What is NEAT and Why Should You Know About it?

What is NEAT? Is it really so important to your health and fitness goals that it warrants it’s own article? Yep. When it comes to getting fitter and healthier, there are very few things that I would describe as universally true. NEAT is one of those things. It’s good for everyone, regardless of your goal.

What is NEAT?

NEAT stands for non-exercise activity thermogenesis. That’s a four cent way of referring to all of the calories you burn living life – minus the energy you expend while you exercise, eat and sleep. If you do it and it burns calories, and it’s not working out, eating or sleeping, it’s NEAT.

Walking around the grocery store.
Cleaning the kitchen.
Taking the stairs.
Playing fetch.
Gardening.
Serving tables.
Fidgeting.

These are all simple activities that either fill, or don’t fill, your every day life. They all require energy, in the form of calories, to complete. The cumulative total of energy expended on all of these things that make up NEAT. And it’s that daily energy requirement at a base level that contributes to your metabolic rate.

Why is NEAT so Important?

Not all actions are metabolically equal. For example, you’ll burn more calories on a 20 minute run or a HIIT class than you will walking around the grocery store. But…you spend far more time not working out than you do working out. That’s a lot of minutes, and a lot of life, that you’re not actively working on your fitness.

Or is it?

The importance of NEAT is profound and easy to recognize once you think about the amount of time you have every single day to take advantage of it.

Let’s say you do a high intensity workout for 20 minutes in the morning (like this At Home HIIT Workout). You’ll burn between 9-13 calories per minute, on average. Your completed workout costs you anywhere from 180-260 calories (nice job!). Depending on what your workout involved, how hard you went and your current fitness level, your body might continue to burn some calories throughout the day while it recovers. Bonus.

But that workout is a very small percentage of your day! If you rely solely on your daily workout to get you to your fitness goal, you’re going to wait a long time. This is especially true if the rest of your day consists of sitting on your butt doing as little as possible.

However!

Let’s say that you do your workout, eat breakfast and then purposefully get on with your movement filled day. You…

• Take Fido, your 30 pound rescue pup, for a 20 minute walk…30 calories.
• You do a quick power clean before heading to work…80 calories.
• The 5-minute stroll from your car to your office…18 calories.
• Power walk through your 30 minute lunch break…136 calories.
• When you get home from work you spend 15 minutes pulling weeds because where’s the gardener when you need ’em?…71 calories.
• Prepping and grilling dinner takes you about 30 minutes…75 calories.

So without even counting things like going to the bathroom, taking the stairs instead of the elevator, playing with the kids, fidgeting when bored, etc…you can see how NEAT can really accumulate over time!

(Check out this super cool calculator to tally up your day).

It’s the steady, consistent movement that gives you a leg up metabolically speaking. NEAT can tip momentum, and the scale, in your favor without adding any extra time or stress to your day.

If you rely solely on your daily workout to get you to your fitness goal, you’re going to wait a long time.

Julia Hale Fitness

What if Your Goal isn’t Weight Loss?

Even if your goal isn’t weight loss or fat loss, NEAT is an important part of staying healthy and generally fit. If you’re goal is to maintain your current fitness level and health, daily movement can help. If you are working out to gain mass or strength, NEAT can help you recover faster and decrease soreness after a big workout. In general, the more movement in your day, the better!

How Can You Increase NEAT

I like to challenge my clients to increase their NEAT every day. I encourage them by assigning points: 1 point for every hour of movement, -1 point for every hour sitting, things like that. It’s a fun way to stay mindful of movement and a reminder of how much you can do for yourself throughout the day.

There are so many ways to increase NEAT and of course depending on your lifestyle and job, you might have more or less opportunity than the rest of us. But the following methods work for almost everyone.

Find Ways to Walk More

Walking is one of the easiest, gentlest and most rewarding ways to increase daily movement. It’s free, doesn’t require special equipment or space, and can be done anywhere, at any fitness level.

• Park further away at work, the grocery store, the gym, date night, or wherever else you might go.
• Skip the car altogether and ride a bike, rollerblade or walk to where you need to go (or to the bus stop).
• Go for a walk after lunch and/or dinner.
• Take your dog for a walk a couple of times a day.
• Go for a hike or to the park.
• Head to an actual store instead of purchasing food or clothes online.

Move More at the Office

Like it or not, most of us spend more time at work than we do anywhere else. Make it work for you!

• Invest in a stand up desk or BOSU chair.
• Take the stairs instead of the elevator.
• Make your meetings moving meetings – take the group outside or grab headphones.
• Set an alarm for every 1-2 hours. When it goes off, get up, stretch and take a quick stroll.
• Park further from the entrance or ride your bike to work when possible.

Increase NEAT at Home

Household chores, yardwork, pets and family time – it can all add up to an amazing amount of NEAT!

• Clean your house and finish your chores. Deep clean or spot clean, it doesn’t matter. Whether you’re mopping the floor, folding laundry, making beds or doing dishes, general cleaning boosts movement. Plus, you end up with a sparkling house and shorter to do list!
• Tidy up outside. Garden, rake the leaves, shovel the snow, mow your lawn, wash your car, take the trash out. Yard work is hard work! And the calorie burn adds up.
• Have some fun. Whether you play in the yard with your kids or take your dogs to the dog park for a game of fetch, play is a great way to increase NEAT. Take it up a notch and start a game of soccer or basketball!

There are so many small ways to add movement, and boost your metabolism, throughout the day. And if you ever have the thought “I don’t have time for exercise”…well, think again! Because most of these opportunities for NEAT are the very excuses we make for not having enough time.

Let’s go!