This week a third of people in the North West will give up on their New Year’s goal to live a healthier lifestyle

British Heart Foundation (BHF), Diabetes UK and Tesco

According to a new study, commissioned by the British Heart Foundation (BHF), Diabetes UK and Tesco, as part of their National Charity Partnership, over a third of people in the North West who pledged to lose 5.3lbs in 2016, will give up on their goals by the end of January.

Women were keenest to shed the pounds in 2016 with 42 per cent placing this at the top of their health agenda, compared with only 25 per cent of men. The study coincides with the launch of the Partnership’s nationwide campaign, Let’s Do This’ which is designed to inspire women aged 20-45 to set achievable lifestyle goals to boost their health and wellbeing.

A new website www.lets-dothis.org.uk will also be available to allow women to create and monitor their health-related targets. The site also provides a bank of useful tips and inspirations to help them, and their families, stay motivated to achieve their goals.

Additional findings taken from people in the North West include:

• Over a fifth (22%) give up their weight loss regime because they miss the food they love. 
• 16 per cent believe the failure is down to them setting goals that are far too big. 
• 30 per cent say the secret to successfully sticking to their New Year goals is tackling one manageable target at a time. 

Babs Evans, Head of Prevention for the National Charity Partnership (BHF, Diabetes UK and Tesco), explains:  “At the start of each New Year, many of us set goals to cut out bad habits and to improve our overall health and wellbeing. More often than not, these aspirations can be many – and at times unrealistic, causing us to feel overwhelmed, lose our way and return to our old ways. The results from the study show that building one specific change into our lives, at a time, increases our chances of staying on track and achieving our long term goals.

“Committing to a healthy lifestyle is an important goal we should all have. Research has shown that losing just 5-10 per cent of body weight can have great health benefits, such as reducing the risk of conditions like Type 2 diabetes and heart and circulatory disease.

“That’s why the BHF, Diabetes UK and Tesco, as part of our National Charity Partnership, have launched the ‘Let’s Do This’ campaign to inspire people across the UK to take small and achievable steps to living healthier lives. We will also be running projects in areas most at need across the UK, helping communities to get active, eat more healthily and lower their risk of developing these conditions, ultimately bringing about long-term health benefits for them in the future.”

Josh Hardie, Director of Corporate Responsibility at Tesco, said: "We know that our customers want our help to live more healthily and it’s great to see so clearly that shopping really is healthier in the first couple of weeks of January. But we all find it hard to maintain this change and by the end of the month we return to our usual habits. This new campaign will be a real help for people to stay on track and achieve their goals.”

It also seems that the older we get the less likely we are to stick to our goals, with over 75 per cent of people aged 60 and over admitting they give them up, compared to just 60 per cent of 45-54 year olds.

Ten per cent of us have vowed to lose weight at the turn of the New Year a staggering 10 times before – with a further one in five admitting to having made this resolution more than five times. And more than 58 per cent of Britons polled were honest enough to admit that they never keep any of their New Year’s resolutions.