The NEAT way to lose weight!
Welcome back again! We’ve made it to November, and we’ve still got plenty of ground to cover before the year is through.
This week, let’s dig into one of the most important and easiest strategies to implement into your routine if you’re trying to lose weight. It’s all about NEAT (and I don’t mean keeping your desk organized).
What is NEAT? Time to break it down.
What is NEAT?
NEAT stands for Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis.
NEAT is the energy expended for everything we do that is not sleeping, eating, or structured exercise. It is the energy consumed during daily activities like walking at work, doing chores, and even fidgeting.
In order to lose weight, you need to expend more calories than you take in. Your Resting Metabolic Rate, the energy used to simply keep your body functioning and alive, makes up about 70% of your daily energy expenditure (and if you have higher muscle mass, you tend to have a higher RMR — another reason to lift weights!). The few hours per week you do structured exercise most likely will not use enough calories to create weight loss, so you have to expend more calories while doing your daily activities!
Still with me here?
NEAT activities are critical in maintaining or losing weight.
Expending as little as 100 more calories each day translates to approximately 10 ½ lbs. lost in a year; expending 200 more calories equals the loss of 21 lbs!
What can you do to increase NEAT?
You can do almost anything!
Do additional tasks around the house
Play with your kids
Take quick 10-minute walks every 2 hours
Have walking meetings instead of sitting in a conference room
Sit on an exercise ball while working
Get a pedometer or smartwatch and challenge yourself to add more steps or activity points each day
Pace and fidget more
Take the stairs whenever available
Walk or bicycle instead of driving
Park further away in the parking lot
Pace while you’re on the phone
Wash your car by hand
Pace the sidelines at your kids’ athletic games
Carry your groceries instead of pushing a cart
The more active your lifestyle, the higher your NEAT will be, and the better your energy balance!
Hi, I'm Cassandra! I'm a Certified Personal Trainer, Nutritionist, and Pre/Postnatal Fitness Specialist based in New York City where I've also been performing in theatre and film since 2015. I began studying with the National Academy of Sports Medicine so that I could help battle the harmful effects of diet culture and body shaming I was seeing online by spreading evidence-based information that will help you lead a more balanced, healthy, and mobile life!