REPORT: Playing Wii Fit is good for your health

Guess what? Wii Fit is actually real exercise.

Well at least that's what a Nintendo sponsored study concluded. The Japanese researchers measured the metabolic equivalent values (a standard method of estimating energy expenditure) of 12 people ages 25 to 44 as they played Wii sports games and did Wii fitness programs.

"The range of energy expenditure in these active games is sufficient to prevent or to improve obesity and lifestyle-related disease, from heart disease and diabetes to metabolic diseases," the study's lead author, Motohiko Miyachi, a project leader at the National Institute of Health and Nutrition in Tokyo, said in a news release from the American Heart Association.

The intensities of yoga and balance exercise were significantly lower than those of resistance and aerobic exercise, but these exercises are effective in improving flexibility and in fall prevention, researchers said.

“Energy expenditure is the most important information to measure the effect of video games,” said Miyachi.

Wii Fit Plus is relatively inexpensive ranging from $17 on Amazon and on eBay it's about the same ( )