Wellness trends 2025: Here's what ruled the world of health and fitness this year
Wellness saw a surge of quirky trends this year, from new walks and diets to bizarre weight-loss drugs. Here is a roundup of all the moments that went viral.
The world of wellness saw a lot of crazy and quirky trends this year. From different types of walks, diets, to bizarre weight loss drugs and cortisol taking over the internet, people indulged in a lot of different routines. Here is a breakdown of all types of trends that took the internet and the lives of people by storm.
A walk-off
Walking trends boomed in 2025 due to a cultural shift towards accessible, sustainable wellness, and viral challenges that made simple movement more engaging, effective, and shareable, moving away from intense gym culture. As per physiotherapists, people sought easy, low-impact ways to improve mood, boost metabolism, and build community, finding walking a perfect, low-cost solution.
- Fart walk
A short, gentle walk after meals, particularly post-dinner, aids digestion and potentially reduces bloating and discomfort. Although a traditional practice in some cultures to improve intestinal motility, the term was coined by Canadian author Mairlyn Smith. “By walking for as little as two minutes, we reduce our chances of developing type 2 diabetes,” she said on social media. A ‘fart walk’ opens up the bowel and aids better movement.
- Japanese interval walk
Created by Japanese exercise physiologist Dr Hiroshi Nose, the Interval Walking Technique is a simple 30-minute routine where one alternates their walking pace every three to five minutes. It is designed to elevate the heart rate during the brisk intervals and recover during slower phases. Warm-up: 5 minutes of slow walking.
Intervals: Alternate 3 minutes of brisk walking (slightly out of breath) with 3 minutes of slow walking.
Repeat: Do this cycle 4-5 times for a 30-minute session.
Cool-down: Gentle stretches.
- 6-6-6 walk
No, it is not some evil-esque thing, but rather a very structured yet simple fitness trend that went viral on social media and fitness blogs. This walk encourages people to dedicate 60 minutes to brisk walking, either at 6 am or 6 pm, with a 6-minute warm-up and a 6-minute cool-down, six days a week. Walking for an hour will add up to approximately 6,000-7,000 steps a day, which correlates with the latest research, published in the Lancet Public Health, stating that walking 7,000 steps a day can be enough to boost your brainpower and help protect against a range of different diseases.
- Nordic walk
This full-body workout uses walking poles to increase pace and engage arms, chest, and core. Developed in the 1930s as off-season training for athletes, it evolved into a global movement as a simple, low-impact exercise, and is also backed by research from institutions like Harvard.
The maxxing craze
The popularity of maxxing trends in 2025 was a result of social media algorithms, a cultural preoccupation with appearance and self-optimisation, and underlying societal anxieties.
- Fibremaxxing
This refers to aggressively boosting your fibre intake, either through whole foods or supplements, in an effort to improve digestion, support weight loss, and reduce the risk of chronic illnesses such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and bowel cancer. The average adult only consumes about 20g of fibre a day — well below the recommended amount — and that’s barely enough for a child. The idea behind fibre-maxxing is straightforward: more legumes, whole grains, seeds, nuts, fruits, and vegetables on your plate.
- Looksmaxxing
This was a modern wellness and self-optimisation trend that focuses on improving one’s physical appearance through a mix of health, grooming, fitness and aesthetic habits, popular among young boys. It is divided into two categories: ooksmaxxing is generally divided into two main categories: softmaxxing and hardmaxxing.
The former includes non-invasive, everyday practices like a skincare routine, regular exercise, adopting a new haircut, improving posture, and wearing well-fitting clothes. While the latter involves more intensive or permanent interventions, sometimes including dangerous practices and medical procedures like using supplements, steroids, or extreme dieting to get cosmetic surgeries like rhinoplasty, chin implants, or even limb-lengthening operations.
- T-maxxing
Also called testesterone-maxxing, this trend involves "maximising" testosterone levels to achieve an idealised masculine physique and higher status. Young men indulge in this mostly where they try to drastically increase their testosterone levels, either naturally (diet, supplements) or artificially (hormones), to boost masculinity, muscle, and performance, often driven by insecurities, but it carries significant health risks like infertility, heart issues, and dependency, as it's usually unnecessary and unsupervised.
All about that dish
Fad diets saw a surge this year, with a focus on personalised choices to achieve maximum benefits. This birthed a craze of following very specific diets.
- OMAD diet
One Meal A Day diet became popular with celebs including Shah Rukh Khan, Karan Johar, Bruce Springsteen, Chris Martin and Naomi Campbell. It means eating all your daily calories in a single meal and fasting for the remaining 23 hours. The meal must be eaten within a one-hour window. Research suggested that OMAD can encourage fat burning, improve insulin sensitivity, and even trigger autophagy, a cellular cleansing process that helps remove damaged cells and supports regeneration.
- Protein craze
Once the darling of fitness fanatics, protein officially broke out of the shaker bottle into mainstream pantries. From celebrity-backed launches such as US media personality Khloé Kardashian’s Khloud Protein Popcorn and actor Zac Efron promoting a protein-rich porridge to actor Ranveer Singh’s SuperYou protein wafer bars, protein went pop. Brands also joined the race by launching protein-packed snacks like kulfi, bread, coffee, roti, idli mixes, cookies, chips, and even water.
Challenge yourself
Social media was abuzz with different viral fitness challenges, with celebrities like Alaya F and Neha Dhupia leading the pack.
- 75 Hard challenge
Actor Alaya F took her followers along on her journey with this challenge, which is also popular among others, such as actor Josh Duhamel and fitness influencer Harshita Raghav. Created by American entrepreneur Andy Frisella, the challenge has strict rules: two 45-minute workouts daily (one outdoors), a clean diet with no alcohol or cheat meals, reading 10 pages of a non-fiction book, drinking a gallon of water, and taking a daily progress photo. If you miss any task, you have to start over from day one.
- 21-day concoction challenge
Actor Neha Dhupia, who struggles with inflammation and bloating linked to PCOS, took on the challenge this year, posting on her Instagram. The challenge involves a simple concoction: raw turmeric (haldi), one cube of raw ginger, 5-7 black peppercorns, 1 teaspoon of nigella seeds (kalonji), and MCT oil. If you don’t have MCT oil, you can substitute it with 1 teaspoon of coconut oil, ghee, or olive oil. Blend the ingredients with water, freeze the mixture into ice cubes, and consume one cube daily for 21 days.
- 21-21-21 challenge
Television host Kapil Sharma, guided by fitness coach Yogesh Bhateja, lost 11 kg in about 63 days following this challenge this year. The plan is divided into three 21-day phases:
First 21 days: Focus on movement, through simple exercises, body mobilisation, and stretching.
Next 21 days: Gently adjust your diet, like changing milk timing (take it during the day, instead of late night) and reducing jaggery.
Final 21 days: Manage emotional/ behavioural habits like alcohol, overeating, and smoking to sustain changes.
Cortisol
Cortisol was one of the biggest wellness buzzwords this year, leading to various drinks and trends. From being the body's main stress hormone, it sprouted into something bigger.
- Cortisol face and belly
An inordinate number of health influencers online talked about the “cortisol belly” and “cortisol face,” claiming that this phenomenon is caused by the excess release of the body’s main stress hormone. They also offered prevention strategies that range from scientific to anecdotal, along with before-and-after visuals that can convince even the hardest of sceptics. Health experts warned that this trend repackages diet culture as ‘self-care’ and ‘hormone healing’.
- Cortisol cocktails
You probably saw them all over Instagram - the so-called cortisol or adrenal cocktails. A bright, zesty mix of orange juice, coconut water, cream of tartar, and sea salt. They’re served as the new wellness elixir to “support adrenal health” and “balance cortisol levels”, your body’s main stress hormone. Though experts warned that they ‘heal’ your adrenals or balance cortisol in a major way isn’t backed by strong science.
Cortisol face and belly
The weight loss drug
The obsession with weight loss injections was a strong suit, with diabetic drugs like Ozempic, Mounjaro and Wegovy breaking the internet. These are essentially prescription, once-weekly injectable medications used to manage Type 2 diabetes and/or chronic weight management. But reports suggested that people began using them to lose excessive weight. Celebs such as Meghan Trainor, Lizzo, Amy Schumer, and Elon Musk revealed they have used at least one of these. Earlier this month, the World Health Organization (WHO) issued its first official guidelines recommending GLP-1 medications.
