New Year diet gone down the pan? Maybe You´ll be glad to hear that shopping is the best workout after all!

The latest fitness fad is a spot of retail therapy it seems. And the good news is that most British women already work out to the sound of an estimated 250 km a year doing the retail rounds. Ladies who can’t help but let loose on the purse strings are also letting go of those extra pounds – burning around 385 calories each week, just by shopping.

As strict January fitness regimes grind to a halt with the wintery weather, this is the news British women will be delighted to hear. As well as searching out those last few sales bargains, they can also justify a post-shopping treat of a packet of crisps and two glasses of white wine with the calories lost.

Fashion store Debenhams tested 10 shoppers (five female and five male) with calorie-counting pedometers and surveyed 2,000 female shoppers to gain an understanding of the health benefits of the nation’s favourite past time. They found that the average woman covers a respectable 4,8 km every time she shops and spends approximately 2.5 hours browsing gorgeous rags each week.

And hardly helping rid their beer bellies, men only spend a measley 50 minutes shopping and cover just 2,4 km.