You run into a lot of people with a lot of goals when you work in corporate fitness. Weight loss, mass gain, body recomposition, endurance, etc. I've written in the past about how the gym I work at (and most corporate gyms from my understanding) offer a "FREE session with a Personal Trainer!" once you buy your membership. This is our tool of getting face time with members and trying to sell personal training packages.
First, it's almost a miracle that people who sign up for these sessions actually show up to them, but when they do they end up getting to know about personal training and how much that costs. The most common reason people give you as to why they won't do personal training, is that they don't believe that such a service should cost so much. They don't think that getting undivided attention, accountability, and guidance toward their goal is worth the money. I actually had a guy tell me that he thought it was too expensive to meet with a personal trainer twice a week for 3 months (costs around $1,600 at my gym), but had no problem the week before dropping $3,000 on a hunting rifle and its upgrades. Essentially, he didn't see the value in getting help for 3 months (or more if he wanted) as much as he saw the value in something he used 3-6 times a year.
Now, I understand when people have a hard time seeing the long term in the benefits of personal training. Overall, physical fitness and health can drastically reduce a vast majority of common surgeries and diseases, but often times we don't think about the cost of those surgeries and medical bills until they hit us.
In order to shed a little light on how much cheaper Personal Training is in comparison to having some of the diseases and surgeries that can be avoided through physical fitness. We'll use 2 sessions per week, for 3 months as our comparison value ($1,600; or $535/month):
Diabetes (often linked to obesity) - Insulin pump, plus medication itself: Approximately $405/month
Double Bypass Surgery (again, often times related to complications with obesity) - Approximately $115,000, plus $300-$500/month for medications
Lap Band Surgery - Weight loss surgery that is increasingly more common - Approximately $14,500, not including any post surgery complications
Knee replacement surgery- from improper body mechanics or compression from being overweight - Approximately $50,000, plus the cost of physical therapy and rehab
Herniated Disc Repair - Improper lifting mechanics, compression issues - Approximately $20,000 (depends on severity), plus $50-100/session of physical therapy
Heart attack - Bills following complications, plus time off work etc (full article approximation) - Approximately $38,000/year.
The list could go on and on. And I must say that obviously, there are wide variations in
these numbers that vary by location, severity, and health insurance coverage. I also can't say that doing personal training is going to prevent any of these, as genetic factors also get involved, so to reiterate, this is just a glimpse of what some of these costs could look like.