Why do you want to live a healthy lifestyle? Survey Results!

Survey results on why people want to be healthy

What is the single biggest reason why people want to live a healthy lifestyle? We found out. If you want to use the results of this study, please provide credit back to this website.

It can be difficult to provide information for people who are trying to live a healthier life if you don't know why they want to be healthy in the first place. This information is crucial for refining your message in such a way that it helps those who actually need it.

Why do you want to live a healthy lifestyle?

We asked 100 people. This is what they said:

1. To improve on an existing health condition (25%)
2. Be better looking, improve overall appearance, burn fat or build muscle (21%)
3. Improve physical strength or get better at doing something physically, or for sports (16%)
4. Prevent diseases later on or to prolong life (15%)
5. Influences from friends and family (6%)
6. New Year's resolutions or to meet overall life goals (4%)
7. Influences from the online community (4%)
8. Mood boosting or brain enhancing effects (3%)
9. Better productivity or improved life quality (3%)
10. Inspire the people around them (children, family, friends, etc.) (1%)
11. Carry-over from sports at school - Used to play sports and the habit of exercise stuck (1%)
12. Career choice (1%)

Survey methods

Our team went to our local gym and asked 100 people to fill out a simple, one-question survey. 

Our one-question survey

We kept it simple and anonymous. It took a few seconds to jot down an answer and the people could go on their way. Simplicity often reaps the best results.

We tried to vary the participants by age, sex and fitness level. Our team tried to ask a relatively equal amount of boys and girls. We also tried to get an answer from a variety of different age groups. Our team also surveyed people who were relatively new to exercise as well as people who exercise regularly.

Slightly more than half of the participants were males. About half of all participants were under the ages of 30. A large majority of the participants (around 75-80%) were frequent gym goers.

Why do you want to be healthy?

We noticed the following trends when asking the people at the gym to fill out the form:

• The younger the person is, the more likely that they are improving their health for aesthetic reasons (to look good, burn fat or build muscle).
• It was hard for many people to think of only one reason. To keep things simple, we asked them to either write down the main reason why they wanted to improve their health in the first place or to write down the first thing that came to their mind.
• Younger girls were more interested in burning fat or losing weight, while younger boys were more interested in building muscle or increasing strength. Older participants were more likely to pursue a healthy lifestyle for disease prevention or to prolong life.
• 'The non-internet age' of people who would not search for answers to health online is relatively small. Only two people in the group of a hundred participants would not typically use the internet to search for answers to their questions.

What is your reason for health?

The implications of this survey

The results were an eye opener for me. I assumed that almost everybody wanted to burn fat, build muscle or get better looking. It seems like this is only the second reason why most people look after their health. A quarter of everybody that we surveyed wanted to improve their health in order to manage an existing health complication.

You would assume that the elderly were the only ones that were interested in a healthy lifestyle for the sake on disease prevention or to manage an existing condition. The amount of people who exercised to prevent or treat disease, on average, were younger than we thought.

People's reasons for health are different.

Content ideas based the reason for living a healthy lifestyle

The survey results helped us to identify groups of people that you could build online content for. Here are a few examples:

1. Create a health brand aimed at managing a specific disease (high blood pressure, heart health, depression, diabetes, etc.).
2. Write for a niche that peruses a healthy lifestyle for the sake of aesthetics (build muscle, burn fat, weight loss, look good naked or beauty).
3. Build a brand around a healthy lifestyle for improved sports performance (Healthy choices for soccer players, improving rugby performance, strength for runners, and better mobility for tennis players, etc.).
4. Disease prevention and life extension can be an entire subject of its own.
5. Healthy living around social groups can be another interesting angle (health for families, a night of health with friends, how to live a healthy lifestyle as a couple, getting fit in high school etc.).

Individual answers will not be published

We told a few of the participants that the survey was for 'statistical purposes' and that their answers will be not shared with anybody else - besides our team. For that reason, we will not be able to post the individual answers to the question.

Keep the reasoning of your audience in mind when creating health content

One of the best strategies for reaching your target audience effectively is to understand why they are interested in living a healthy lifestyle. I would suggest that healthy brand creators and lifestyle content writers keep these primary reasons for living a healthy lifestyle in mind if they want to reach a part of this audience. Stay Strong!

Understand your audience.

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