After the usual new year rush of gym membership sign-ups, more than half of Britons who made the move to become a member of such a facility in January have already quit, according to new research by a money saving website in the UK. The top reasons given for this by respondents were “I wasn’t using my membership” and “I needed to save money”.

Money saving website www.VoucherCodesPro.co.uk polled a total of 1,452 adults. Each respondent revealed that they had joined a gym in January, while all respondents were also aged 18 or over. There was an equal number of male and female respondents.

Respondents were initially asked “Are you still a member of the gym you joined?” To this, a majority of 58% of respondents revealed that they had quit the gym already. Only 42% of respondents were still a member of the gym.

The 58% of people who had already quit the gym were then asked to reveal the reasons why. Respondents were presented with a list of potential reasons and were asked to select all that applied. The top five reasons were revealed as follows:

1. I wasn’t using my membership – 41%

2. I needed to save money/couldn’t afford it – 34%

3. I wasn’t seeing any results– 29%

4. I prefer to work out at home – 26%

5. I didn’t enjoy going – 22%

When asked how they were now exercising, if at all, 74% of individuals who had already quit the gym revealed that they were now exercising at home. 11% said that they were no longer exercising at all.

Lastly, respondents who said they were exercising at home were asked to reveal whether they had found it more beneficial in terms of their fitness goals than going to the gym. A majority of 43% revealed that they had benefited more from exercising at home, whilst 38% said going to the gym was more beneficial. The remaining 19% said that they had not noticed a difference.