What percent of your income goes towards fitness?

@christian2011 I most definitely spend less money on fitness than I do things like eating out, beer, or travel. And I find that when I spend more time focusing on my fitness, I do less of the aforementioned things and so I save money. I end up cooking more at home and drinking less. Not to mention, I figure focusing on my health and fitness now in my 20’s and 30’s will save me health problems in the future, which of course will cost money as well.

So maybe that’s just girl math but it definitely feels like spending time and money on fitness actually saves me money in the long run!

But to answer the actual question it’s somewhere like 10%.
 
@christian2011 I'm childfree and my husband and I split living expenses in a pretty cheap area (although we might be moving to a more expensive area soon)

Gym membership + monthly in person training sessions - 1.7%

New shoes each year-ish + new workout clothes - 0.5%

I don't follow a specific nutrition plan but we do spend a lot of money on food, haha

I can walk to my gym from my house and I use the hotel gym when I'm on the road for work so no money getting to and fro.
 
@christian2011 Gym is $39 /mo and I buy new shoes and a few pieces of clothing a year as they wear out so probably around $500.

If you add in sports hobbies like skiing and golf that total gets much, much higher!
 
@christian2011 I was thinking about this recently. Unfortunately my expenses have gone up now that my gym membership is $68/month (up from $35).

Supplements: my biggest thing here is protein drinks since whey doesn’t seem to agree with me anymore, plus creatine and occasional preworkout. About $70/month (wow that is higher than I thought- clearly I need to try whey again).

I pay $60/year for MacroFactor to track my food, so $5/month.

Everything else falls under misc, maybe $10/month averaged out? Shoes, bands, etc. I don’t count clothes in this category since I would buy leggings anyway. I suppose an argument could be made that I should count sports bras.

Looking at my post tax income, post 401k/etc about 4% per month (very rough math here).
 
@christian2011 Negligible.

I turned my living room into a gym which was the cost of a set of dumbbells, treadmill (cheap one from Aldi $200, just fine), gym mats, resistance bands, jump rope. Paid that out over a year or so as my dumbbell requirements increased. Probably less than $1000 and never pay again, five years later.

Youtube workout videos are free.

Good workout/running shoes, maybe $300 to $600 a year. I buy the rest of my workout gear from Target.
 
@christian2011 Less than 1% on the gym
Probably 2% on clothing, plus more periodically for socks, underwear, etc.
Another 1% on running shoes three times a year
Another 1% on race entries
Another 1% on chiropractic

And then the other 94% on gels, bagels, pop tarts, and protein shakes
 
@ayakuro I think OP meant what percentage *of your income*. You spend 94% of your income on gels, bagels, pop tars and protein shakes? Sign me up.
 
@christian2011 I’m probably slightly ahead.

Gym membership $32 (I don’t teach at this one or it would be free). $400/yr

Shoes 4 pairs a year $150
Workout clothing a year $600-$800 (but it’s probably higher).

Paycheck as a group fitness instructor… I’m probably breaking even or slightly above.

Mental health and a strong healthy body… worth all of it even if I’m in the negative.
 
@decanus Same. I use the gym in my building and the peloton app which is $24 a month now, it was $13 until recently. I need to buy new sports bras now I’m breastfeeding and my boobs got too big 😢
 
@christian2011 Peloton bike (monthly Affirm payments for about another year) and membership is around 2.5% of my monthly take-home pay. I already have a bunch of weights and other equipment and rarely buy new workout clothes. My husband also uses the peloton bike and membership, and I didn’t factor in his income.
 
@christian2011 I'm surprised to see how many people pay monthly memberships and subscriptions. Even when I lived in a little apartment in the city and enjoyed hot yoga, I didn't sign up for their monthly membership (I've also been shitting on the Peloton app after trying it recently...).

Unless I add in a bunch of things that are tangentially related to fitness, like YouTube Premium and a tub of protein powder every few months, ongoing costs round to 0%.

The upfront cost of setting up a home gym with a smith machine, barbell, bench, dumbbells, rowing machine, and bike wasn't negligible, but it has more than paid for itself. All-in, it may have cost up to a month's worth of my income at the time. So maybe rounding up to 9% of my net income for that year? Plus, again, the tangential cost of a mortgage for a home that can fit all of the equipment, although it was not a remote consideration during purchase.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

E
new potential diet, but hesitant because it goes against a lot of what I know in health/nutrition
Replies
4
Views
41
emmelia
E
D
Doctor Goes Over Top 10 Health Benefits of Yoga
Replies
0
Views
53
dichthuata2zhanoi5
D
Back
Top