We all know that we need to keep a regular exercise habit. But sometimes it feels like there just aren’t enough hours in the day. Despite our best intentions for many, family life, work and social requirements can make it difficult to exercise consistently much less get the recommended 3 hours of weekly exercise.
Of course, enlisting the accountability of a personal trainer can help you with this. But it also begs a counterintuitive question: “If I couldn’t exercise for some time, what else could I do to burn fat?” Of course, the first thing to do would be to make sure you’re eating to support fat loss. Ok so we’ll take exercise and nutrition as read, and we’ll omit any pharmaceutical interventions. What else could we do? We’ll it turns out there is something available that could help, and it’s called NEAT
What is NEAT?
NEAT (Non-Exercise Energy Thermogenesis) refers to adapting daily activities to increase energy expenditure. It’s a way to speed up your metabolism and burn additional calories without actually exercising.
NEAT was originally discovered by observing individuals who had been overeating but not gaining weight or were of low levels of body fat. Establishing the link between NEAT and its effect on weight control and fat loss. This is where we can harness the tendency to fidget for example, alongside other non-exercise movements.
Does N.E.A.T actually work for weight loss?
Yes and No. If you’re trying to lose weight, NEAT can help. Because the extra movement will speed up your metabolism, keeping your body in the fat-burning zone. Therefore, NEAT will help you to achieve your goals quicker as, the leaner your physique becomes, the more visible your muscle definition will be.
Let’s be clear, it’s not a replacement for actual exercise. You will still need to exercise regularly so that you build muscle mass and reduce your body fat.
But it is a fun concept and an auxiliary factor that might aid in the achievement of your goals. This is why we should work on the basis of adding NEAT to complement your primary workouts, bit of course, not replace them.
Consider using NEAT to increase the number of calories burnt without having to overdo exercise, indeed studies have found that with a structured ‘fidget protocol’ you could stand to accelerate a weight loss goal, with one study finding that NEAT could help you burn up to an additional 2000 calories per day.
The benefits don’t end there, these tiny movements do more than just randomly burn calories. They’re able to trigger epinephrine release which stimulates the mobilisation of fat, which is then oxidized at higher rates. Directly offering a new vector through which you could see fat loss without having to lower your calories, which as a fitness coach who likes to work in a moderate manner, I’m a big fan of.
How to integrate N.E.A.T into your lifestyle
1) Don’t sit on the sofa when watching TV, sit on a Swiss ball instead
This will force you to engage your core, making your abdominal muscles work harder to regain stability and balance. It’s a small change but, over time, it will strengthen your core, tone your abs and help to strengthen your back and stomach muscles, improving your posture in the process.
Fitness Equivalent: Sitting on the Swiss ball will help to burn between 112 and 165 calories per hour. This is equivalent to holding a plank exercise for 40 minutes.
2) Put on your favourite music and dance along when cleaning, cooking and doing housework
Dancing burns lots of calories, it engages all muscle groups and, the more you move around, the more calories you’ll burn and the more areas you’ll tone up. This will benefit your legs, arms, shoulders, stomach… the lot! It really does provide a whole-body aerobic workout.
Invite some friends around for a party, or put on your favourite tunes to dance to whilst cleaning. Better still join a Zumba class and you’ll burn even more! Obviously, the amount of calories you’ll burn depends on your energy expenditure, how much dancing you actually do to the music, and the amount of time you do it for.
Fitness Equivalent: Dancing continuously for 35 minutes can burn up to 200 calories. That’s the equivalent of a 35-minute workout on a cross-trainer.
3) Sing: Singing burns lots of calories. So turn up the volume on your music and sing along whilst working out (or doing chores) and you could burn up to 126 calories an hour on top of your workout just by singing along. It’s also a great motivator as, if you’re having fun, you’ll forget about the hard work of exercising and work out harder, for longer.
Fitness Equivalent: Performing a kneeling vacuum exercise for 37 minutes can burn up to 126 calories.
4 ) Have more sex
Just 25 mins burns 104 calories in men and 69 calories in women. Plus, the more adventurous you are, the more you’ll move around and tone different areas of your body.
Fitness Equivalent: Swimming for 15 minutes burns up to 119 calories (based on someone who weighs 150 lbs).
5) Stand up and walk around when on the phone
Whilst sitting at their desk, the average person only burns 15 calories a day when on the phone. However, by standing up and pacing around the room every time you’re on the phone, you can burn up to 100-130 calories. A massive difference!
Fitness Equivalent: Walking on a treadmill for 20 minutes at an incline of 5%. This burns approx. 109 calories (based on someone who weighs around 150 lbs).
Six more tiny ideas that make a big difference:
1. Tap your pen at work
2. Tap your foot as you sit
3. Stand up and sit down often
4. Clean up after each meal
5. Do some work in the garden
6. Move whilst in a queue
Final thoughts
NEAT is a great way to contribute to your weight loss and fat-burning goals in very subtle ways. It can be an effective strategy to augment your workouts without overtraining, and beyond that, it’s an invitation to restore play, joy and outcome-free movement into your life. Which is also going to have a positive knock-on effect on your mental health. This is one of those health interventions that is difficult to track, but it’s also difficult to forget, once you know about the power of NEAT, it’s like a software upgrade and for me, it highlights the ability of a number of little things done consistently over time adding up to substantial change. Go have fun and apply it.
Before you go here’s what I do:
- I shadow box and have set up a double-end boxing bag in my office so that I can have a bit of a play with it a few times per day.
- When I like a song I play imaginary drums (zero talent for real drums and often the song doesn’t actually have drums)
- I’m told I use a lot of gestures when I talk (verify for yourself on my YouTube channel)