Once the holidays are over and the new year begins, many Americans make the resolutions to eat less, work out more and get healthier. In fact, losing weight was the top New Year resolution for 2014. I exercise regularly, and I can always tell it’s January just by the sheer increase in numbers of people at the gym! Usually by February, the people who have made the resolution to lose weight begin to dwindle. Since so many people desire to lose weight, I decided to take a closer look at people’s exercise habits.
I chose to create my questionnaire on SurveyMonkey because I was familiar with the service. I really like SurveyMonkey because it’s easy to design surveys on the site, and the finished product is easy for those taking the survey to understand. Unfortunately, with the free version of SurveyMonkey, there are some limitations. I could have weeded out a lot of responses from people who choose not to exercise at all, had that option been available. Because it wasn’t an option, I had to add a form of “I don’t exercise” as an option for almost every question.
My survey contains ten questions. The first two questions ask the survey takers their age and gender. Questions three through five, seven, nine and ten, are multiple choice and ask participants about their exercise habits. Question six is an open-ended question that asks participants how much money they’d be willing to spend on a gym membership. Question eight is multiple choice and assesses why participants choose not to exercise. All questions have to be filled out in order for the participant to complete the survey.
Through my survey questions I’m hoping to learn:
- How many times a week people are exercising
- What type of exercises people do
- How much people would be willing to pay in order to keep their fitness resolutions
- What motivates people to exercise
- Reasons why people don’t exercise
Since creating my survey, I’ve shared the link on multiple social medium platforms, and I’ve asked my followers to share with their followers. I’m connected to people of all demographics on social media, so I’m hoping the end result will be a fairly realistic sample. The survey will be open for one week and the results of my survey will be posted and analyzed on my blog next week.
To take my survey, click here.
The Social Lauren 
Hey Lauren. :0)
I am looking forward to the results of your survey. You know that I am a heath and fitness fanatic, so I was highly motivated to participate in your short survey. Also, the survey was well designed, and easy to share on social media platforms. I preferred to share your survey on Facebook, because I know that many of my friends would be interested in the subject matter. Some of my followers on Twitter would have been interested, however, I felt that this survey was better shared with my Facebook friends. Have you considered sharing the survey in a fitness oriented Google+ Community? This could be the chance of a lifetime to experience a great content marketing social media platform. You may even grow to love and adore Google+. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. 😉
Hey Jason! Haha, I’m not holding my breath! 🙂 I shared the survey on Facebook and Twitter, but I actually think sharing on Google Plus is a really good idea. I follow (is this the correct Google Plus term?) several fitness groups, or I’m in their circles, so there is a large audience of people who really care about what I’m researching, and I’d probably get a decent sample. Thanks for the tip and response!
Hi Lauren,
I thought you did a good job at creating the questions for your survey. I took it myself, and I thought they were easy to follow, and I could really understand what the purpose of the survey was. It would be very interesting if Survey Monkey would allow you to compare results from respondents that come from different social media sites. For example, are Facebook users more likely to exercise more than Twitter users?
Hey Juan. Thank you! That would be really interesting to see. I haven’t really checked out Survey Monkey’s stats yet, so I’m not sure if that’s offered, but it would definitely be worth noting if it is. If I was doing this for a real company I would probably buy the extra data offered by Survey Monkey, but hopefully I’ll still be able to get some good insights! Thanks for the response!
Oh exercise, how I dislike thee. Not going to lie, this was a difficult survey to take since I’m not an avid fitness guru. Typically, I’d be more active at the start of a new year but I recently had a sports injury that requires surgery- but that’s neither here, nor there.
I think the fact that this survey is being conducted at the start of a new year; more respondents will probably be more active than if the survey were conducted in six months which you allude to at the start of the post. I particularly liked the questions pertaining to why people don’t exercise. It reminded me of a fitness program called T25 (http://tinyurl.com/c6sfk6w) promising stellar results by just working out 25 minutes a day (how I hurt myself). Warning: don’t watch the infomercial or you will be suckered into buying the program!
I am curious to see if there is any correlation between the age and gender to how often respondents work out. I would also be interested to see if those who would pay more for a gym membership are more active. Nice work!
You make a really good point about more people being active at this time of the year, and maybe this will skew my results some. It would be interesting to conduct the survey again later in the year and see the difference in results. Oh Shaun T and his fitness DVDs! I’ve done Insanity a handful of times because a lot of my friends swear by it, but it’s really not the greatest investment if you have had multiple knee injuries and surgeries. It will be interesting to see what my results turn up! Thanks for the response!
Lauren:
I hate exercise! The only exercise I get is walking my little dog who is 18 years old, so we are not exactly power walking. I was a gym member once and that lasted about six months. I have a treadmill that works like a charm when I need to hang some extra laundry. As far as your survey? Even though I am a non-believer in exercise, perhaps your results will motivate me, make me feel guilty or both.
Looking forward to see your results.
Thanks Darleen! You’re not alone, there are plenty of people who despise even the thought of exercising! I hope with my questions about why people aren’t exercising and what motivates people to exercise, I’ll have a better understanding of what triggers the motivation. I hope my results will motivate! Thanks for the response!
Hi Lauren- I enjoyed taking your survey! I am a health fanatic and I truly believe in the importance of healthy eating and exercise. I know that many people agree with that statement and I also know that many people could care less about eating healthy and working out. I am interested to see the results of your survey! I loved the fact that your survey was short and to the point. After taking your survey, I realized that I left out two major factors in my survey: age and gender. Age is in important one that I definitely should have included. Gender, not so much since I don’t think too many of my male friends tan.
Hey Casey. Thank you! I’m a health nut too, and I have a slight obsession with working out! Because I’m so obsessed with it, I’m really excited to find out the biggest reason people don’t exercise. Age and gender may be a big factor in my results. I’m guessing the older age groups may be less committed to exercising, but we’ll find out! I don’t know any guys who tan either, so I think you might be okay on that one! Thanks for the response!
Hi Lauren,
I am not surprised to learn that wanting to lose weight was the top new years resolution for 2014. I think one of the main reasons so many people fall off the wagon after a month of eating healthful foods and going to the gym, is because they are not seeing immediate results. You would be surprised to learn how many people don’t understand that losing weight is process, that if done right, takes hard work and longer than a month to achieve! I tried taking your survey, but unfortunately I think the link is broken or at least it was not working for me. Good luck with your survey, I look forward to seeing your results!
Hi Nicole,
Shoot, I’ll have to check it out. Thanks for letting me know! I think you’re right about people quitting when they don’t see results. Exercising and trying to lose weight is really a whole life style that you have to adopt. You can’t just go to the gym a couple times and expect to see results. Thanks for the response!