Non Exercise Activity Thermogenesis (or NEAT for short) is the amount of exercise you get when you are not specifically exercising. Anything that you do that isn’t really part of your exercise routine falls under this. this includes walking, cooking, cleaning, fidgeting, watching TV, sleeping, etc.
The neat thing about NEAT (yeah I know) is that you burn the overwhelming majority of your calories during this time. A little adds up to a lot over the course of the day. For example, studies have shown that people who are more ‘fidgety’ tend to leaner than those who are relatively calmer.
That being said, how can we use this concept to help us getting lean? Well for one, we can all try to take little breathers and walks every few minutes or so. Say you spend 16 hours awake, and you take a 2 minute walking break every 30 minutes. That’s a good hour of walking in a day! And I haven’t even accounted for the calories burned by sitting up and down.
Here are some other ways you can easily incorporate NEAT into your lifestyle:
- Stand on one leg when brushing your teeth.
- Park your car further from your office
- Always take the stairs
- Get a 10 minute walk during lunch
- Do as many pushups as you can before the morning shower
If you have any ideas to add here, please share :).
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