New year dieters looking on light side

Four million people will give up alcohol completely this month in a bid to give them a healthy start to the new year and lose some of the weight piled on over the festive period.

But the survey of 2,000 adults also found only 11 per cent were confident of keeping their resolutions throughout the year, with almost one in five (19 per cent) resigned to giving up by the end of this week.

Alcohol awareness charity Drinkaware launched its Drink Less Be More campaign, with an online unit calculator to show the impact of drinking on health and fitness, to encourage people to keep their new year’s resolutions for longer than just a few days.

The total weight loss target was the equivalent of 375 jumbo jets – or 27 million Christmas turkeys – with one in five people (21 per cent) wanting to lose more than two stone over the year, the charity said.

Of the 14 per cent who wanted to drink less alcohol, almost half (47 per cent) wanted to do so to lose weight, 45 per cent would drink less for general health reasons and one in four said they felt they had consumed too much over Christmas.

Chris Sorek, Drinkaware’s chief executive, said: “Cutting back on alcohol can be a really effective way of shedding the pounds and getting the most out of life at the same time.”

After losing weight (48 per cent), getting fit (29 per cent) and living life to the full (22 per cent), the top 10 most popular resolutions included getting out of debt (18 per cent) and having more sex (15 per cent).

The others were to see family and friends more (14 per cent), to drink less alcohol (14 per cent), to change their job (12 per cent), to give up chocolate and/or sweets (11 per cent) and to quit smoking (10 per cent).