Increasing your energy expenditure to help you get into that caloric deficit is actually quite doable without just the gym. It’s as simple as just getting up and moving more throughout the day. Some easy examples:
- Take the stairs
- Stand up and walk around when you talk on the phone
- Clean your house
- Go walk to your co-worker’s office to speak to them instead of sending an email
- Walk to work
- Walk anywhere instead of driving
All these activities are all of types of NEAT or nonexercise activity thermogenesis. Essentially these are things we can do everyday that aren’t specifically for exercise that can still help us increase the amount of calories we burn! You don’t have to be in the gym every single day to lose weight and get in shape everyone.
Now please, don’t misunderstand me. Exercise, lift weights and eat right. I’m not saying don’t do these things. What I am saying is that making physical activity a part of your lifestyle, is only encouraged by incorporating more NEAT. It actually gives you a fantastic way to practice the same techniques we use in the gym for safe, efficient movement. Applying those movements to things we do everyday helps our body learn how to get into these positions more readily. Once we get back in the gym, boom — we automatically know what to do.
Not only will NEAT help with your weight loss journey, studies have shown that it can also aid in the fight against cardiovascular disease which will prolong your life! It helps regulate blood pressure, decreases HDL cholesterol and ameliorates insulin insensitivity among so many other great things!
NEAT can be done by anyone at anytime and that’s what makes it so great. It can be an add-on to your current exercise routine to get some extra calories burned throughout the day.
Sitting down reading this? Stand up and get your NEAT on right now!
References
- Hamasaki, H., Yanai, H., Mishima, S., Mineyama, T., Yamamoto-Honda, R., Kakei, M., . . . Noda, M. (2013). Correlations of non-exercise activity thermogenesis to metabolic parameters in Japanese patients with type 2 diabetes. Diabetology & Metabolic Syndrome,5(1), 26. doi:10.1186/1758-5996-5-26
- Mccrady-Spitzer, S. K., & Levine, J. A. (2012). Nonexercise activity thermogenesis: A way forward to treat the worldwide obesity epidemic. Surgery for Obesity and Related Diseases,8(5), 501-506. doi:10.1016/j.soard.2012.08.001
