Wii Fit Plus Island Lap

spike1380

I can NOT run in place. I have never been able to because it involves running on toes or flat footed which really gets my knees flaring. When I actually run, the heel-toe movement lets me last longer. So, when I do the island lap, I lap my living room. I think this is screwing me up and since I don't have an HRM yet, I can't tell for sure.

Here's my problem. I finished the lap in 10 minutes. I stopped once for about 30 seconds to get water (I paused it while I drank). I also stopped once for about 10 seconds because my mom left the guest room door open and one of my dogs stole her sock. Other than that, I jogged/ran continuously for 10 minutes. I have no idea what speed I ran but I do know that I was closer to a slow run than a slow jog.

The Wii says that I only had an 35% burn rate and that I only burned 85 calories. But, the one time I did force myself to run in place for the whole lap, it took me 11 minutes. How is it that jogging in place for 11 minutes has a higher burn rate than running laps for 10 minutes? My living room is very large and open with very little furniture so I get a good pace and keep it. I also have one of those wide receiver thingies for the Wii so I'm not going out of its range.

How can I tell (without having an HRM) whether or not I'm really only burning 85 calories? My running in place is more like a swift march than a run. I'd log it as just 10 minutes of running but I have no way of knowing my speed since the island lap seems to be more time measured than distance.

spike1380

Oh by the way, I found stuff online saying that it doesn't have a distance and other stuff that says people have measured it on a treadmill.

BUT, if the time doesn't vary much and stride length depends on height, legs, and fitness, one person's mile may not be a mile for another person. If one person runs 5miles an hour for 10 minutes and one runs 10 miles an hour for 10 minutes, they will not be running the same distance.

stringcheeze

I don't think you can. I think you have to take what the Fit says with a grain of salt. For instance, if you do the Marching Band or Boxing activities, they calculate based on your accuracy. Your accuracy would be crap if you did it all backwards, but as long as you're still doing the movements, you're burning calories. You're still getting your body moving in a fun way, which is the point!

If you took your pulse before you started the activity, then again at the height of the activity, and knew how long you sustained the activity at that intensity, I'm sure there are calculators out on the web that could help better determine the actual calories you burned.

spike1380

Ok, so I got myself an HRM and I did the 20 minute free run today - again running around my living room instead of running in place. According to the HRM, I burned 270 or so calories in 20 minute. According to the Wii, I should have burned 165. Either the HRM is not accurate or running living room laps really does burn more than running in place.

capturethemoments3

I wouldn't use the calorie burn the wii as telling you as very accurate. When I use my wii fit plus with my hrm, my hrm says I burn almost double what the wii says. Seeing as the wii only knows my weight age and height, and my hrm knows my actual heart rate I trust my hrm.

spike1380

That's what I'm going with. Even being a cheapo Walmart HRM, it's still going to be more accurate than the Wii.