BASIS OF PRESENTATION AND SUMMARY OF SIGNIFICANT ACCOUNTING POLICIES REVENUE RECOGNITION (Details)	12 Months Ended
Dec. 31, 2015
Minimum
Revenue Recognition [Line Items]
Deferred revenue, gold card, revenue recognition Period	1 year
Maximum
Revenue Recognition [Line Items]
Deferred revenue, gold card, revenue recognition Period	2 years

Line items represent financial concepts included in a table. These concepts are used to disclose reportable information associated with domain members defined in one or many axes to the table.

No definition available.

Name:	gnc_RevenueRecognitionLineItems
Namespace Prefix:	gnc_
Data Type:	xbrli:stringItemType
Balance Type:	na
Period Type:	duration