Britain’s appetite is shrinking, but its fitness industry may be about to get considerably larger. So, what does GLP-1 mean for consumer markets? According to PwC research involving more than 2,300 UK adults, the medication is not merely changing how people eat and lose weight; it is also altering why they exercise, how confidently they enter a gym and how much they are prepared to spend once they get there.
This is not simply a tale of weight loss followed by the ceremonial purchase of leggings. Many GLP-1 users are treating exercise as the next stage of the journey: a way to protect muscle, improve energy, build strength and make progress feel like something more substantial than a smaller number on the scales.
For an industry that has spent decades selling sweat as punishment, this may require a little imagination.
Confidence can be a powerful piece of gym equipment
Among GLP-1 users who increased their exercise activity, 57% said they felt more confident about their body. Another 47% said they had more energy to exercise, while 39% had been advised to become more active alongside treatment.
That confidence matters.
Walking into a gym for the first time can feel like arriving halfway through a complicated wedding at which everyone else knows the family. The equipment is unfamiliar, the mirrors are merciless and somebody is usually performing an exercise that resembles an unsuccessful attempt to escape from a deckchair.
For people who have previously felt uncomfortable exercising in public, changes in body confidence can make the gym seem less like enemy territory.
The survey indicates that this is already affecting spending. During GLP-1 use, 27% of current and former users increased their fitness expenditure, compared with 5% who reduced it. That produces a net positive spending intention of 22 percentage points.
More importantly for the person doing the spending, the money appears to be moving towards support, structure and variety rather than another doomed January direct debit.
From losing weight to gaining strength
Among GLP-1 users who increased their fitness spending, 41% joined a gym or began taking exercise classes. Some 39% tried a new form of exercise or a different class.
One in five moved towards more strength-based training, while 16% started using a personal trainer. Another 20% upgraded to a more premium club.
The underlying shift is significant. Weight loss may bring people through the door, but many are looking for something the medication cannot provide on its own: strength, mobility, physical confidence and the reassuring knowledge that they can climb a staircase without needing to draft a formal complaint.
That changes the role of exercise.
For years, fitness marketing has treated calorie burning as though it were a moral obligation. Eat a biscuit, report immediately to the treadmill. Enjoy a weekend, spend Monday lunging as an act of repentance.
GLP-1 users may have little appetite for that approach, in every sense.
If weight loss is already taking place, the scales become a less useful measure of success. Progress may instead mean lifting more, moving more comfortably, improving balance, building a consistent routine or simply knowing what to do when confronted by a cable machine.
A membership card is not an instruction manual
The findings suggest that GLP-1 users are particularly interested in structured exercise. That should make gyms pause before congratulating themselves merely for having a front door.
A membership provides access. It does not provide confidence, technique or a sensible plan.
The old fitness model was often brutally simple: take the payment, point towards the changing rooms and allow the customer to become gradually acquainted with the water fountain.
That may not be enough for someone beginning exercise during significant weight loss.
New members may need a gentler introduction, particularly if they are managing lower energy, uncertainty about their abilities or concern about losing muscle. Starter classes, supervised strength sessions, mobility work and clear progression can make exercise feel achievable rather than theatrical.
There is a world of difference between being welcomed into fitness and merely being admitted to the building.
Men and women are taking different routes
The motivation to exercise appears broadly shared, although the route into fitness varies.
Body confidence was cited by 58% of men and 56% of women who had increased their activity. Among younger users, it was even more prominent: 73% of 18-to-24-year-olds and 65% of those aged 25 to 34 said improved confidence had encouraged them to exercise more.
Women were more likely to report having greater energy for exercise, at 59%, compared with 35% of men. They were also more likely to say they had been advised to exercise alongside treatment, at 44% compared with 35%.
Men were more likely to join a gym or begin classes, with 48% doing so compared with 33% of women.
Women, meanwhile, were more likely to experiment. Some 49% tried new types of exercise or classes, compared with 30% of men.
There is no need to turn this into another dreary contest between the sexes. The useful conclusion is that people need different invitations.
Some want a gym floor, a programme and measurable progress. Others want variety, community or the chance to discover an activity that does not involve staring at a wall while running nowhere.
The fitness industry has room for both, provided it resists the urge to offer everyone the same induction and a branded towel.
Age changes the conversation
Older GLP-1 users appear more likely to arrive with specific health concerns and a greater need for guidance.
Among users aged 55 to 64, 63% said they had been advised to exercise alongside treatment. That makes the quality of support especially important.
An older beginner may not need motivational slogans painted above a squat rack. They may need clear instruction, sensible progression and reassurance that exercise can be adapted to their present ability.
They may also be less impressed by fitness language that sounds as though it was developed during a military coup.
“Destroy the workout” is not especially helpful if someone’s principal objective is to preserve strength, improve mobility and remain active.
For this group, fitness should feel constructive rather than combative.
Higher earners are paying for more guidance
Not every GLP-1 user is rushing towards a premium gym or personal trainer, but the survey found clear pockets of higher spending.
Among users earning between £75,000 and £100,000 who had increased their fitness expenditure, 33% upgraded to a premium club and 27% began using a personal trainer.
Younger adults were also more willing to trade up. Among 25-to-34-year-olds, 29% upgraded their gym membership and 23% started personal training.
Men were more likely than women to move into both premium gyms and personal training. Some 23% of men upgraded to a premium club, compared with 18% of women, while personal training was taken up by 23% of men and 10% of women.
The value, however, cannot simply be softer towels, mood lighting and shampoo with an unnecessarily complicated backstory.
People will pay more when the service offers something useful: knowledgeable coaching, personal attention, a clear programme and evidence that they are becoming fitter rather than merely more familiar with the reception staff.
The difficult part comes when treatment stops
The most interesting finding may be what happens after GLP-1 use ends.
Among former users, 18% reported spending more on fitness than they had before treatment, while 10% reported spending less. That leaves a net positive spending intention of eight percentage points.
The increase is smaller than during treatment, which is hardly surprising. Early weight loss can bring a burst of momentum. Maintaining a routine after that initial excitement has faded is a more difficult business.
It is also where exercise may become most valuable.
A fitness habit that depends entirely on rapid physical change is vulnerable. Once progress slows, enthusiasm can vanish with impressive speed. The trainers are clean, the water bottle has gone missing and the gym membership begins its quiet life as a monthly charitable donation.
Longer-term motivation needs sturdier foundations: strength, energy, mobility, enjoyment and the satisfaction of becoming good at something.
That is why post-treatment support matters. The goal is not simply to recruit somebody while motivation is high. It is to help them discover reasons to continue when motivation behaves like motivation usually does and wanders off without leaving a forwarding address.
Exercise advice must become useful
Many GLP-1 users are being told that they should exercise. That advice is sensible but incomplete.
The phrase “you should exercise” does not explain what type of exercise to choose, how often to do it, how hard to work or what to do if fatigue and side effects complicate the plan.
It is the fitness equivalent of telling a struggling golfer to keep their head down: familiar, confidently delivered and nowhere near sufficient.
Gyms, trainers and health professionals have an opportunity to make the advice practical. That could mean beginner strength programmes, mobility sessions, body-composition assessments, regular check-ins and exercise plans adapted to the user’s stage of treatment.
It may also require better links between fitness providers, pharmacies, telehealth services, weight-management clinics and nutrition specialists.
Those relationships need firm boundaries. A personal trainer is not a prescriber, and a gym induction is not medical care. Users with side effects, health concerns or uncertainty about exercise should be directed towards appropriately qualified healthcare professionals.
Fitness can support the process. It should not pretend to supervise the medicine cabinet.
The scales cannot have the final word
Perhaps the largest change is philosophical.
GLP-1 medication challenges the fitness industry to prove that exercise is valuable even when weight loss is not its main job.
That should not be terribly difficult. Strength matters. Mobility matters. Energy, balance, confidence and physical independence matter. Enjoying a class, learning a skill and feeling less intimidated by one’s own body matter too.
The scales are useful, but they are not qualified to deliver the closing argument on anybody’s health.
For GLP-1 users, exercise may begin as a companion to weight loss. The real opportunity is for it to become something more permanent: a routine built around capability rather than punishment.
The medication may change the appetite. The gym’s job is to give people an appetite for movement — preferably without making them do burpees beneath a motivational quote.
