What Are NEAT Exercises and Why Do They Matter?
What do all people that are slim have in common? They are constantly on the move… to the point of being fidgety. So how does fidgeting tie into being thin? It burns calories!
Any movement at all burns calories and it adds up during the course of a day. For example, the average person burns about 1.5 calories per minute while lying still; but go to sitting instead of lying and you’ll burn 25% more calories or about 1.875 per minute. This calorie burn is known as Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis or NEAT for short.
The proof is in the study results. The journal BMJ Online found through one study that people, who are active more than three hours per day, live on average three years longer than their couch potato counterparts.
While a cushy desk job may seem ideal from a work standpoint, they are detrimental to our health. In fact, the medical community has termed the damage to our health as the “sitting disease”. But you don’t have to succumb to it just because you work behind a desk. Here is how to avoid this disease and burn more calories in your work day.
Plan Movement
Just like you plan everything else, plan to move. Once an hour, get up and walk to the restroom, get more water or just stand and walk around your office for five minutes. Make it a practice to get up while talking on the telephone. If you need to send a message to a colleague in the building, write it down and walk it over instead of emailing it.
Track Movement
Moving is one thing, but it is great to know just how many steps you are getting in during a day. Wear a pedometer or one of the new accelerometers to track your movement. If you have a goal of say 10,000 steps per day, you will know how close to goal you really are and can adjust your movement accordingly.
Creating Movement
Even while sedentary (by your choice or not), we can still find ways to burn calories. Here are some typical ones:
Constant movement is the key to burning more calories naturally. When coupled with an exercise program of 30 minutes per day and a healthy eating program, pounds and inches will start to fall off and you will finally be on your way to be part of the slim club.
