Did my Wii just call me "obese?"

The one announcement at E3 that jumped right out at me last year was the Wii Fit. As a gamer, and fat man, I immediately saw the potential that the innocuous white board could have. Like many Wii titles, this peripheral, and the games that would take advantage of it's unique properties, require actual physical interaction on the part of the player as opposed to the standard button mashing.

In a nutshell, the Wii Fit is like a scale, only not that simple. The actual technology behind the device is quite amazing in that it tracks your center of gravity and can tell your weight to within a tenth of a pound. The Wii Fit takes this information, along with your height and age, and calculates your body mass index, or BMI. It then assigns you to one of four categories; Underweight, Normal, Overweight, or Obese.

Like many of the other titles in the Touch Generations line of games, the Wii Fit takes your BMI and after giving you a quick test, it assigns your Wii Fit age. Ideally this age is at or lower than your actual age, but likely it won't be. Armed with all of this knowledge, the Wii Fit allows you to set a goal of how many pounds you'd like to lose in how long and it tracks your progress towards this goal.

As a fitness device, the Wii Fit takes advantage of four different training modes to help you achieve your fitness goals; Yoga, Balance Games, Strength Training, and Aerobics. Within these training modes is a smattering of various different unlockable activities designed to engage, enrage, and entertain users. Certain activities have a steep learning curve, but overall everyone but the youngest or the most out of shape player will have difficulties partaking in the Wii Fit's various activities.

The Wii Fit certainly has the opportunity to change the lives of many, but in this hyper sensitive society in which we dwell, there is a potential dark side to the innocuous white board. The problem is with the BMI and the category that it assigns you to. Despite the fact that the Wii Fit allows you to lock others out of your BMI and weight information, without the ability to take into account body fat percentage, these categories are arbitrary. And these categories come without any warning that this information is not completely correct. This leads to the potential for abuse with this device, especially for those that have any problem with their body self image. Sadly I think it's just a matter of weeks before we start hearing tales to this effect.

It's far too early for me to say whether the Wii Fit works or not. I can without reservation say that it will kick your butt. I, and Rotormommy, are sore in places that we've forgotten had muscles attached to them. And according to the little tracker, I've lost weight and percentage off my BMI. I'm not going to publicly share this information as my friend J.R. over at Wii Weight Loss Plan.com will, but I will keep those interested, and those that aren't, apprised as to my progress.

Wii Fit is rated "E" for everyone by the ESRB and is available everywhere now (assuming you can find one) for around $89.99.