Contact Us
Log In
What is NEAT?! NEAT is the amount of energy your body uses when you are just moving around and going about your day-to-day business, for example: walking, talking, itching, fidgeting etc. It forms a part of your Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE) alongside Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR), Exercise Activity Thermogenesis (EAT) and the Thermic Effect of Food (TEF). NEAT accounts for a HUGE amount of the energy our body uses per day.
We can influence our NEAT by moving more. This is why you may typically hear of people aiming to hit 10,000 steps per day. 10,000 steps is an arbitrary figure, but the idea is to make you focus on moving around more throughout the day. This is especially important in people who lead quite a sedentary lifestyle, for example, those who drive to work, sit at a desk, watch TV on the sofa at night etc.
Something extremely interesting about NEAT is that it is modulated with changes in energy balance. What this means is that when you overeat: your NEAT increases, and when you under-eat: your NEAT decreases. As an example: in response to overeating, you might notice yourself getting hotter and becoming really fidgety. This is your body trying to burn off some of the extra calories (ever heard of the "meat sweats''?!). When you undereat, in order to save calories, you can become really lazy and lethargic, thus reducing your movement and the amount of energy you need. This is really important to be aware of when on a fat loss journey as you are literally eating less on purpose! This response can be overcome however, by incorporating a daily step count or movement goal into your daily process goals so you make sure you keep making progress, even when your body is literally fighting against you!
Here are some Top Tips on how to increase your NEAT;
Stand more: be aware at all times you are sitting and ask yourself whether you really need to be sitting down at that moment or can you stand instead?
Take the stairs: if there is an option to take the stairs or a lift, take the stairs!
Walk up the escalator: escalators are just moving stairs so don't stand on the left, get walking!
Get off a stop earlier: if you use public transport, can you leave more time and get off at an earlier stop and walk the rest of the way?
Park further away: in the car park, can you park further away from the door so you need to walk further to get to where you are going and then the same on the way back?!
Use a smart watch: with most smart watches, you can set your watch to give you a little nudge if you have been sitting down too long! You can also set yourself a movement target and it will track your progress
Try and keep NEAT in the back of your mind at all times and remember that increased daily movement not only helps to expend extra energy, it is also proven to have amazing health benefits too!