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The Role of Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis

Non-exercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT) is a term that describes the energy people burn during a daily routine. Specifically, this is the energy burned outside of specific exercise designed to increase energy expenditure. NEAT can also help draw correlations between the amount of time people spend in a seated position and their risk of obesity.

  1. Alternative to Traditional Exercise

    • Many people who are extremely obese or out of shape may not be physically fit enough to perform intense exercise. Exercising strenuously could put these individuals at risk of injury. However, NEAT gives even unfit people strategies for burning calories and losing weight. By walking instead of using other transportation methods, taking stairs instead of elevators and minimizing the amount of time spent sitting, unfit people can get themselves to a safe weight to begin more structured workouts.

    As a Supplement To Regular Exercise

    • Those who strive to lose weight often complain that the last 10 lbs. are extremely difficult to lose. Integrating NEAT strategies into your daily life, or any activity that will burn more calories than simply sitting, can help you lose that last bit of weight without making significant alterations to an already healthy workout and nutrition program. In healthy people, NEAT strategies can increase the number of calories burned in a day by up to 330.

    Lifelong Health

    • NEAT habits should begin in childhood. People should learn to go about their lives in ways that take more energy and consume more calories than the sedentary way of life. Modern technology and the modern way of living can decrease an individual's daily NEAT calorie burning by as many as 2,000 estimated calories. If children learn to live actively in every aspect of their life from a young age, they will have a reduced risk of putting on weight as they grow older.

    In Your Life

    • To start integrating NEAT into your life, make some simple changes as soon as possible. Stand more often. If you stand when working at the desk or talking on the phone, you will increase the amount of calories burned because standing requires half again as much energy as sitting. Also, don't sit for prolonged periods of time. Get up as often as you can and get a drink of water, do a little tidying or just stretch quickly. Small changes will quickly add up to large gains in calories burned.

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