I Can't Decide Please Help!

Bigger Stronger Leaner
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Hello everyone, I am sorry if this topic might seem to be off-topic for people here on T Nation but I couldn’t think of a better place to post. I have been lifting for over 5 years where I built a decent physique and I got lean many times. However every time I got lean it was a struggle and I had to do cardio daily almost in addition to my strength training.
I also live in the center of a small city where our gym doesn’t even have cardio machine and we have no safe place to walk or run [stray dogs can be dangerous] . I also work two jobs for 12 hours everyday, one of wich is an online fitness coach so I have to stay in shape and because if the lack of time I am struggling to stay lean or even at 15% BF for that matter.
I make about a 1000$[3rd world country] monthly and I am considering purchasing a spinning bike for 600-650$ as cheaper ones are very low quality and I can’t order from Amazon as shipping prices will be 2 times that.
Would you say it’s worth it to spend that much in my case or I am stupid?

any feedback would be appreciated and Thank You!

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Burpees, I’ve been told, can be more effective than the bike in less time and the same amount of space. @ChongLordUno
They are free.

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Have you tried changing your modality of training to something which incorporates aspects of cardio (like CrossFit)?

I would genuinely consider adjusting your diet further to generate a deficit, before spending large sums of money for something that could be fixed by eating less (or smarter).

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If you can afford it, spend it. If you cant afford it, dont. Not much more to it than that.

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Your diet is going to play a massive impact on staying lean. I would start there before buying equipment

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Currency is, at its core, an estimation of value; spend, therefore, becomes a demonstration of personal value.

Sorry to get philosophical, but it’s impossible for us to tell you how much $600 “means” to you or whether the bike is “worth it” to you. It’s not a mathematical question like the NPV of a pre-tax investment.

Do you really love biking? Would spending the money cause you hardships? What else would you do with the money?

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I think having this much thought mean I maybe too broke to afford it :laughing:

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I think my diet could be much better, that is for sure. I do have that little fat kid in me and I tend to go overboard with gourmet food even if it is just ocasionally

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Burpees are great but I would assume I would be limited by recovery, If I remember correctly one burpee burns around 1.5 calories, so I am looking at 200 burpees a day to replace 30-40 min of cardio which can be a lot to recover from I even struggled to recover from 15 min of jump roping daily, my calves were lit all the time. Thats why I am considering getting into easier modalities :laughing:

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I think you are right, I have to be more accountable with my diet, no excuses there

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“You can’t outrun a fork”

That’s a thought worth thinking on.

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I honestly love all forms of liss as I listen to podcasts, and I am probably going to use any equipment I get on a daily basis, I bought a small stepper during covid and I used it till its lifts stopped working :laughing:
For me being in shape is above all honestly but I don’t want to spend money that my family can need in the near future to get extra stuff I can live without

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Hey @FitCH1995 - thanks for sharing this. Definitely sounds like a challenging situation.

Here’s my question… Why do you feel you need to do cardio daily in addition to strength training. What about that is important to you?

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Sorry for the late reply my friend. I am big on cardio as my metabolism adapts really fast to a deficit that it is crazy, I go from losing a pound or so a week at an average intake of 2350 calories per day to as low as an average of 1450 calories a day (including any weekly cheat meal I might have) and I would rather burn an extra 400 than eat 400 calories extra. So I figured a cardio machine with an easy access can make that process easier.

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