Lead a lifestyle / Follow a lifestyle (2025)

Hello everyone,

is there any discernible difference between the two? Perhaps, in some contexts, one of these collocations is more appriopriate than the other? If I were to make any distinction, I'd say that "lead a lifestyle" is more formal (and appears to be more popular with journalists) than "follow a lifestyle".

(1a) The doctor urged her to follow a healthy lifestyle.
(1b) The doctor urged her to lead a healthy lifestyle.

(2a) The Royal couple follows an opulent lifestyle.
(2b) The Royal couple leads an opulent lifestyle.
(source: I came up with these sentences for the sake of this thread)

dreamlike said:

Oh, it didn't occur to me that each might be typical of different variaties. "Lead" appears to be far more common in BrE, but "follow" is used in British papers every so often -> The Guardian.

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I'm not sure that link works properly, but it appears that the article is about following celebrity-lifestyle-gurus - i.e. following gurus, not lifestyles.

The link works fine for me, you just have to scroll down, and there will be plenty more of articles, some of them containing the collocation in question. Well, in fact, there are only two of them..

Follow our top tips to get your kids following a healthy lifestyle.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/food4thought
giving women the choice to follow whatever lifestyle they choose
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011/jan/03/celebrating-zacharys-parents-elton-john

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I think follow a healthy lifestyle is perfectly ok in BE, as here (and 87,200 hits on Google): "It is important that we follow a healthy lifestyle in order to keep our bodies and minds in a healthy condition."
We need to be careful about saying something isn't used if it doesn't form part of our own personal usage.

On the other hand, "follow an opulent lifestyle" only gets one hit - the OP's, while "lead an opulent lifestyle" gets 2,060.
This is probably because there is no standard recognised opulent lifestyle to "follow", you have to lead it your own way.

Enquiring Mind said:

We need to be careful about saying something isn't used if it doesn't form part of our own personal usage.

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Try as we might, we all make the occasional mistake. I wouldn't normally do this, but my curiosity was peaked, so I had a look - see what you think. (google's ngram viewer)

dreamlike said:

So, judging by results produced by Google's ngram views, we are safe to say that "follow a lifestyle" is typical of AmE, whereas "lead a lifestyle" is far more common in BrE. It would be an overstatement to say that it's "never" used in BrE. Does that sound like a fair summary?

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The Ngram viewer link that I posted charts only BrE usage (supposedly); as per the settings I entered, it purports to be drawing from a BrE corpus (if you look carefully). I have made no reference in any of the above to an AE usage (and nor did anyone else) - that would be the purview of an AE speaker.
Yes, 'never' is nearly always an overstatement, and the two examples that you found attest to that. If we are to take seriously the Ngram results though, (and it's far from clear to me that we should), then we can conclude that in BrE (at least), we almost always prefer to 'lead a lifestyle'.

Hi dreamlike, I think I should follow Beryl.

My opinion :
lead a XXXS life : the one you are supposed to follow
follow a XXXX life : the one you think you should follow

"Lead a lifestyle" appears to be equally popular with AmE speakers as it is with BrE speakers, at least judging by Google ngram (which I think can be considered reliable - I mean, I see no reason not to)

Hi, Coolien - I think that's a bit far-fetched theory, I'm more inclined to agree with the point made by Enquiring Mind

Enquiring Mind said:

On the other hand, "follow an opulent lifestyle" only gets one hit - the OP's, while "lead an opulent lifestyle" gets 2,060.
This is probably because there is no standard recognised opulent lifestyle to "follow", you have to lead it your own way.

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Which I think is a very valid one Thanks for all your input.

Google, as we know, has its limitations, but with any phrase, you can always Google it in inverted commas, and see if it has been used. If a phrase has been used thousands of times on any sort of official website (government, government agency, business) then it's safe to say it's standard usage.
You need to be careful of a small number of Google hits in blogs, or texts written by non-native speakers, or texts which also include lots of other mistakes - shorthand, spelling mistakes. etc.
There may also be a difference in usage between BE and AE. You can usually spot whether you are looking at a BE or AE text by standard spelling differences like colour/color, favourite/favorite, behaviour/behavior, £ signs and $ signs, etc.

I can't agree with your post, coolieinblue. If you look at the link to a governemnt agency website I provided in my earlier post, the health authority said we should "follow" a healthy lifestyle - the opposite of what you concluded.

dreamlike said:

"Lead a lifestyle" appears to be equally popular with AmE speakers as it is with BrE speakers, at least judging by Google ngram (which I think can be considered reliable - I mean, I see no reason not to)

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Yes, and we can also see from this link,that the 'follow' form is far more popular in AE than in BrE

Enquiring Mind said:

I can't agree with your post, coolieinblue. If you look at the link to a governemnt agency website I provided in my earlier post, the health authority said we should "follow" a healthy lifestyle - the opposite of what you concluded.

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Hi Enquiring mind,
The health authority is supposed to recommend or advise something.

Beryl from Northallerton said:

Yes, and we can also see from this link,that the 'follow' form is far more popular in AE than in BrE

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There's no gainsaying it Did it seem like I was trying to undermine your point by saying that "lead" is popular both in AE and BrE? It was not my intention - the two are not mutually exclusive.

coolieinblue said:

Hi dreamlike, I think I should follow Beryl.

My opinion :
lead a XXXS life : the one you are supposed to follow
follow a XXXX life : the one you think you should follow

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Yes, the health authority said you should "follow a healthy lifestyle" - this contradicts your conclusion. It's what the health authority said you are supposed to follow, not the one you think you should follow.

dreamlike said:

There's no gainsaying it Did it seem like I was trying to undermine your point by saying that "lead" is popular both in AE and BrE? It was not my intention - the two are not mutually exclusive.

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No not at all. I just thought that seeing as there had been no AE input (as yet), it might be useful to point out the divergence in usage that our combined Ngram links seem to throw up.

Enquiring Mind said:

Yes, the health authority said you should "follow a healthy lifestyle" - this contradicts your conclusion. It's what the health authority said you are supposed to follow, not the one you think you should follow.

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Thank you for your correction.
I was supposed to have written as follows :

lead a XXXS life : the one the subject(doer) is supposed to follow
follow a XXXX life : the one you think the doer should follow

Hi Dreamlike,
‘To lead a certain lifestyle’ is without a doubt what I use (AmE) in this context. It seems natural to me to use ‘lead’ with ‘lifestyle’ alone, (just as I would say, “lead a certain life”). But if there is something to follow, e.g. recommendations or guidelines, I would obviously use ‘follow’: To follow lifestyle recommendations, instructions, directions, guidelines etc.

I realize that people might argue that you can ‘follow a certain style’, but I find the use of ‘follow a lifestyle’ much less common, at least in this country.

Dreamlike,

Lead me to the Heaven! I am supposed to be there.
Follow me to the Heaven! You are not supposed to be in this hell.

bicontinental said:

but I find the use of ‘follow a lifestyle’ much less common, at least in this country.

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Hi, bicontinental

The same is the case in BrE speaking countries, as was earlier suggested in this thread. "Follow a certain lifestyle" appears to be reasonably common, too, and I think it would pass unremarked.

dreamlike said:

Hello everyone,

is there any discernible difference between the two? Perhaps, in some contexts, one of these collocations is more appriopriate than the other? If I were to make any distinction, I'd say that "lead a lifestyle" is more formal (and appears to be more popular with journalists) than "follow a lifestyle".

(1a) The doctor urged her to follow a healthy lifestyle.
(1b) The doctor urged her to lead a healthy lifestyle.

(2a) The Royal couple follows an opulent lifestyle.
(2b) The Royal couple leads an opulent lifestyle.
(source: I came up with these sentences for the sake of this thread)

Click to expand...

To me in US English, I'd use
- Lead a lifestyle when the desire and initiative comes from the subject themselves
- Follow a lifestyle when it is more a consequence of a recommendation, e g. a medical prescription, or a coaching recommendation, or even an institution's guidelines (governmental, religious, etc )