A Ring Fit Adventure player chronicles their successful weight loss journey with a manga

Written by. Nick Mosier based on the original Japanese article (original article’s publication date: 2022-06-30 14:22 JST)

One Ring Fit Adventure player’s success story has been gaining attention on Twitter in Japan. On June 27 (JST), Twitter user @mitani01 posted their results after consistently playing the game for one year and shared details regarding their playstyle and how they lost 17 kg (37.4 lbs).

Ring Fit Adventure is a fitness game that released on the Nintendo Switch in 2019 where players use the circular Ring-Con controller and a leg strap with a Joy-Con attached to perform a variety of exercises. One notable feature that is somewhat rare for these kinds of games is the fantasy setting with light RPG elements mixed in. In addition to the overall quality of the package, the game saw a big boost in demand when many of us were stuck in our homes during the COVID-19 pandemic. The game has sold over 14 million copies so far.

But no matter how interesting a game is, continuing to play it over a long period of time requires effort. That’s especially true when you add the challenge that comes with exercising. To chronicle their journey, @mitani01 made a manga explaining their diet, secret to staying motivated, and a summary of the year long journey. The manga also contains their methods for continuing to play comfortably and the setbacks one might face along the way. The tweets look to have drawn a lot of responses from those who see @mitani01 as a guiding light for their own fitness journeys.

@mitani01 says they exercised for around 100 hours in Ring Fit Adventure over the course of the year, exercising for 15 to 20 minutes each day. That’s time spent actually moving, though, so the actual playtime in the game is likely slightly longer. They gradually increased the difficulty over time, and @mitani01 says the difficulty level is currently maxed out at level 30 for their second playthrough.

What’s especially interesting is @mitani01’s method for staying motivated. @mitani01 took a calendar with pockets for each day and would put money into them according to how hard they worked when playing Ring Fit Adventure. They would then move the money to a special wallet each month and use it for “oshikatsu” which is a Japanese word that refers to supporting your favorite idols or characters. @mitani01 says they ended up putting 110,000 yen (roughly $806) into the calendar during the first month. It sounds like it was a pretty effective way to maintain motivation.

A similar sort of “login bonus” method of staying motivated occasionally pops up on Twitter from time to time, where you set a reward aside beforehand to give to yourself when reaching a goal. @mitani01 also mentions in the manga that putting something like snacks in the calendar pockets as a reward is also effective. But what’s interesting about @mitani01’s method is they stayed motivated by doing the opposite and put money into the calendar when they worked hard instead of taking a reward out. At any rate, it seems to have helped @mitani01 stay motivated during their year consistently playing Ring Fit Adventure.

@mitani01 also shared points about food, their gaming environment, the health tracking apps they use, and other helpful tips.  It even has me (the original author of this article) wanting to pull my Ring-Con out of the drawer. Maybe we can follow in @mitani01’s footsteps and become healthy gamers too.