You want to lose weight, but everything seems so expensive! Well, I’ve got a whole list of ways you can bring down that cost right here sista.

Losing weight does not need to cost you an arm and a leg. In fact, it might not cost you anything at all!

Now, keep in mind that whatever investment you do make to lose weight will actually save you a ton of money down the road. This may not be true for you chicks trying to lose the last few “vanity” pounds, but it’s certainly true for anyone who is considered to be obese by medical standards, or if you’re approaching that range.

Being overweight is expensive! And it’s an expense with no end in sight. Studies on this topic show obesity will cost the average person anywhere from $1,400 - $2,700 a year above and beyond typical healthcare costs.

Any method you choose to lose weight that costs less than that is saving you money each and every year.

That being said, let’s check out some things you can do to tighten up that weight loss budget. Because we’re trying to lose fat, not all our hard-earned dollars.

6 Tips to Save Money on Weight Loss

# 1 Stop buying supplements

Do I use supplements? Yes.

stop wasting money on supplements for weight loss

But supplements are NEVER the starting point for weight loss. They do not replace the MORE IMPORTANT things like good nutrition (from food), exercise, sleep, and stress management.

They are meant to SUPPLEMENT a good diet, not be the shining star of your plan. I have never met a person who couldn’t get the weight off without a supplement.

I LOVE Eric Helms muscle and strength nutrition pyramid.

Ya build from the bottom up - note what is at the top? The smallest and last piece of the puzzle is supplementation! And he’s a smart dude so…

if you’re strapped for cash, I would suggest investing that supplement money into something else; like a healthy meal or a gym membership.

# 2 Stop shopping in the “healthy” food aisle

Ok, let me be clear. I am not saying that you shouldn’t buy healthy food. What I am saying is that there is nothing magical down that “healthy” food aisle of the grocery store. Now, if you truly need to be gluten-free and you want to have an occasional snack of gluten-free oreo’s, knock yourself out.

For the purposes of weight loss, there is nothing that will help you lose weight down that aisle. All the food you need to lose weight is REAL food. Not processed food that is marketed as being healthy.

All the labels; Low-fat, low-carb, gluten-free, GMO-free, etc…

are on processed food. They contain no weight loss magic. And in fact, if you’re eating them all the time because they have a healthy label, they may be stalling your weight loss.

There’s something in that treat making it taste so good. If it’s low fat, they added carbs. If it’s low carb, they added fat. If it’s “all-natural” it probably has a bunch of honey, (or anything because that label means nothing) which isn’t bad in and of itself.

But anything that tastes so good you can overeat it easily or it’s very energy-dense but nutrient-poor is not going to help you lose weight. Basically, you’re getting a lot of calories in a tiny unfilling package with little nutrition.

This doesn’t mean you can never have these little processed-calorie packed-slightly better-but still not great-treats. You can at times have anything you want. But piling these into the daily lineup in place of more nutrient-dense foods does not help your cause, and they’re crazy expensive.

Do your wallet a favor and stick to real foods whenever possible. They are cheaper and healthier than anything in the “healthy” processed food aisle. When you do decide to have a snack, consider what is really in that expensive little treat and if it’s worth the extra cost.

# 3 Budget Workouts

When you are starting a workout routine, I do personally find a lot of value in hiring a trainer or attending group weight lifting classes where you can learn good technique and form. But let’s face it, paying $150 a month to workout (or more) isn’t always in the cards.

And there are plenty of ways to work out for FREE, so price should never be the reason you’re not moving your butt!

If you are currently sedentary, meaning you have a job with little physical movement (like a desk job) and you aren’t working out, the best thing you can do is increase your normal daily movements. This can be scheduling a 30-minute walk each day. This can be setting an alarm to move around once an hour at work, parking as far away from the building as you can, taking the stairs instead of the elevator, or anything else you can think of to simply move your body more.

If you’re ready to start something a little more exercisy there are a ton of things you can do at home with bodyweight. Google bodyweight resistance workouts or home works with no equipment. There are so many people putting out free content you really do not need to pay for anything when you’re just getting started.

Ready to up the level of resistance? Invest in some workout bands. They’re cheap and again, there are a bunch of people posting free workouts and videos with all kinds of ways to use these bands. You can get a quick workout that really packs a punch for dirt cheap.

If you want to use workout equipment and go to a gym, find a cheap one close to home. There are many chain gyms with inexpensive memberships. There are also some trainers who coach out of their own small gym who offer inexpensive monthly access for you to pop in and use the equipment. Ask around!

If you’re going to the gym on your own, you can find online programs to follow for free so you have structure and you’re not doing a bunch of random things. Here is one I used to follow and really liked, but you can find hundreds.

Ok for my ladies who hate the gym or the idea of working out…

find an activity you do like!

Gardening, roller skating, biking, hiking, paddle boarding, find a friend who wants to pick up a sport you’d like to try and go mess around together – like tennis or basketball. Who knows! You can do anything as long as your body is moving around.

Check local meet-up groups, group fitness classes offered for free or super cheap at your local community center. Is anyone offering yoga in the park classes this summer? Those are usually free or inexpensive plus you’re outside and you’ll meet some cool chicks.

If you get creative, you can get a lot of activity with little to no cost! Your budget should never be the reason you aren’t working out.

# 4 Getting More Food for Your Dollar

Shopping at a local farm or farmer’s market can save you a lot of money and get you more nutrient-dense food. Plus it supports your own local food supply which is a huge bonus and another blog post altogether.

When we shop out of season and buy things from across the country, or the world, that food has been harvest weeks before we see it. The result is less nutrient-dense food and food that spoils rather quickly. If you don’t eat it in a couple of days it’s usually getting a little yuk and you end up throwing it away.

When you buy local food it will stay fresh a lot longer, cutting back on food waste.

Buying your meat in bulk is also a great way to save money. I understand that this isn’t an option when you’re living paycheck to paycheck. But, if you can swing it now or even start putting some money aside, buying from a local farmer usually saves you money in the long run. The quality of the meat will typically be much better than what you can get in the grocery store also.

Now, if you go to a grass-fed organic certified local farm, this may not be the case. But your smaller mom-and-pop farms usually have amazing prices on meat. They may be giving the animals feed and it may not be certified organic, but that actually saves you a lot of money. Their farming practices may be just as good or really close to the certified farms, but they can’t afford the certifications (they are super expensive). Them saving money on these certifications saves you money!

The animals are healthier in general than the animals from industrialized farming, and this equals healthier meat for you. Smaller farms tend to be more regenerative as well, which has a positive effect on our environment instead of a negative one.

So, if you’ve been considering cutting back on meat for the environment, I would suggest you buy locally and keep your meat - which is super rich in nutrients and protein that your body needs!

To save on veggies you may consider starting your own garden or looking into a local CSA. A CSA is where you pay a local farmer a certain amount of money for the season and they, in turn, share a portion of their crops with you and everyone in the CSA. How much food you get will depend on how well of a season they have. But in general, these are supposed to be a great way to save on local, fresh produce.

I haven’t personally used a CSA because I have a friend who is a farmer and we work out our own deals. But you can learn more about CSA’s here, I think it’s such a wonderful concept!

# 5 Stop Using Recipes

Sure you can look at recipes to get ideas or for a fancy meal now and then to mix things up. But following recipes shouldn’t be your go-to every stinking day. For one thing, it’s more time-consuming! I mean, how many hours do you spend searching Pinterest, then having to read through the recipe as you’re cooking?

Aside from all the extra wasted time, using recipes is often more expensive and leads to more food waste. You have to go buy all the strange spices you won’t use again before they expire. Whatever leftover ingredients you have from making the recipe end up wasted at the end of the week because you’re making a completely new recipe tomorrow, that has totally different ingredients.

A cheaper way to eat healthily is to think of what should be on your plate and use that template to use up what’s in the fridge and the pantry already. Go buy a bunch of meat and veggies and put it together each night. Way less work in the kitchen, way less time searching on the internet, and you can be sure to use up what is in the fridge.

Want to try out a new recipe you found? Ok, just don’t follow recipes every night. Make your recipe, but then at least twice a week do a fridge dump meal.

What meat do you have laying around and what fresh food is in the fridge that needs to be used before it spoils? Now, how can you put this together to make it taste edible?

Sometimes my favorite skillets have come from my fridge dump nights. And when I’m doing this on a regular basis, I am throwing away way less food at the end of the week.

# 6 Hire a coach

Well, this seems a little self-serving considering I have a coaching business, so I’ll just acknowledge that right upfront. Let me start off by saying that hiring a coach is not cheap, it’s not for everyone, and it’s not necessary.

So why is it on the list?

For some people, hiring a coach is way cheaper than what they’ve been doing! If you just need to know what to do and you’ll do it, don’t hire a coach. Go get on my welcome email series here or here and it’ll walk you through how to set up a great weight loss plan, and it’s free!

If you can do that and NOT pay me, I would be much happier for you to go invest that money on a quarter cow or a gym membership! Truly.

But here’s the truth, most of the time we struggle to lose weight it has nothing to do with knowing what to do and everything to do with our habits. Old habits die hard and we try and do everything EXCEPT work on our habits and our mindset.

Why? Because it’s not fast and easy, and we like fast and easy. I’m not saying this in judgment, I’m saying this from experience. I’m a woman who knows what she wants and she wants it now!

Well, that doesn’t work with weight loss. Not only does it not work, but that have it now attitude will cost us money! How?

We buy a bunch of supplements that don’t work. We join a weight loss challenge that works, but then we put the weight right back on and have to buy some other program. We spend money stocking our fridge full of the foods for the newest trend diet. But we don’t stick with the diet so it doesn’t work and that was a waste of money.

Anyone who has been a lifelong dieter can tell you how much money they have spent trying everything on the market. The problem with everything on the market is that even the things that work aren’t designed to KEEP the weight off. They’re designed to TAKE weight off. Hence 95% of dieters put the weight back on and then some.

So, if you’re dropping $20 here and $100 there and none of it leads to lasting results, you’re wasting a lot of money. If you hunker down with a coach and work on the issues between the ears, do the nitty-gritty work to make things last, you’ll spend upfront and save in the long run.

Sum It Up

I hear people say constantly that they aren’t healthy because it’s too expensive. Why do we think this? Because we are marketed weight loss and “healthy products” and those things are expensive. What is pedal as health is expensive, actually being healthy is not!

There’s a difference - let’s read that again.

Things that are marketed to us as healthy are expensive, being healthy is not!

You can make changes today that are free that will impact your health, and therefore your waistline, for the better. You can start with any one thing on this list. Just one, not all, and you can get some benefit.

Our journey to weight loss and health does not have to start out grandiose. In fact, most people do better to implement one new thing at a time and learn to be consistent with it. Consistent small actions get you farther than grand gestures that only last a few weeks.

Why? Because to keep weight off will require you to adopt changes to your current lifestyle that last for LIFE. So start with what you can do, as inexpensively as you can do it, and lock down one free or inexpensive good habit at a time!

Whatever money you do invest, think it through and get the biggest bang for your buck.

>>> Is what you’re about to purchase actually healthy?

>>> Is it a gimmick? (Promise fast results, seem too good to be true, offer a shortcut).

>>> Is it something you need or that will really help you out?

>>> Will it make it easier to develop a new habit?

Sometimes the money is absolutely worth it, sometimes it’s us trying to buy shortcuts. If it seems like you’re buying a shortcut, you’re probably wasting your money.

>>> Real food is cheaper than processed “healthy” food

>>> Many workouts are free

>>> Supplements are not going to get you there without hard work

>>> Hire experience when it will move you to the next level

>>> Don’t buy shortcuts, they don’t last!

>>> Cook with familiar foods and use up your scraps (Skip the gourmet Pinterest perfect dinners).