Research from the University of Leicester in England has found that the booming fitness industry has had very little effect on the obesity epidemic.
According to the researchers, despite the increased popularity in recent years of gyms and private health clubs it has done little to dent the UK's growing weight problem.
A study by the research team has found that whereas wealthier people are attracted to join such organisations, the less well-off are left struggling to find ways to combat weight problems.
The study also contends that gyms, fitness magazines and manuals often focus on keeping in shape for image reasons rather than for health reasons, and says the industry has been able to make a profit by attracting richer members using "seductive marketing" without providing a "sustainable approach to fitness".
It must however be noted that the study focused on America which has more than 20,000 commercial health clubs and a culture some might argue which is far more geared to 'looking good'.
Dr. Jennifer Smith Maguire of the university's department of media and communications, insists however that the rapid growth in private clubs in the UK means the research can be applied to Britain and elsewhere.
Dr. Smith Maguire says over recent decades many Western countries have experienced a strange paradox, with fitness and exercise industries expanding alongside problems of inactivity and obesity.
She suggests the commercial fitness industry benefits from the scientific legitimacy and political urgency bestowed on population health issues, such as inactivity and obesity, but is in fact ill-equipped to address those issues for a number of reasons.
Dr. Smith Maguire says in the U.S. half of all commercial health club members are in the top 20 per cent of income earners who can afford excellent services and an enlightened approach to fitness.
But she says at the bottom end of the market, middle and lower income earners can afford fewer and lower quality services and the very bottom, are totally excluded from the market, and those are the very individuals most likely to be inactive and obese.