diets, or exercise plans, they always quickly lose 10 pounds or so, because you always have between 5 and 15 pounds of waterweight, which can be gained or lost quickly, sometimes over the summer when i got for a long 10+mile run, i can lose 5 pounds, just on that one run.
this story about him losing weight on the wii is not exciting or intresting. you can get more exercise spending 10 minutes a day doing crunches and push ups.
What a great article for gaming! This will not only bring more people to play more games (especially on the Wii), but also encourage more (slightly overweight etc) to buy a console with DDR etc...
Great article!
Tim
www.hackmiiwii.com
Why are people so skeptical? DDR is claiming to give the same benefits. And who knows how active this guy was before Wii Sports.
this guy to be to nintendo what jared is for subway.