The US and UK cities where fitness costs hit hardest.
Bespoke Fit analysed gym memberships, a fixed healthy grocery basket, protein shakes and running shoes across 50 US and 21 UK cities, then compared the monthly cost with local income.
US ranking
Where fitness costs bite hardest in the US.
The default view ranks cities by monthly fitness costs as a share of estimated monthly income. Switch to total cost to see the most expensive basket before income is factored in.
How to read it: rank 1 means the monthly fitness basket takes the largest share of local monthly income. A lower raw cost city can still rank higher if local income is lower.
Full US table, ranked by income burden
Tip: scroll sideways on smaller screens to see each cost category.
UK ranking
The UK cities where a fit lifestyle takes the biggest share.
The UK analysis covers 21 official UK cities with available local pricing data, comparing the same fitness basket against estimated local monthly net salary.
How to read it: rank 1 means the monthly fitness basket takes the largest share of estimated local monthly net salary. The UK and US rankings should be read separately.
Top 10 by income burden
Full UK table, ranked by income burden
Tip: scroll sideways on smaller screens to see each cost category.
San Francisco has the highest US monthly fitness basket, but Detroit ranks higher once local income is factored in.
Cambridge and London have high raw costs, while Nottingham and Manchester rise when costs are measured against salary.
The US and UK tables use different currencies and income sources, so they are treated as two national rankings rather than one combined leaderboard.
Methodology
How the fitness cost index was built.
Monthly gym membership
City specific Numbeo fitness club membership prices were used for each city.
Fixed grocery basket
A seven item basket covered milk, bread, eggs, chicken, rice, apples and bananas at fixed monthly quantities. It is a proxy, not a full monthly diet.
Protein shakes
The study priced 12 shakes per month, based on three training sessions per week and one recovery drink per session.
Running shoes
One pair of mid range Nike running shoes per year was divided by 12 to create a monthly cost.
US scope: 50 largest US cities. Local retail pricing came from Numbeo, protein shake pricing came from AllMenus city menus, and income data came from the Census Reporter public API.
UK scope: 21 official UK cities with available local pricing data. Local retail pricing came from Numbeo, protein shake pricing came from Deliveroo and Just Eat menus, and earnings came from ONS ASHE 2024.
Formula: total monthly fitness cost divided by the local monthly income denominator, multiplied by 100. The total monthly fitness cost is gym membership plus fixed grocery basket plus 12 protein shakes plus monthly running shoe cost.
Comparison note: US and UK rankings are separate. Dollar and pound totals, income measures and source coverage should not be compared as one combined leaderboard.
Basket note: The grocery basket is a fixed proxy, not a complete monthly diet or total personal fitness budget. Protein shakes are included as a consistent training-recovery assumption.
Proxy note: US protein shake pricing used same state proxy pricing for 12 cities where direct menus were unavailable. UK protein shake pricing used same region proxy pricing for Milton Keynes and Dundee. All gym, grocery basket and running shoe figures were direct city data.
Train live with a real coach from anywhere.
Bespoke Fit gives members live 1-on-1 video personal training with a real coach watching every rep, every session, wherever they train.
Claim founding spot