Ways to Increase Non-Exercise Activity Levels

Most people know that exercise is a way to increase heart health, tone your body and in many cases, burn calories. Even if you are not actively exercising by playing a sport, participating in activities of daily life burn calories, too. This phenomenon is called non-exericise activity thermogenesis, or NEAT. In addition to energy expenditure, you can maintain your flexibility and range of motion by increasing your non-exercise activity levels.

Adjust Activities of Daily Life

• Keep doing what you normally do on a daily basis, but with a few minor adjustments to increase your non-exercise activity levels. Choosing to carry items in your arms or a shopping basket instead of pushing a shopping cart at the grocery store expends more energy, thus boosting your activity level. Forget about riding the elevator in your office or escalators in the shopping mall and take the stairs instead to get some non-exercise movement going. Parking in the far lot instead of right near the store also forces you to walk more, thus increasing NEAT.

Fidget

• Fidgeting in terms of NEAT can encompass a wide range of activities, including drumming your fingers, tapping your feet on the floor, wandering around the room while on the phone, and so on. Researchers determined in a 2000 issue of "The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition" that basically any type of movement you perform while you sit or stand raises your activity levels to some degree. They also found that standing expends more energy than sitting. Boost your non-exercise activity level through periods of multi-tasking throughout the day, such as folding laundry while you watch television, or squeezing a stress ball while talking on the phone. Try standing while performing some of these tasks rather than sitting to burn a few more calories.

Go Outside

• Head outdoors to raise your activity levels. Gardening, yard work and actively enjoying the environment through leisurely nature walks are non-sport- oriented activities that give you the opportunity to expend energy. Gardening can be considered a form of aerobic exercise if the activity is vigorous enough to raise your heart rate, but even a light day of planting or watering gets your body moving. People who live in more rural locales are more likely to have higher NEAT levels too. According a 2011 issue of "Urban Studies," study participants who lived in agricultural regions experienced a higher energy expenditure and ambulation rates than those who lived in cities. Residents of rural Jamaica walked more and sat almost four hours less than overweight Americans living in more urban areas.

Consider Your Career

• Your line of work can play a significant role in your NEAT levels. People who work in offices and sit for most of their day are likely, not surprisingly, to have lower activity levels than those who toil at physically demanding jobs. Research reported in 2002 by "Best Practice and Research Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism" suggest that construction workers, farmers and other manual workers are among those who have high NEAT scores -- high levels of non-exercise activity expenditure -- while people serving in industrialized or "wealth"-oriented positions are more sedentary. The amount of non-exercise activity you perform can increase metabolism, helping you maintain a healthy weight.