A number of parents have expressed concerns over Nintendo creating bad body images after a concerned family member complained that Wii Fit labeled her relative overweight.
"My [relative] came round this weekend and we let her play on our Wii Fit", a member of the DISBoards wrote. "We have all laughed and joked about being told that we're fat and need to lose weight but I was gobsmacked when it told her that she is overweight."
According to the poster, the girl in question is a healthy 4"9 10-year-old who swims, dances and weighs only six stone. "She is solidly built," the poster adds, "but not fat."
But she "was devastated to be called fat," the poster said, "and we had to work hard to convince her that she isn't. I know it is just a game but seriously we already have to worry about young girls starving themselves to look like the magazine models and now we have a game that tells them they're fat."
Shocked forum users responded angrily, spurring the user on to write an email to Nintendo. At the time of writing, they have yet to reply.
We reckon this could make a good story line in an upcoming episode of Hollyoaks. 'Good' by Hollyoaks' standard anyway...
i mean the BMI and that is all over the place, sometimes i'm 23 and others i'm 25. i don't think people should take it so seriously. but in fairness, i understand that a girl might get upset by it. my girlfriend gets well dodgy when she does her body test and i can see why it might cause problems with body image and that.
I just worked out she has a BMI of 18.2, which is apparently neither over or under weight - just right.
Perhaps the game is buggy?
More likely the adults input the data incorrectly as it relies on not only the weight but the height too, the latter of which the game cannot obtain itself, it relies instead on user intervention for that. Thus if the height is wrong then so will the Body Mass Index.
Tough love is what kids need, parents cant complain about their kids getting fat and dying young if they arent willing to be harsh to their kids in order to be kind.
god well she stated herself that its a videogame game soooooooo..... omg yeah thats right its a videogame!
I love it when people sat shes 'big built' in other words shes 'Big boned'...fat in other words God news really must be spbottom today if this is the only tripe to read.
I feel sorry for the girl - sorry that at ten years old she even cares what a computer informs her (!)
Even thought BMI isn't a great indicator, it is still a useful measurement with which you can compare how your body changes. Don't take it so seriously already and know that if your BMI reveals you are over-weight you are in good company...
This standard, called the Body Mass Index (BMI), is "Far and Away" the worst available measure of obesity since it only takes height and weight -- not muscle mass -- into consideration. A BMI of 25 or over means you're technically "overweight" and a BMI over 30 means you're "obese." Tom Cruise, with a BMI of 26.6, is officially overweight, but he's in good company. Celebrities like George Clooney, Will Smith, and Matthew McConaughey are also considered fat according to the misleading standard. Check out how you stack up on our BMI Scale today.
"She is solidly built," Sounds like a porker to me, if people get upset over these things perhaps they shouldn't be allowed to socialise and go outside.
Did they measure her height when she was laying on her back?
...my wife previously suffered with bulimia. Whilst it's under control, it never really goes away. Wii Fit correctly identified her as being "underweight". So far, no problem. However it then allowed her to set herself a target of losing several pounds in a couple of weeks. Now every day she's reminded that she's not hitting her target.
This, I believe, is unacceptable and irresponsible.
18 is underweight 20-24 is normal 25-29 is overweight 30 obese 40 severely obese.
bmi is not the best way to measure someone's body mass as it doesnt take into account what the mass is made up of. i bet an olympic sprinter is overweight according to bmi and that marathon runners are under weight.
i dont think this is a good thing for a game to do as its something for trained professionals to tell you one to one.
...my wife previously suffered with bulimia. Whilst it's under control, it never really goes away. Wii Fit correctly identified her as being "underweight". So far, no problem. However it then allowed her to set herself a target of losing several pounds in a couple of weeks. Now every day she's reminded that she's not hitting her target.
This, I believe, is unacceptable and irresponsible.
And if your wife went to the gym everyday (which wiiFit is a kind of replacement) And she found at the gym she wasn't meeting her targets, would that be unacceptable of the gym?
Also if everyone was classed as fine what would be the point of the game? It's there to help people realise they're fat asses, things friends and family are too scared to say, and before anyone says, yeah i'm overweight but i'm fine with it and if Wii Fit tells me i'm fat i'm not then gonna e-mail nintendo
There's a serious problem in the world today. Pressure on young girls to look like models is horrific. All forms of media stereotype fat as ugly and model-skinny as attractive.
Being just the right weight isn't fine. You have to be skinny.
Although women are no longer the only ones who are pressured. Men are becoming more and more worried about how they look these days.
Its all very shallow.
Now there is a point where people become overweight and it becomes a health issue. But you can be big and still be healthy.
Also, having a game tell you that you are overweight or telling you to lose more weight is extremely irresponsible on Nintendo's part. Like anyone needs more negative feedback in their life.
If you are a healthy weight and size then it should only encourage a maintenance workout/routine. It should simply try and put you in the health range, it should not try and put you at a certain spot within the range unless you want to.
In my opinion, BMI is rubbish! It is only good for people that don't really take part in sport or any real physical exercise that increases muscle mass as this high muscle mass shoots you to overweight and beyond on the scale.
I have a BMI of about 26 which is classed as overweight but I am 6'3 and about 15 stones and I do a lot of sport (predominantely rugby) and have a body fat percentage of about 10% which is fairly low. It is only good for the everyday person and is only a guide, so the little girl should stop worrying and laugh at the game being wrong about her! HA HA HA!!
It just dawned on me... what happens when someone imports Wii Fit? They redesigned the board (according to what I read anyhow) to handle Americans differently (since we're all apparently really fat ).... anyhow, I wonder if an import would assume that the person has an Asian body structure over a European/Caucasian frame. Body structures are a bit different and all. Correct me if Im off the mark on this one =)
Not suprised. The way things are now, anything is bound to upset somebody or another. There is probably a disclaimer in the manual that no one will read, saying that wii fit may not accurately display figure/shape.
And yes BMI is cack. Muscle is denser than fat (about 3 times i think), so i guess you could be getting a lot fitter and have the silly game tell you you're putting on weight. Not too encouraging.
it shocks me to think that many people believe that the game is made to lie about your age to make you feel a little bit better inside you. why is it that some of you expect the game to tell a fat person that they are underweight?
God People are being shocked at a Fitness Game made to help you lose weight telling them they are over weight and need to work more on the game.
Firstly, BMI is a useless stat anyway. Muscle is more dense than fat, and therefor heavier. So two people of the same height who weigh the same would share the same BMI, even if one of them was a super-toned muscular athlete.
Secondly, if those parents are accurate with their height and weight then yes she is underweight, or at least at the low end of the BMI scale. It's different for kids, but that's still low.
...my wife previously suffered with bulimia. Whilst it's under control, it never really goes away. Wii Fit correctly identified her as being "underweight". So far, no problem. However it then allowed her to set herself a target of losing several pounds in a couple of weeks. Now every day she's reminded that she's not hitting her target.
This, I believe, is unacceptable and irresponsible.
I hate to sound cruel, but at the end of the day you're smarter than the machine. You know if you are the right weight or not, and you also have the power to get rid of the game.
Ahhh, who cares if she's 'sturdy'? everyone has a bit of puppy fat at that age. Get outside get playing off ground tigs, british bulldog and build a few tree houses. She'll soon drop it off.
We are sorry to hear that your child is the victim of parents who shovel McDonalds supersize meals down his/her throat on an hourly basis because real, proper parenting has gone out of style.
Please continue to use Wii-Fit to rectify this problem. In fact, in anticipation of the day your child reaches a level of obesity more commonly associated with the US, please find enclosed a second Wii-Fit Balance Board to accomodate his/her other foot.
i mean the BMI and that is all over the place, sometimes i'm 23 and others i'm 25. i don't think people should take it so seriously. but in fairness, i understand that a girl might get upset by it. my girlfriend gets well dodgy when she does her body test and i can see why it might cause problems with body image and that.
I think people are quite right to take the gameso seriously.
When you consider the way in which the Wii Fit product is advertised, it has very purposefully positioned itself as a way to become healthy. It pretty much says so quite explicitly in the TV ads.
Given that Brain Training was frequently inaccurate, it wouldn't surprise me if Wii Fit had similar issues. If Nintendo argue that its a bit of fun, then its not good enough. They can't just chop and change their mind on what Wii Fit is just to deflect complaints.
Issues like this are going to crop up more and more the further Nintendo move themselves away from the traditional gaming market.
surely a ten year old shouldn't be using something like this anyway? losing weight isn't something you do at that age (while growing) so maybe wii fit is a game rated 3+ or whatever but most exercise videos are "exempt" and you wouldn't let a ten year old do one of those, the problem is because its a game these adults think its ok for children
It just dawned on me... what happens when someone imports Wii Fit? They redesigned the board (according to what I read anyhow) to handle Americans differently (since we're all apparently really fat ).... anyhow, I wonder if an import would assume that the person has an Asian body structure over a European/Caucasian frame. Body structures are a bit different and all. Correct me if Im off the mark on this one =)
The US version doesn't actually do anything to factor in your frame, the only difference is that it's been reinforced to handle 330 lbs(23.6 stone) instead of the Japanese version's 300 lbs(21.4 stone) limit. I was under the impression that the European release also had the higher weight limit, but I could be wrong.
There is a difference between "fat" and "overweight". Fat means that you are fat (easy concept, huh?) but overweight includes muscle mass. And is not necessarily a bad thing. The article say's that Wii Fit called her "overweight" not fat. Then she was traumatized by being called fat. Um, wake up and face reality. It said overweight, not fat. That is nothing to get angry over, but you did, and then you decided to send a letter to Nintendo because you were "traumatized". This article reeks of stupidity. Nintendo should sue you for wasting thier time. I can't believe a person could be so fragile.
She was 10 years old but put in the age of a teen and it STILL called her overweight. She must really be fat then.
Age doesn't having anything to do with BMI, it only goes by height and weight. Either they put in the wrong height, somehow tricked to board to thinking she was the wrong weight, or they're not being honest about the girl being 4'9" and 6 stone because that would be 18.2 BMI(underweight).
This is pathetic, if her parents are calling her 'solidly' built then she is is obviously a complete heffer and probably on the verge of obese.
It's just like the adverts you hear about from sad lonely old women...as soon as the description describes 'bubbly' you would know that they are 5 foot 4 inches, fat and ugly.
Meh. What do you expect? They're casual gamers, so they're obviously stupid ("do I need a Wii to play it?". They probably don't realise that it's not always completely accurate, and BMI isn't accurate in itself. Non-gaming bastards!
Not that I'd call Wii Fit a game, of course.
What happened to the good old N64/GC days, eh? I'm giving up on the Wii now tbh. There's always Sony and Microsoft I guess.
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