A new study has revealed that despite women dominating the top 50 list of work-out gurus on Instagram, men come out on top when it comes to earning more money.
The Fit List, compiled by the UK's leading sports nutrition company Forza Supplements, calculated the earnings of the top 'fitstagrammers' based on their charges for social media posts and commercial deals.
As a result, the study found that 42 of the top 50 'Fitstagrammers' are women but the highest earner is male personal trainer and fitness coach, Joe Wicks (aka The Body Coach), despite ranking number 21 in the list with the highest number of Instagram followers.
Women-wise, the world's top fitness guru is 21-year-old Sommer Ray with 16.9 million Instagram followers.
The study found that Ray, who is based in Colorado, can earn as much as £20,000 per post and receives up to 500,000 likes on posts relating to fashion, food, energy drinks, hotels and beauty clinics.
In addition, sponsorship opportunities and personal appearances can help boost her earnings up to £4 million a year.
Second place was awarded to 31-year-old fitness instructor Michelle Lewin who earns £3.5 million a year. Meanwhile, a 24-year-old Los Angeles-based fitness guru Jen Salter took third place, with over 11.5 million followers and earnings of £3.2 million a year.
And while only eight men feature in the list of top 50 fitness experts, Body Coach Wicks tops the list of best-paid 'fitstagrammers'.
While he might boast just 1.9million followers on the social media platform, the former PT has a reported 500 people subscribing to his weight loss plans and is currently preparing to release his fifth cookery book, due out on Boxing Day later this year.
Forza reports Wicks earns a whopping £33,000 a day from his business.
Forza Supplements managing director Lee Smith said: 'Fitness is big business and millions of people want to get in shape like the top work-out gurus they see on social media.
'Clearly female Fitstagrammers are far more popular on social media and 42 of the top 50 are women, and none of the top ten is a man.
'Yet there is a clear gender pay gap amongst the very highest earners because Joe Wicks is making three times as much as the highest ranked female on the list, even though she is number one and he is at [21].'
Discussing Wicks' success on Instagram both financially and in popularity, Smith added: 'Joe Wicks may be the top earner now, but I suspect he is going to get toppled by a woman in the next few years, thanks to the power of Instagram.'
Let's get to it, ladies.
Katie O'Malley is the Site Director on ELLE UK. On a daily basis you’ll find Katie managing all digital workflow, editing site, video and newsletter content, liaising with commercial and sales teams on new partnerships and deals (eg Nike, Tiffany & Co., Cartier etc), implementing new digital strategies and compiling in-depth data traffic, SEO and ecomm reports. In addition to appearing on the radio and on TV, as well as interviewing everyone from Oprah Winfrey to Rishi Sunak PM, Katie enjoys writing about lifestyle, culture, wellness, fitness, fashion, and more.
