Padres reliever Heath Bell credits Wii Fit for Weight Loss Help
Heath Bell in June 2008
I have a friend that’s lost about 50 or so pounds, so far, with Wii Fit. Seriously, that’s no small accomplishment. He’s been using it almost daily, since its’ release last year, for 30 minutes. The transformation is really quite incredible.
Now, San Diego Padres pitcher Heath Bell has credited Wii Fit for the motivation to lose weight, to the tune of 25 pounds. As far as I’m concerned, Wii Fit is a revolution in weight-loss, and has gotten people to work out that may not otherwise have had the motivation to do so.
The opportunity to take over for Hoffman, who is baseball’s all-time saves leader, was more than enough motivation for Bell. But Bell, who was 6-6 with a 3.58 ERA in 74 games last season, received an extra boost when he began playing video games with his children this off-season. At the time, Bell weighed 270 pounds.
“It said I was obese,” Bell said. “If you’re obese, it makes (your character on screen) obese. I was disappointed that I was that big. I literally took the game to heart. I did the work but I kind of credit the Wii Fit.”
After coming over to San Diego in a November 2006 trade from the New York Mets, Bell reported to camp in 2007 at 250 pounds. The 31-year-old posted a 6-4 record with a 2.02 ERA, striking out 102 hitters in 93 2-3 innings in 2007. Getting his weight down became one of Bell’s primary goals and now he’s feeling good as he prepares to become a closer.
“It makes me feel good to hear the coaches say, ‘Don’t lose any more weight’ because they don’t want me to lose velocity,” Bell said. “I look stronger.”
Both of these success stories show what can be achieved, if you’re motivated to do the work and start a regime. But don’t worry.. this work is fun.
How my friend does it, is he uses one of the features that is a 30-minute routine. It has you put the remote into your pocket, and you follow along with your instructor on screen. After a few weeks of the same routine, he had it down. Because the remote has a speaker and force feedback, he was then able to run the game, and turn the channel to something else, to watch a half-hour of tv, and work out until the remote alerts him that time is up.
Nintendo Wii and Wii Fit are changing the world, pounds at a time.
-via The Canadian Press
Loading ...