Nintendo has admitted that the Body Mass Index system used to gauge obesity and fitness levels in Wii Fit may not be entirely accurate for younger players, nor for those who are very fit. The company has also issued a full apology to those who may have been upset by an inaccurate result.
Wii Fit is a fitness game for the Wii which uses a new balance board peripheral to weight players, gauge fitness and balance and to monitor the BMI of players. Players are then given a schedule of work outs to help improve their results.
The system hasn't been entirely well received however and the Daily Mail has published reports from distraught parents whose supposedly fit and athletic children have been labelled fat by the game.
Members of the National Obesity Forum quickly hopped on the bandwagon too, saying that the BMI system is far from perfect and "simply should not be used with children" as the results could prove to be potentially misleading.
Nintendo has issued a full apology to all customers of the game, but has pointed out that the manual does say that younger children may not get accurate results.
"As stated in the Wii Fit manual, BMI is essentially a measure of body fat, based on an adult height and weight. Wii Fit is still capable of measuring the BMI for people aged between 2 and 20 but the resulting figures may not be entirely accurate for younger age groups due to varying levels of development.
"People with more muscle mass than normal will also have a higher BMI rating due to the heavy weight of muscle tissue, so the resulting figures should be used for reference purposes only," added the statement.
It is also possible to bypass the BMI measuring aspect of the game and simply play the games and exercises themselves. Check out our Wii Fit review for more details, or simply tell us your results in the forums.
Wii Fit is a fitness game for the Wii which uses a new balance board peripheral to weight players, gauge fitness and balance and to monitor the BMI of players. Players are then given a schedule of work outs to help improve their results.
The system hasn't been entirely well received however and the Daily Mail has published reports from distraught parents whose supposedly fit and athletic children have been labelled fat by the game.
Members of the National Obesity Forum quickly hopped on the bandwagon too, saying that the BMI system is far from perfect and "simply should not be used with children" as the results could prove to be potentially misleading.
Nintendo has issued a full apology to all customers of the game, but has pointed out that the manual does say that younger children may not get accurate results.
"As stated in the Wii Fit manual, BMI is essentially a measure of body fat, based on an adult height and weight. Wii Fit is still capable of measuring the BMI for people aged between 2 and 20 but the resulting figures may not be entirely accurate for younger age groups due to varying levels of development.
"People with more muscle mass than normal will also have a higher BMI rating due to the heavy weight of muscle tissue, so the resulting figures should be used for reference purposes only," added the statement.
It is also possible to bypass the BMI measuring aspect of the game and simply play the games and exercises themselves. Check out our Wii Fit review for more details, or simply tell us your results in the forums.
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