I’d Be Totally Into ‘Exergaming’ If I Didn’t Feel So Stupid Doing It

Show of hands here. How many of you are using your video game system to work out? I have tried it on occasion, but watching my little virtual me flail around has always been totally discouraging. My virtual me is even more uncoordinated by my real me. But according to The Daily Mail, “exergaming” is a surefire way for women to exercise and get healthy at home without trading through the freezing cold to get to the gym.

Eight new mothers used a Wii Fit console to mimic the movements of activities including jogging, yoga, skate boarding and hula hooping for 45 minutes three or four times a week.

At the start of the study, they were around 18lb heavier than before giving birth.

After three months of exercising at home, they had shed more than half of this, taking them close to their pre-pregnancy weight.

The amount of body fat fell by up to 28 per cent, hips, waists and bust shrunk and the average women dropped from being borderline overweight to being comfortably within the normal weight zone.

This only works if you can tear the video game console away from your husband and kids. I know a lot of people swear by doing Zumba with their video game systems or using the Wii Fit balance board, but I just have never been able to get into it. Dancing games can be fun, and it’s hilarious watching your kids bust a move to Mc Hammer, but I have never done it on a consistant basis for long enough to feel like it is my exercise routine. I know there have to be moms out there who use their Xbox and their living room as their gym, I just don’t know any of them.

If this weather keeps up, I may need to try again because if there is anything I hate more than exercising, it’s exercising in the cold. This is where all of you moms out there who actually do EXERGAME tell me all about how great it is and what your favorite games and fitness programs available on your gaming system are so I get super into this. Unless, of course, like most people you are using it just to play The Last Of Us and as a DVD player.

(Image: getty images)