An excuse made in an Ipswich gym has been rated as one of the worst in the country for quitting the gym.

The unnamed Fitness First member gave up the gym and a new healthy living diet because: “My favourite TV show was on that night so I didn’t do the class.”

The excuse was voted 13th in the top 14 excuses the gym chain has heard.

Fitness First asked a sample of 170,000 members nationwide about their gym habits to help understand why gym visits can drop.

The worst-rated excuse was from a Bloomsbury, London member, who said: ““I couldn’t make today’s session because I needed to get home and check a parcel had arrived.”

Other reasons for ditching the gym included:

• “A fortune teller advised me not to exercise this month”

• “My wife didn’t want me getting any hotter before our holiday”

• “I was allergic to the gym”

• “My hamster died”

• “I had one biscuit so figured I should finish the packet”

Ben Wallace, Fitness First club manager at Ipswich said: “Ipswich members take their health and fitness pretty seriously on the whole, however, we all have moments when we lapse on our goals and easily convince ourselves that the sofa is a better option than the gym.

“We shouldn’t feel too guilty for making excuses when it comes to health and fitness, after all, it’s our survival instinct to hunt food and conserve energy – not exert ourselves.”

Professor Stuart Biddle, who has worked with Fitness First on a report around the science behind motivation, said: “There is a common misconception about what motivates us to exercise, and why we don’t maintain good behaviours.

“Most of us mistakenly believe that when we fail to stick to our good intentions, it’s because we lack willpower.

“But the reality is that we have much less control over our motivation than we think.”