NEAT Could Be the Missing Piece in Your Health Journey – Are You Getting Enough of It?
NEAT: a nerdy guy’s favorite adjective and the most important component of your metabolic health. Yes, even more important than working out. Keep reading to learn what NEAT is, why it’s so important, and how to incorporate more of it into your day.
What is NEAT?
NEAT stands for Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis, and it is all of the calories a person burns through their daily activity, excluding purposeful exercise.
Most of this activity includes some sort of walking: walking through the parking lot, around the grocery store, up a few flights of stairs, around the park, to and from the bus stop, etc. Some less active but still impactful examples include cooking, cleaning, doing dishes, and folding laundry.
Whether the activity feels like it requires almost no physical effort – like folding laundry – or like it requires more moderate effort – like walking with a child around the playground – the good news is that these NEAT activities play a major role in your body’s ability to maintain a healthy metabolism, a healthy weight, and most importantly, a healthy lifestyle.
The bad news is that many people aren’t getting nearly enough NEAT.
Why is NEAT so important?
A sedentary lifestyle can shorten lifespan and increase the risk of health concerns as small as joint pain and as big as cardiovascular disease. And as our value on convenience increases, our level of daily activity continues to decrease. Shopping for clothes in stores has been replaced with shopping online. Shopping for groceries in stores has been replaced with grocery delivery or curbside pick up. Going into a restaurant has been replaced with drive-thrus or food delivery apps. A quick errand has been replaced with a quick delivery from Amazon Prime. And since 2020, even going into the office daily has been replaced with remote work for at least part of the week.
Unfortunately, the diet and exercise industry has continued to name only one solution to this growing problem: vigorous, time-consuming workouts. What they don’t tell you is that the movement you do *outside* of your workout can mean even more than the movement you do in your workout itself.
The average person is awake 16 hours a day. Starting your day with a 30 minute workout is wonderful – please don’t let me discourage you from that. I am just asking you to consider the fact that your 30 minute workout is only 3% of your awake hours. If you’re someone that goes from your workout to your desk to your living room couch to your bed, you are likely spending the remaining 97% of your awake hours almost completely sedentary. And the negative effects of that 97% sedentary portion can outweigh the positive effects of the 3% active portion.
Now, I bet you aren’t *completely* sedentary in that 97%. It really depends on where you live – rural or urban – and where you work – in or out of the home. Typically, my urban clients who work outside the home naturally have more opportunity for movement via walking to the office or walking to a bus or train each day. My rural and suburban clients tend to have less natural opportunity for movement because they mostly drive from point A to point B. My work-from-home clients are the ones who have the least natural opportunity for movement. But don’t fret – no matter what your situation, there are simple ways to gradually increase your activity throughout the day. And the more you increase that active 3% and decrease that sedentary 97%, the better.
How to get more NEAT
First and foremost, you need to be strategic. Simply saying aloud, “I am going to increase my NEAT,” won’t accomplish much. When? Where? How?
Here are some ideas to help you get started:
Get up from your desk every hour to get 250 steps (roughly 2-3 minutes of walking)
Set up a standing desk
Consider purchasing a walking pad if you work from home
Cook at home more than relying on carry out or delivery
Walk or bike to work
Get off the bus/train a bit early to make your walk to work/home a little longer
Grab that little thing you need from the store before or after work instead of using Amazon
Park at the very back of each parking lot every day
Park and walk into the coffee shop/carry out restaurant instead of using the drive-thru
Take the (or some of the) stairs if you work in an office building
Pace around the room while on calls
Find an accountability buddy
Finish up the dishes and take a 15 minute walk after dinner
Brush your teeth and take a 15 minute walk after waking up
Spend 10 minutes clearing clutter before turning on your favorite show at night
Opt to walk into the store instead of ordering curbside
Dedicate 15-30 minutes of lunch (if you’re given a formal break) to walk
Complete one chore or small house project when you’re home and done with work
Go clothes shopping with a friend instead of shopping online
Catch up with your friend on a walk around the neighborhood instead of over drinks
Basically, when faced with the choice between the “more convenient” or “less convenient” option, choose the latter from time to time. The more “less convenient” options you choose, the more you will naturally increase your NEAT.
If this all sounds great in theory but leaves you feeling overwhelmed in practice, that’s what I’m here for! My holistic programs are much, much more than an exercise program and a diet plan (I actually don’t provide diet plans at all!). The average person knows how to get some form of exercise and knows what a relatively healthy diet looks like, but knowing these things is not the hard part. The hard part is the implementation. I will get to know you, your lifestyle, your goals, and obstacles you face and from there, I will help you to create a step by step plan to get you over those obstacles and closer to those goals. To be more concise, I don’t just tell you what to do, but I help you actually figure out how to do it.
If the “how” has always been a struggle for you, click here to schedule your complimentary, no-strings-attached consultation. I look forward to chatting with you!
