Every year on January 1st the urge to get healthy seems to sweep the nation, with overcrowding gyms and new diets. Phoebe Jones investigates if this has affected Colchester. 

It is obvious that a correlation between New years and the increase in gym memberships exists. Further research online shows that many websites provide supporting evidence for this statement ,for example on the website: puregym.com, the fitness report for 2023/2024 states that 85% of the busiest days fell in the 3.5-week period between the 16th Jan and 8th Feb. This information begs the question: is the reason the gyms busiest days fall between these dates due to new years?

It seems that the regular gym members are concerned with the same question and we wonder how they react to the hordes of new comers. One loyal gym member, Alexis Jones, says that it “wouldn’t be so bad if they lasted” making it clear that new members may lack motivation once the month ends. 

As well as signing up to the gym many also start the new year with elaborate diet schemes in the hopes of drastic weight loss. Colchester Sixth Form student Poppy Ganderton uses an app to count calories and after asking if she began the diet because of New years she says “ yes I started because of new years”. Although in this case (and many others) the diet seems to be increasing health, there is the fear that some may go too far and that diet culture could become dangerously influential especially at this time of year.