By Gabe Sanders PhD, NSCA-CSCS
The acronym NEAT stands for non-exercise activity thermogenesis. NEAT is defined as the amount of calories that you burn on a day-to-day basis outside of exercise or intentional physical activity. For example, NEAT can be as simple as the amount of calories you burn walking from the car to work, or washing the dishes and getting the mail. The activities that you do throughout the day matter and they can significantly impact your health over time.
An interesting study looked at both male and female Japanese patients with Type II diabetes and found that people who reported an increased NEAT (or moved around more on a daily basis) tended to have lower insulin levels and smaller waist lines. An additional finding was that patients with more upper body fat who reported an increased NEAT also had lower blood pressure.
Move more, sit less
This research carries great implications for you and your health. This was not an exercise/ nutrition study. The patients with Type II diabetes did not engage in any form of vigorous, high intensity exercise. They simply reported that they moved around more than they sat. As a simple take home message, try to move much more than you sit; you will be “moving” in the right direction to improve your health.
Now that you know the benefits of NEAT movements, think about how a regular exercise regimen combined with increasing your NEAT can boost your weight loss results. While diet and nutrition are very important aspects to your health, making drastic changes to your NEAT, exercise, and diet may not be realistic and you could be setting yourself up for failure. My advice to you would be to work on your NEAT movements and exercise first. Once you are consistently exercising and moving around, you can then work on more impactful diet and lifestyle changes. Weight loss success takes time, but your body will be thanking you immediately!
Article’s Resources
Hamasaki H, Yanai H, Mishima S, Mineyama H, Yamamoto-Honda R, Kakei M, Ezaki O, Noda M. Correlations of non-exercise activity thermogenesis to metabolic parameters in Japanese patients with type 2 diabetesDiabetology & Metabolic Syndrome 2013, 5:26