The festive break is fast becoming a distant memory and for many, New Year fitness regimes are too.

Despite 2.6m people starting diets on New Year’s Day, research suggests that by the end of the week 92 percent of dieters gave up, shunning exercise and gorging on comfort food.

Findings, released by weightloss firm XLS-Medical, suggest that the vast majority are unsuccessful at sticking to their diets for more than five days a week.

Two out of 10 dieters admitted they have their first diet relapse just four to five days in, with hunger cited as the main cause.

Boredom and alcohol were also blamed for people failing to keep their health kick on track.

Dr Matt Capehorn, Clinical Director of the National Obesity Forum, highlighted that just one day off from dieting can undo a week's worth of hard work.

He told Female First: 'A healthy diet, aimed at losing 1lb per week, relies on saving 3500 calories a week by having 500 calories less each day.

'A day off the diet should mean that you eat the correct amount, but many dieters see it as an excuse to binge and have thousands of calories more than they need.

The results suggest that a massive 590,000 could already have failed to stick to New Year diet resolutions.

And a vast majority are unaware of the negative impact a single day off can have on their weight loss efforts.

Overall it was found only 5 percent of women stick to their diets until they’ve reached their target weight.

(Read by Emily Cheng. Emily Cheng is a journalist at the China Daily Website.)

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(Agencies)