When people can’t lose weight the first thing that they do is blame their slow metabolism. They are working out, they are barely eating anything yet they just cant seem to get that stubborn body fat off.
They say,” I workout every day for an hour and my diet is good! Why can’t i lose weight? It must be my metabolism, I am one of the unlucky ones!”
Reality Check: For 99% of the population they don’t have a problem with their metabolism. The problem is that they are extremely inactive in their everyday life. Well that, and more than likely they are eating too much/wrong food.
NEAT is the missing part from people who have a hard time losing weight even when they are dieting. It is also extremely important for people who have lost weight and want to keep it off as well.
So what is NEAT? NEAT stands for non-exercise activity thermogenesis. Which is another fancy name for energy you burn that is not eating, sleeping, or sports like exercise
Some good examples would be:
- Taking the stairs instead of the elevator
- Parking far away in parking lot
- Using a manual lawn mower
- Gardening
- Walking the dog
- Heavy house cleaning
- Walk the golf course instead of drive in cart
You get the idea. Most people sit all day at their desk and the most activity they get is walking to and from their vehicle every day.
Sitting is the new smoking!
I am sure you have heard this saying of late. Researchers are beginning to find out how bad sitting is for you, both weight and health wise. There is even desks that you can stand at that people are buying now. This is the advantage that jobs that include manual labour have. These people burn a high number of calories/day through NEAT as compared to their office counterparts.
By consciously trying to increase your NEAT you can increase your fat burning big time. This is one of the things that is not often talked about but should be. Even if you burn an extra 200 calories/day through NEAT, which shouldn’t be that hard, that is over 20 pounds a year.
If you step it up and burn 400 calories/day through NEAT, which can be done if you are fairly active instead of sitting all the time thats almost 40 pounds in a year…and that is without going to the gym. Add another 400 calories per workout and you got a serious fat burning machine on your hands!
The problem is that today everything is made so easy so that a person doesn’t really have to do much physical activity wise. It’s not like in the old days when people were very active all day no matter what their job was. Even when watching TV you had to get up and change the channel!
The good thing about NEAT is that it is cumulative. You don’t have to do it all at once. Just do anything that gets you moving. Also when doing things but some effort behind it. Walk faster, do things quicker, etc.
Some good ideas that I tell my business clients to do are:
- At lunch time instead of doing nothing go for a brisk walk, the same could be said for breaks.
- For every hour you are sitting at your desk get up and walk around for 5 minutes. If you do this 8 times a day you just accumulated 40 minutes of activity or about 300-400 calories, which is your 40lbs for the year!
- Take the stairs instead of the elevator
- Park far away in parking lot.
- Pick up a new hobby that keeps them active.
People have to realize the human body was not meant to sit/lay for long periods of time. It was meant to be active. Now it is your job to figure out how you can incorporate some NEAT into your life not only for the weight loss benefits but also for your health!
