Working out is great. But burning more calories just while doing your regular everyday activities? That’s NEAT. Non-exercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT) is the energy you use for everything in your normal routine that isn’t sleeping, eating, or exercising. Basically, it’s the calories you burn just by being alive. While it’s still being studied, there is already evidence that NEAT could be a serious part of weight maintenance and understanding how we gain and lose weight.
Increasing your NEAT could help you lose weight and have overall better health outcomes.
More than half of our daily energy expenditure comes from just supporting the basic bodily functions that keep us alive. Another 10% comes from eating and digesting food. So that leaves somewhere between 30-40% of calories left to burn for all other daily activities.
With a few small behavior changes, your NEAT could increase and help you lose weight. Things like taking the stairs instead of the elevator and parking farther away from the door to work or the grocery store may seem insignificant, but over time those small changes can add up to big calorie deficits. Just putting your phone down a few more times a day to take a quick walk or stretch can even do it.
Sitting for extended periods of time is pretty much the worst when it comes to stoking your metabolism so if you work a desk job, take a stroll around the office every hour or so. If you’re someone who comes home and immediately turns on the television and doesn’t move the rest of the evening (no shame), try picking an activity you can do for a few minutes at a time that will get you up and moving in between shows. Things like folding laundry, dusting and any other household projects or chores that make you move all contribute to NEAT.
While the benefits of regular exercise cannot be overlooked, for those of us who may find it hard to fit an hour-long cardio session into our daily routine, these small changes in behavior and movement can add up.
At its core, NEAT is all about injecting more movement into your otherwise sedentary times, thereby increasing your usual calorie expenditure. It really is amazing the number of calories you can burn just by moving a little more in your daily routines and that can do wonders for your long-term health.
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