Boost Your Metabolism All Day with NEAT
What is NEAT?
Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis, or NEAT, is a crucial yet often overlooked component of our daily metabolism. NEAT refers to the energy expended through all the activities we do that are unrelated to eating, sleeping, or sports-like exercise. This includes a wide variety of actions like maintaining posture while sitting, walking to the restroom, gardening, carrying groceries, cleaning the house, typing on a computer, or even fidgeting with a pen.
While these activities may seem minor, research shows that the cumulative effect of NEAT throughout the day can have a significant impact on calorie expenditure and weight management. In fact, having a low level of NEAT is associated with obesity. The great thing is, among the various aspects of metabolism, NEAT is the most variable and controllable through our daily lifestyle choices.
Make Your Environment NEAT-Friendly
One key way to boost NEAT is to re-engineer your daily environments and routines. Take a look at where you spend large chunks of time and map out your typical movement patterns. Identify opportunities to be more active, like taking the stairs instead of elevators, or going for a quick walk during breaks instead of staying sedentary at your desk for hours.
Simple changes like parking further away and walking to your destinations, or setting a daily step goal, can motivate you to move more. Household chores are also great for boosting NEAT. Make a list of tasks like vacuuming, doing laundry, cleaning windows and divide them up throughout the week. Not only will you keep a tidier home, you'll also be strengthening your muscles and burning more calories.
Keep It Moving
Look for ways to add more motion to things you already do. While standing at the copy machine or microwave, do some stretches, squats, or lunges. Pace the room during phone calls. Tap your feet while reading emails. Get up frequently for no particular reason. Research from the Mayo Clinic found that these types of endless tiny movements during an 8-hour workday can add up to the equivalent calorie burn of a typical gym session.
Even for athletes instructed to rest and minimize activity outside of training to prevent injury or preserve energy, research indicates that the harmful effects of being sedentary are not negated by moderate or vigorous exercise sessions. No matter your fitness level, increasing daily NEAT can support your body composition and weight management goals.
By making your environments more movement-friendly, sprinkling in extra action throughout your usual routines, and finding excuses to be more physically engaged in small ways as often as possible, you can keep your metabolic engine revving from morning to night. Each tiny tweak adds up over time to make a real difference in your health and physique. How will you be adding more NEAT to your day?
