I was ‘fat shamed’ by my gym for canceling membership: ‘Is that legal?’

That’s no way to keep a customer.

Gym memberships are notoriously difficult to get out of, but one TikTok user alleges her gym fat-shamed her when she tried to leave.

User Lexie Rowe, 23, says she was a member of Anytime Fitness in 2019 for around six months, but decided to quit as she was using the local YMCA more when she was working out.

When she went to cancel, she was told they won’t do it — not until she’d completed three free personal training sessions.

“I’m pretty sure Anytime Fitness fat-shamed me,” a confused Rowe said in the clip. “Is that legal? Is that in their policy? Can they ask me to do that?”

Rowe, from Wisconsin, alleged that the gym associate wouldn’t cancel her membership “until we get these three sessions down,” she said she was told.

“She was like, ‘They’ll be free to you, I’ll set you up with somebody but you just really need to try first,’” Rowe added in a TikTok, which has been viewed more than 626,000 times.


Rowe says the gym told her she had to complete training sessions before she could quit.
The 23-year-old said the gym told her that she had to complete three free training sessions before she could end her membership.
lexiemarierowe /TikTok

TikTok users immediately flooded the page with comments, appalled at what Rowe had been told.

“I worked at an ATF and this is NOT OKAY ABSOLUTELY NOT OKAY,” one exclaimed.

“They gave me a really hard time when I tried to cancel too,” another said.

“I was so caught off guard,” Rowe admitted. In a follow up video, she recalled going to one of the three free sessions, at which she allegedly worked so hard that she puked.


The gym responded in a TikTok comment.
Anytime Fitness responded in the comments on TikTok.
lexiemarierowe /TikTok

“It was like he was pushing me harder than he knew I could take on purpose — to, like, show that I couldn’t do it,” she said.

Anytime Fitness responded to Rowe’s video in a comment on her TikTok video.

“As you can imagine, with our purpose to help people reach their total health and wellness goals, we take these situations seriously,” the comment read.

“One of the offers we do extend to returning members is the set of three free training sessions. However, no one should be forced to take the training sessions when attempting to cancel their membership – that is absolutely not our policy, nor a practice we endorse,” the comment continues.

The company spokesperson on TikTok also insisted that Rowe’s location is now under new management. “Since the pandemic there has been a total turnover of staff at that particular location. As you have not been a member since 2019, all we can do is apologize,” they said.