What is NEAT and how can you benefit?

There are a lot of ways in which your body burns energy. NEAT, also known as Non Exercise Activity Thermogenesis is one of the ways in which your body burns  energy apart from your BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate), Normal Exercise & TEF (Thermic effect of food).

And so, if you were thinking that doing some extra cardio or exercise was the only way to burn a few extra calories per day, then this might interest you.

Let’s dig deeper.

 

So what exactly is NEAT?

In simple terms, NEAT accounts for all the calories that you burn doing activities that do not count as exercise or workout. Things like blinking, fidgeting, shaking your legs, etc all come under NEAT. When you’re in the gym burning calories on the treadmill, you’re basically burning calories through Exercise, which is not the same as NEAT.

Various studies have shown that NEAT can account for anywhere between 200 to 1500 Calories per day for an average healthy person. That being said, 1500 Calories is almost equal to the daily calorie intake for a lot of people who are in a deficit & trying to lose weight. This shows the magnitude of the difference that NEAT can have on your weight loss results.

Now, people who have a laborious job will have a much higher NEAT compared to people who have a desk job for people working in an active environments will be moving throughout the day & will be burning more calories. 

Now this does not mean that people who have a desk job won't be able to burn extra calories at all. We'll be covering a few ways in which you can increase your energy output by making small changes to your lifestyle that can go a long way in getting you the results that you're looking for. 

One thing to note here is that when you’re in a calorie deficit, your body starts conserving energy & your NEAT goes down & hence it becomes even more important to increase your activity to burn more calories in order to maintain the required deficit.

 

Ways in which you can increase your NEAT

• Start tracking your daily step count – The daily recommended step count for a healthy adult is 10,000 steps but it can sometimes get tough to get these many steps due to our day jobs or other reasons. Hence investing in an activity tracker & completing your daily target steps is a good way to increase your energy output. Doing things like parking your car/bike farther away so you can squeeze in a couple hundred steps every time you have to go to the parking slot can help too. Get creative. 
  
  
• Get active – Things like skipping the lift & taking the stairs, walking around in the office while on a call, being more active consciously can go a long way in burning extra calories. Make a conscious decision to do more of the things that you know will help you burn more calories without tiring you out.

 

Conclusion

NEAT, also known as Non Exercise Activity Thermogenesis can be a big factor in your total daily energy expenditure & accounts for all the calories that you burn in day through activity apart from your normal exercise.

Making some conscious changes in your lifestyle to increase your NEAT can help you in creating a bigger calorie deficit and hence with your fat loss results.