Gym attendance falls flat as Ozempic is blamed for causing people to vomit during workouts
Fewer Americans are hitting the gym in 2024 — and trainers are blaming Ozempic.
And it’s not just because the trendy drug, and others like it, are helping people lose weight quickly. It’s also making them sick when they work out.
“I’ve seen a handful of new and experienced clients throw up while taking the drugs because of the dizziness and nausea the drugs can induce,” personal trainer Salim Javed told The Post.
One 28-year-old in public relations admitted to The Post she has thrown up twice at the gym since starting the drug.
“Fortunately, the trash can was handy,” said the Upper East Side resident, who asked to withhold her name out of embarrassment.
Both times she was doing the same workout routine she’d had for two years before starting the drug. But on Mounjaro, a little cardio is enough to push her over the edge.
“The first time it happened I had only done one cardio interval and the second I had been working out for almost 25 minutes before the nausea hit,” the woman added.
Javed said that such a traumatizing event can then go one of two ways: “I’ve seen it motivate people to get into fighting shape or they never return.”
Which may explain why, for the first time in three years, foot traffic at gyms nationally has flattened.
January is usually the busiest month of the year for gyms, as Americans make New Year’s resolutions to get fit. And, nationally, attendance had increased 40% in both 2022 and 2023 before plateauing this year, according to location data from Placer.ai which tracked attendance to 10 major gym chains.
Last month, apparently in a sign of the times, Planet Fitness decided to hold off on plans to hike monthly membership costs.
“This is the first year I’ve seen people quit the gym in January,” Javed said. “Clients who are focused on weight loss rather than muscle tone or overall health are decreasing their training sessions.”
Equinox trainer Makena Diehl told The Post that gym attendance among clients who have started taking drugs like Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro has been “cut in half.”
“There are people who use Ozempic to kick start their weight loss journey, but others lose all motivation to work out once they take it,” Diehl said. “I used to see some clients at the gym for three hours a day, but once they’re on Ozempic they stop coming.”
One 37-year old startup founder on Mounjaro said she now goes weeks without making it to the gym, after decades of going regularly. She still wants to stay fit, she added, but doesn’t feel the same kind of pressure now that she doesn’t need to work out to prevent weight gain.
“I try and go to the gym at least a few times a week, but now I don’t have to … it doesn’t show up on the scale if I miss a few workouts,” the NoHo resident said.
Javed warned that, for those who are using the drugs to shed a few extra pounds, “It’s promoting a false sense of health.
“We know that a lot of weight loss comes from muscle, and muscle is very important to your body,” Javed added. “A lot of people are skinny-fat now which is very different from being healthy and toned.”
Some analysts have suggested weight loss drugs will actually prompt people to use the gym more often and purchase more fitness products — pushing those stocks higher.
But numbers seem to suggest otherwise. Year over year, major gym and fitness stocks are down: Planet fitness shares slumped 15%, Xponential dropped 58%, Nautilus plummeted 78% and Peloton fell 66%.
At least one gym is trying to work in concert with Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro. Earlier this year, Equinox launched a program specifically targeted at clients on weight loss drugs who want to keep or rebuild their muscle mass after losing weight.
A representative for Equinox told The Post, unlike other major gyms, their foot traffic is actually up 12% this year.
And the 28-year-old who vomited has her own new method.
“I just know I can’t eat before I work out anymore,” she said. “I try and workout in the mornings now on an empty stomach.”
