vending machine at gym?!?!

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Replies

  • Nettabee
    Nettabee Posts: 296 Member
    Our gym (located on a university campus) has vending machines but i've never gone up to them. I always bring my own water for during workouts and protein shake and bar after and go home. Everyone who goes to the gym isn't restricting themselves for every worldly goodness in life like myself.

    Luckily if I do want something more afterwards there is a Whole Foods across the street with an AWESOME salad bar! :blushing:
  • ChristyRunStarr
    ChristyRunStarr Posts: 1,600 Member
    My gym has pizza night on Mondays and every 2nd Tuesday morning they do bagels from Panera. Just because they offer it doesn't mean I'm going to go and eat the pizza on Mondays or grab a bagel on Tuesday (although I'll admit, I will sometimes grab a half of the honey wheat one cause I love it and after a hard workout, I need some carbs :bigsmile:
  • GuruOnAMountain
    GuruOnAMountain Posts: 489 Member
    My gym used to have a cool vending machine that sold sports equipment: tennis balls, shuttlecocks, swimming goggles, swimming caps etc. but alas, no more :(

    We have the usual rubbish selling vending machines, too. The drinks ones have water and powerade and stuff, too but also fizzy juice. We also have a cafe which sells some healthier stuff, like fruits and sandwiches but a lot of junk eg. chips, hot dogs, ice cream, slushies etc. too. But yeah, I don't even register it is there any more.
  • I don't use gyms, but I can definitely see them having vending machines. I would think a good balance between "healthier" snacks as well as some "traditional" ones would be good. If I did use gyms, I would appreciate the opportunity to use a vending machine on days I would forget to bring a snack or am just flat out starved after a work out - it would stop me from going to a store or fast food joint. I don't care for the "protein" bars and drinks - but if I had the choice of a snickers - I would go for it in that situation. I've seen some protein snack calorie counts that are not much different from that of a candy/soda/juice.

    On the plus side for sugary snacks: if you are diabetic or hypoglycemic or something else - you need the instant gratification of sugar to help boost blood sugar levels back to normal. If given a choice - my diabetic brother-in-law and co-workers hypoglycemic daughter would reach for the snickers before the protein bar to start blood sugar recovery. Juice - only if a quicker infusion is needed because they are getting close to sugar shock.
  • Shadowsan
    Shadowsan Posts: 365 Member
    One gym I used to go to had a 'bodybuilders cafe' with high-protein healthy foods prepared on-site. You wanted an epic protein powder filled omelette? No problem. Etc etc.

    Damn I used to love that gym... Alas I had to move away from the area. Never seen another gym do the same thing, but i'm sure there must be...
  • DavPul
    DavPul Posts: 61,406 Member
    What's wrong with a vending machine outside a gym? It's not church. Nothing sacred there. They could put a donut shop outside my gym for all I care. No one has to stop and eat there, and if they do its their choice. Do gyms need that 300 foot rule like schools have with weapons? Once or twice I've even used a candy bar as an emergency pick me up on my way to the gym. This isn't killing anybody.
  • nz_deevaa
    nz_deevaa Posts: 12,209 Member
    My gym has a car sales yard next to it, doesn't mean I'm tempted to buy a car whenever I go to the gym.
  • DavPul
    DavPul Posts: 61,406 Member
    Only reason I got married was because there was a chapel next to my gym.
  • nz_deevaa
    nz_deevaa Posts: 12,209 Member
    Only reason I got married was because there was a chapel next to my gym.

    :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:
  • mikmurphy
    mikmurphy Posts: 57 Member
    At my gym there is a guy selling beers in the parking lot.

    This made me lol. :laugh:

    My gym sells beer!!
  • volume77
    volume77 Posts: 670 Member
    Because some people manage to work out and still eat regular foods in moderation. I know, it's pretty crazy.
    Ermahgerd, what is this you speak of? Only protein powder and raspberry ketones for this girl.

    No, no, no. You don't need protein powder. Get yourself some of that incredible HCG stuff. I heard it tastes just like babies. :wink:




    Lol
  • Aleluya17
    Aleluya17 Posts: 205 Member
    At my gym there is a guy selling beers in the parking lot.


    Sounds like a classy area :)
  • SilverOnTheTree
    SilverOnTheTree Posts: 102 Member
    At a big corporate gym I used to belong to; once a month there was pizza, chips,wings, and soda night for the members!

    Their marketing & sales guy deserves a promotion!

    My gym's right across the road from McD's, Burger King and KFC. The gym itself sells protein shakes, dodgy "muscle-building" supplements, Powerade and "the most attractive fat stripper you've ever seen". I don't know what this is, but I kinda want to ask.
  • BrianSharpe
    BrianSharpe Posts: 9,248 Member
    Gyms are for profit businesses, I'm inclined to think that a vending machine with sports drinks etc may actually be more profitable at a gym (sounds like the gym owner doesn't really understand his or her clientele).
  • dad106
    dad106 Posts: 4,868 Member
    My gym right as you walk in has two cases filled with water, energy drinks, protein drinks and I think even soda.

    Then around the counter there is things like protein bars and chips... and then the cafe sells protein shakes.

    My gym is also by a Subway, a Portillos(which people seem to love for some odd reason.. but to me it's overpriced) and Fox and Hound Restaurant.
  • rml_16
    rml_16 Posts: 16,414 Member
    Because some people manage to work out and still eat regular foods in moderation. I know, it's pretty crazy.
    Blasphemer.
  • iLoveMyPitbull1225
    iLoveMyPitbull1225 Posts: 1,690 Member
    it has nothing to do with the gym. Who ever owns that space has an agreement with the vending company to let them have a machine there. its just about making money nothing more
  • lornaloo3
    lornaloo3 Posts: 102
    My gym is in the same lot as a Wendy's. It doesn't bother me. The Wendy's has been there for five times as long as the gym anyway, back when the area was a movie theater. I do sometimes stop at a nearby Dunkin Donuts for a coffee, skim milk no sugar and I'm happy. Just because things are near by doesn't mean I need to frequent them. I work near a pet store and I haven't come home with a kitten.
  • Shadowsan
    Shadowsan Posts: 365 Member
    My gym is in the same lot as a Wendy's. It doesn't bother me. The Wendy's has been there for five times as long as the gym anyway, back when the area was a movie theater. I do sometimes stop at a nearby Dunkin Donuts for a coffee, skim milk no sugar and I'm happy. Just because things are near by doesn't mean I need to frequent them. I work near a pet store and I haven't come home with a kitten.

    But kittens are so cute! Go on, be a devil. You know you want one. ;)
  • rml_16
    rml_16 Posts: 16,414 Member
    Within a half mile of my gym (and mostly in the same plaza) are a Logan's Roadhouse, Olive Garden, a pizza place and an Indian restaurant.

    There's also a co-op market with plenty of naughty baked goods and a CVS and Walgreens, which of course both have candy and stuff. And a movie theater -- you know what THEY have!
  • Greenrun99
    Greenrun99 Posts: 2,065 Member
    My gym will have a new member party, or every year they have an anniversary party.. ya they bring in pizza, subs (not healthy ones like pizza hut or local pizza place subs), bread sticks, soda, chips.. the whole buffet style.. They set it up right next to the cardio equipment, its really bad.. I try to stay on the machines or out of the way until its mostly gone and then try to leave too fast to grab anything..
  • Wildheart_Baby
    Wildheart_Baby Posts: 44 Member
    while I don't buy into the fact that any vending machine food is unhealthy anyway -- the only unhealthy food is one eaten in excess, after all -- do you not believe one can be healthy and fit an enjoy sweet or savory treats now and again?

    Yes you can be healthy and yes you can have treats but there are no healthier options, almost everything in the machine is either chocolate or crisps and not lower calorie versions either, the point I was making was that there were no options for those who are making the choice to eat a calorie controlled diet and would like something that isn't loaded with sugar and fat.

    Since the options presented would wipe out any gains you might have made pounding the cardio equipment or the weights.

    Would you not consider an apple or banana to be a healthy food, over say a protein bar.
  • MissNations
    MissNations Posts: 513 Member
    At my gym there is a guy selling beers in the parking lot.

    I want to go to your gym!
  • tsh0ck
    tsh0ck Posts: 1,970 Member
    while I don't buy into the fact that any vending machine food is unhealthy anyway -- the only unhealthy food is one eaten in excess, after all -- do you not believe one can be healthy and fit an enjoy sweet or savory treats now and again?

    Yes you can be healthy and yes you can have treats but there are no healthier options, almost everything in the machine is either chocolate or crisps and not lower calorie versions either, the point I was making was that there were no options for those who are making the choice to eat a calorie controlled diet and would like something that isn't loaded with sugar and fat.

    Since the options presented would wipe out any gains you might have made pounding the cardio equipment or the weights.

    Would you not consider an apple or banana to be a healthy food, over say a protein bar.

    depends on what I want, what my calorie limit is for the day, what macros I'm working to fill, etc.


    (and I don't see eating something high cal is wiping out any gains from the gym. bad way to view it. instead, how about look at the fact that spending that time at the gym enables you to continue to enjoy a treat like that. not to mention that whole getting your body fit thing.)
  • Marll
    Marll Posts: 904 Member
    Happens a lot at many gyms. Same reason a ton of them in my area have full service juice bars and other nonsense in them as well.

    Gyms are much less about working out and getting in shape as they are about socialization centers these days. Just yet another reason that I work out at home now, I got tired of all the people at the gym milling around not actually doing much but socializing and drinking their 200g of sugar in the form of some fruit "recovery" smoothie LOL.