In our final blog this week on the ‘healthy living’ theme, we’re going to take a look at some healthy lifestyle search trends. Are gym memberships really just a January thing? Are we eating healthier now than ever before? Are Zumba classes a thing of the past?

Earlier in the week, we gave you a MarketScout analysis for the gym membership sector, and within that we briefly spoke about the search trends for the ‘gym membership’ term.

We found that as expected the popularity of searches for “gym membership” was at its highest in January, as the graphic below shows. According to a 2013 study by Kettler, 12% of all gym memberships’ sign-ups happen in January, but according to the Fitness Industry Association, after just 24 weeks most people have quit or stopped attending!

It also shows that there has been a clear rise in the number of people searching for “gym membership”, particularly from 2011 onwards, which could suggest an increase in the number of gym goers.

Next we’re looking at the search trends around healthy recipes.

Once again, searches for “healthy recipes” are at their highest point in January. After that, the popularity of the search term dives almost immediately, which suggests that people’s healthy regimes last a very short period of time. The lowest point in the trends graph comes in December, which is hardly unexpected, as people gorge themselves on Christmas turkey and roast potatoes.

Thirdly and finally, we’re looking at the search trends around Zumba classes.

What is immediately noticeable from this trends graph is the massive surge in popularity in January 2011, and its continued popularity throughout the year. However, after another surge in popularity in January 2012, the trends around Zumba classes have tailed off massively. Did people find a new type of exercise to do instead, or was there just so much initial hype around it when it came to the UK that this has distorted the trends? This is something which will take further investigation, however now it’s time to wrap this one up.

There always seems to be an uplift in January for terms relating to healthy lifestyle such as the ones we’ve used in this piece, which isn’t surprising as a lot of people go through the whole ‘new year, new me’ thing at this point. However, it’s clear to see from these trends that this “new” healthy lifestyle is often short-lived.