NEAT

 

Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis, or NEAT or short, is quite simply the amount of calories you burn through all of the unconscious, innate movements and anything outside of planned exercise that your body does in a day. This includes standing, fidgeting, chewing, pacing etc.For people with active or manual labor jobs this number is typically a lot higher, and often much lower for those with an office job. Think about your regular day-to-day, and ask yourself how much time you spend sitting vs standing or moving, not including your regular gym workouts. If you conclude that you spend most of the day sitting, you could benefit from reading on!

 

The more we move, the more calories we burn. The more calories we burn, the more calories we can eat while maintaining our weight, which also means we don’t have to restrict calories as much during a weight loss phase. Pretty… neat, right?! Jokes aside, it’s no mystery that a lot of us have fairly sedentary jobs that have us bound to a desk for hours per day, on top of that we’re supposed to sleep 7-9 hours each night; throw in a whole bunch of family, social, and other life obligations, this doesn’t leave too much time for even more exercise. So what do we do about that? Well here are 5 of our top ways to improve your NEAT without adding hours of running, cycling or other more intense activities.

 

1. Keep a smaller cup/bottle of water at your desk. This one is great because it frees two birds with one key. The more you empty your bottle, the more trips back to the water cooler/tap you have to make to refill it, which also means more trips to the bathroom. See how the steps are racking up already? (Bonus tip: Use a bathroom on a different floor to boost your activity even more!)

 

 

2. Pace back and forth or around the house while you brush your teeth. If you’re doing the requisite 2 minutes of brushing twice per day, that’s a whole 4 minutes you could be moving just a little more while keeping your breath fresh, teeth clean, and gums healthy!

 

3. Who likes TV commercials anyway? Rather than sitting through the ad breaks during your TV time, get up and move around in between. This can be a great time to catch up on small chores around the house too!

 

4. Park an extra couple of blocks away from your office, or consider getting off the train an extra stop early if you work downtown. Especially downtown, there are many parking lots within close proximity, and the majority of train stations are fairly close to each other

 

5. You may have heard that only the strongest take all of the groceries in one trip. Well we’re going to recommend making the extra 2-3 trips back to the car! Extra trips mean more steps, ergo increased activity!

 

These may seem like insignificant changes, or too small to make a difference, but these small adjustments add up over time to make a huge impact.