Fatloss & NEAT
When it comes to fat loss, many are looking for the magical pill, and understanding NEAT just might be the answer.
What is NEAT?
NEAT is the calories we burn whilst doing non intentional exercise. To understand this, we need to take a look at energy balance. Energy balance is the balance between the energy/ calories you consume and the energy/ calories you expend. Weight Loss occurs when our expenditure exceeds our consumption.
Understanding Energy Expenditure
Many of us would believe that a good gym session would make up for a day sitting at your desk. We tend to feel if we have had a good session, then we can forego being active for the rest of the day. What many don’t realise is that the small activities done away from the gym burn way more energy/calories than our gym session.
NEAT between individuals of the same size can be drastically different. Research found the difference can be upto as much as 2000 calories a day (comparing a manual labour worker and an office worker). When we compare this to the 3/400 calories burnt on an exercise bike in an hour, it highlights how important NEAT is for fat loss.
The problem we have as a society is that we are becoming more and more sedentary. A recent survey found that on average we spend 12 hours sitting a day. Add an additional 8 hours sleep and we have hardly moved in 20 hours!
How to Increase your NEAT
The simple answer is move more through your day. Here are a few tips to do this:
Get a standing desk – Take the opportunity whilst you’re at home to invest in a standing desk. Once standing you’ll be more likely to move more and it’s great for your posture as well!
Break up the day – If you don’t opt for the standing desk, make sure you get up every few hours and go for a 5/10 minute walk. This will again aid your posture and increase your NEAT.
Do you need to take the car – Lockdown opened our eyes to walking more, could you walk into town to do your christmas shopping rather than taking the car? If you do, park further away to get the body moving.
Fidget More – Now we’re telling you to annoy your work colleagues, but, people who fidget more or doodle have far higher NEAT throughout the day.
Get into Nature – On the weekends forget Netflix, get outdoors and explore all the wonders on our doorstep.
If you’re looking to increase your chances of hitting that fatloss goal, looking at your activity levels outside of the gym is key. Just because you’ve been to the gym today, doesn’t give you a free pass to be sedentary for the rest of it!
