What is NEAT? 🤔
NEAT is Non-exercise activity thermogenesis .
NEAT is the energy expended for everything we do that is not sleeping, eating or sports-like exercise.
If it burns ANY calories, it counts as part of your NEAT.
Some examples of NEAT include walking the dog, pacing on a work call, cleaning the house, taking the stairs, dancing and gardening.
Your NEAT is one of 4 factors that all add up to the total calories you burn in a day TDEE (your total daily energy expenditure)
Structured and programmed exercise like going to the gym or for a run is what we tend to focus on when it comes to weight loss and staying active. But we cannot ignore the importance of NEAT.
Your NEAT activity can have a huge impact on your weight loss efforts if that's your goal.
Let’s put it into perspective…
When you workout for one hour, whether weight training or cardio, that only accounts for 4% of your day.
If you sleep for 8 hours, the rest of your time awake is an opportunity to increase your NEAT levels.
That time makes up 63% of your day. That’s 63% of the time you have an opportunity to get some more movement in your life.
It should come as no surprise why your NEAT actually accounts for more energy expenditure than exercise! Make sense?
We’re in the world of ease and convenience, and we want everything at our fingertips. Life is fast! Workouts can’t counteract prolonged, unbroken periods of sedentary activities.
So how can you improve your NEAT?
🛒 Try parking further away from the coffee shop/supermarket.
👣 Try being accountable for your daily step count (10, 000)
🚙Try washing your car (not drive thru)
📲Try walking whilst on the phone
🛗 🛗Trying avoiding the lift/elevator and take the stairs.
With all the being said, if your occupation is a physically demanding job... Nurse, tradesman, hairdresser or you spend the majority of your day standing then you may not need to increase your NEAT.
As coach personally I assess each client individually in regards to NEAT / daily step count.
Hope that helps you with some NEAT movement 🏌🏻!