In a recent video, YouTuber and bodybuilder Jeff Nippard conducted a fascinating experiment that juxtaposed two days of training, each with drastically different budgets. On the first day, he constrained himself to a mere $10 to cover all his training-related expenses. This paltry sum had to cover four meals, gym and equipment costs, a food tracking app subscription (in a shameless plug for his own app), and any necessary supplements. Surprisingly, he managed to stay under budget, only needing about nine dollars to satisfy all his needs.
The following day, however, he escalated his budget to a staggering $10,000 (which is more than just a slight bump!). With such a lavish budget, he indulged in custom meals crafted by a world-record-holding personal chef who charges $500 per hour, trained at an elite gym guided by a personal trainer who charges $700 per hour, and enjoyed high-end recovery treatments like sensory deprivation float chambers and luxurious spa sessions. Even with all this extravagance, he only spent around $6,000 (just a minor detail), marking an increase by a factor of about six hundred.
So, what were the tangible differences between these two training days in terms of quality and results? As it turns out, not much.
While having a personal chef spared Nippard from the mundane chore of cooking and certainly provided him with fancier, more palatable meals, the nutritional quality was not significantly superior to what he prepared on the low-budget day. Likewise, although the high-priced trainer helped refine his technique on various exercises, the improvements were marginal compared to mastering the basics. Nippard doesn’t provide specific metrics, but one could infer that spending 600 times more might yield, at best, a 10% improvement.
This scenario brings to light a fundamental principle of economics: the significance of thinking on the margin. What insights can we extract from this?
One encouraging takeaway is that the marginal cost of a nutrient-rich diet sufficient for a bodybuilding lifestyle is surprisingly low. With minimal spending, one can achieve considerable health and fitness benefits. Furthermore, once you surpass a minimal investment, increasing your budget hundreds of times yields only marginal additional benefits. This phenomenon underscores the swift arrival at diminishing marginal returns.
Does this imply that investing heavily in such pursuits is inherently wasteful? If one can garner 90% of the benefits for only 1/600th of the cost, why opt for the high-budget route? Isn’t that just throwing money away?
Not necessarily. It becomes wasteful only when the increased marginal cost surpasses the additional marginal benefit. For most individuals in everyday situations, an extra 10% improvement isn’t sufficient to justify the steep spending. However, for elite athletes or competitive bodybuilders, that 10% difference can be monumental. In such high-stakes environments, it could mean the difference between victory and defeat.
Take, for instance, the Cooper River Bridge Run, a 10k race in Charleston, South Carolina, in which I’ve participated several times. Each time, I’ve aimed to beat my previous record (I managed a personal best of 41:25 in 2021—victory!). If someone presented me with an elaborate training regimen that promised a 10% improvement in my time, I would likely pass; my goals are more about personal vanity than serious competition, and my willingness to invest time and effort diminishes quickly. Conversely, the first-place winner earns a cash prize of $10,000. For a runner capable of contending for that prize, undergoing rigorous training for a modest improvement would be entirely justified. Their marginal returns are considerably higher (or perhaps I simply undervalue vanity).
Ultimately, the broader lesson here is to refrain from hastily deeming someone’s pursuit as a “waste” of time, effort, or money. It’s all too easy to conclude that the energy someone devotes to their passion project is not worth it, but such judgments can only be made when we understand its true value to them. The pursuit of joy, even in what may seem trivial to outsiders, can be profoundly enriching—and that is a beautiful aspect of human experience.
