There's been a lot of talk about the Nintendo Wii's Sports game being the answer to overweight video gamers that have a reputation for working out their fingers, but not their bodies.  Most notably following one man's Wii Sports Experiment where he spent six weeks playing Wii games for 30 minutes a day and lost weight.

Still, it seems clear that video games alone (no matter how interactive and fun they might be) are probably not the answer to solving the obesity problem in America.  Students at Carnegie Mellon created this Nintendo-Inspired playhouse for their Spring carnival and while the characters might be a little retro for today's young gamers, the playhouse does fuse beloved Nintendo images with the great outdoors and forced physical activity.

What's Healthier Nintendo Playhouse or Wii Sports?

1. Nintendo-Inspired Playhouse
2. Wii Sports
3. It depends on how hard you play.
4. Something else.  See my comment below.

Everyone loves to have a pizza delivered — it's easy, fast, and sometimes tasty.  The problem is, just like eating out, what you order doesn't come with nutritional information.

Which Domino's menu item has the MOST calories?

1. 1 slice of thin crust cheese pizza
2. 1 slice of thin crust cheese pizza with pepperoni
3. 2 Sticks of Cheesy Bread

Recently, I read the saga of some chocolate covered raisins over at The Weighting Game blog.  It's entertaining and informative with the moral of the story being — you just shouldn't enter a grocery store on an empty stomach, no matter what.

Whether you are dieting or not, chances are you will listen to the grumbles in your tummy rather than your common sense as you walk up and down the aisles.  A hungry shopper buys snack foods for quick fixes, completely forgetting about the grocery list designed to make well balanced meals.

If you plan to shop post workout, post work, or pre-meal and are starving, do yourself a favor and buy a little snack first.  Get yourself a yogurt, nuts and/or a piece of fruit.  Sit in your car and calmly eat your snack.  Then reenter the store with normal blood sugar levels and shop with the discipline you have been working on.  When you get home, your bags will not be filled with unhealthy snacks, but wholesome good food.

Losing weight (and keeping it off) is more complicated than the calories you eat being less than the calories you burn.  Without strength training while dieting you risk losing lean muscle mass which is really important to keep your metabolism going.

Your muscles need energy to work, so the more muscle mass you have the more calories you burn over the course of a day.  It works like this, for every pound of muscle you gain you will burn 35 to 50 more calories a day.  Now that has got to be great incentive to add strength training into your routine if you are trying to lose weight.

Here is another inspirational fact for strength training to build lean muscle:  we lose 5% of our muscle mass every ten years after age 35.  If you do not intentionally build muscle through exercise you will need to eat 120 to 420 less calories a day to maintain your current weight if you are over 35.  I just want to say it is never to early to start building lean muscle — no need to wait until you are 35.  So why not start today?

There are so many advantages to strength training, including:  benefits to your bones and cardiovascular health, reducing risk of Type 2 diabetes, and protecting your joints.

If you are looking to start a strength training program check out this 4 Minute Starter Arms video.  It will get you pumping in no time.

With all this talk about cutting cardio out of your routine, I thought it was important to outline the major benefits of cardiovascular activity.  So here it goes:

• Reduces risk of disease:  Including obesity, heart disease, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, stroke and certain types of cancer.
• Improves blood cholesterol and triglyceride levels:  Exercise increases your HDL cholesterol (the "good" cholesterol) and decreases your LDL cholesterol (the "bad" cholesterol) in your blood.
• Improves heart function:  A stronger heart doesn't need to beat as fast and pumps blood more efficiently, which means improved blood flow in the body.
• Reduces risk of osteoporosis:  Weight-bearing aerobic exercises (walking) reduce the risk of osteoporosis.
• Improves muscle mass:  Muscles move your body, the healthier the muscles are, the better you move.
• Increases calories burned:  More calories burned means more weight lost.

This does not include all the emotional and aesthetic benefits you get from a few good runs or workouts on the elliptical (less stress, more sleep, improved sexual performance etc.).  Now that you know the benefits, check out some of the cardio workouts I have created.

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