A little tongue in cheek here but to answer the question "How do I know if I've done enough?, I know by some of the following. When my foot starts to cramp because I've been pedaling around an island for hours looking for blue and white balls, when I sit down and can't get back up because my legs are too sore, when lifting my arm to get a glass out of the cupboard is painful, when the family is planning an intervention to pry the wiimote from my hand, when it's midnight and I'm saying I have to just beat this last score, when I bought special socks with sticky bits on the bottom so I could get better push off for skateboarding, and when I start to plan routes around a mountain in my sleep.

I am totally addicted to my Wii. I got it last April because I thought I would do a bit of yoga and maybe tone up a bit. With some food modifications I'm down 15 lbs and about 5 inches off my waist. That doesn't sound like a lot but I'm 5'2" and 15 lbs makes a huge difference. I also can run up a flight of stairs now without being winded and just generally feel great. My BMI is now 21.4 down from 23. I may be addicted but I think it's a good addiction, much better than spending evenings on the couch watching TV eating potato chips.

mokey41 wrote:I am totally addicted to my Wii. I got it last April because I thought I would do a bit of yoga and maybe tone up a bit. With some food modifications I'm down 15 lbs and about 5 inches off my waist. That doesn't sound like a lot but I'm 5'2" and 15 lbs makes a huge difference. I also can run up a flight of stairs now without being winded and just generally feel great. My BMI is now 21.4 down from 23. I may be addicted but I think it's a good addiction, much better than spending evenings on the couch watching TV eating potato chips.

Good for you Mokey! It's encouraging to read experiences like that. Keep it up. Are you to your goal?

I didn't really have a goal when I started. I just wanted something to do that might tone me up a bit. I didn't change my eating, just really played with my Wii Fit. Weight started to come off and I liked it so I started putting some thought into what I was eating. More weight came off and I got EA Sports Active and starting doing the 30 day challenge with it. It is really a workout and pounds came off quickly then and I really noticed things toning up as well as my strength improving. I don't think I could have done the 30 minutes of cycling without the cardio I've done with Active.

I do a combination of EA Sports Active Personal Trainer, More Workouts and Wii Fit Plus now. I look at the Fit Plus as more of a fun activity rather than a real workout. I sweat with Active and build muscle. My weight now is 120 lbs which I'm fine with and with the level of activity I'm willing to do now and what I eat I seem to be staying at this weight. The Ponderal Scale says I should be 115 but BMI of 22 puts me heavier than I am now so I'm figuring this is a good weight.

I really recommend Active for anyone looking for more of a home workout. The new release of More Workouts offers lots of choices and the balance board can be used with some of the activities.

That's really great. Good for you.

I don't have time for much more than I am doing now. I'll just have to really watch my diet and hopefully you all will pester me about whether I am losing. It would be great encouragement. I have to have someone to answer to and my hubby won't do it cuz he knows he has much more to lose than I do. Plus he has to live with me.

I'll just make sure I get on the Wii at least once a day and diet. My chocolate raisins go into a tiny little bowl now so I can't absentmindedly eat more than I should.

Thanks Paul !

I'm afraid I'm one of life's impatient people, I keep telling myself it's something that can't be done in a rush, but I just seem to have hit a plateau at the moment, hardly moving in either direction.

I'm determined to keep to my wii-fitting as often as I can. I do think it's more motivating than other forms of exercise.

If you've hit a plateau and you are serious about dieting there is a trick that often works to get your body losing again. Your body will adapt to the calories it is getting and learn to live on that amount. You can fool it into confusion by varying the calorie intake. My maintenance calorie intake is around 1500 calories. So for example I vary that for a few days up to 1800 and then drop to 1200 for a few days. You can also do one day of 1500, one day of 1800 then a day at 1200 and repeat. Your body can't get a set point that way and you can continue to lose.

That's a really good point. It's one of the reasons I relax at the weekend and eat more. I think (although I can't provide any scientific evidence) that it stops my body from just adapting.

This is also why you should both control your food intake and do some exercise if you want to lose weight. The exercise helps to keep your metabolism going and prevents your body from shutting itself down in response to reduced calorie intake.

Both sound like good points. Another reason for taking a break in the diet is to reward yourself. Food is a great part of life and people who don't eat well can get depressed. That might stop one from exercising because motivation goes way down. The homeopath I talked to called depression a disease of the will. However, dieting and seeing good results in weight loss should help to keep the spirits up!

I've lost eight pounds since August by making just two changes in my lifestyle. One is exercising every day, or almost every day, using the Wii. My main games on the Wii Fit Plus are cycling, jogging, and rhythm band. I also play "Outdoor Challenge" -- a kid's game that provides incredible aerobic activity. (Try stamping on 100 moles for five minutes if you want to know the meaning of aerobics!)

The other is my new diet which goes like this -- eat sensibly with no junk food, desserts, processed foods, or excessive portions on Mon-Sat and eat whatever I want on Sunday. Being a minister, Sunday is a very busy day for me so I actually don't end up pigging out because I'm too busy but it helps me the rest of the week to know that I could eat junk on Sunday if I wanted to. Anytime I'm tempted by something, I just say, "I'll wait until Sunday for that."

I don't know if it would work if you need to lose a lot of weight because my goal is to lose only about 13 pounds but it's worked for me.

Laurie