NEAT: How to Burn More Calories Without Traditional Exercise
You don’t need a gym to boost your daily calorie burn. NEAT–Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis—helps you burn more calories through small, everyday movements. Here’s how to make it work for you:
Can You Burn Calories Without Working Out?
If you know me at all, you know I’m a huge proponent of strength training, or lifting weights—this actually has so many benefits that listing them all takes a lot of space!
Bottom line: This type of exercise improves your physical strength inside and out, which, besides helping you manage your weight, can lead to greater self-esteem and a better outlook on life. There is nothing I recommend more: I believe every woman, of every age, who physically can, should lift weights.
That noted: One of the questions that pops up often in my Instagram feed (@drjashton) is, “Do I have to work out? Are there ways to burn calories without doing that?” You might guess that’s a hard NO. You would be wrong!
There’s a science-backed way to increase your daily calorie burn and substantially improve your overall health that DOESN’T require expensive fitness equipment, gym memberships, or strict dieting. It’s completely free, and anyone can do it—no matter how much “free time” you have (or don’t have). It’s NEAT!
What is NEAT (And Why Does It Matter?)
NEAT stands for Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis. It includes all the energy we expend doing anything that isn’t sleeping, eating, or a traditional workout. And it’s something that can do your body good with much less effort: Studies have shown that shorter spurts of exercise—as few as 6 minutes each throughout the day (called exercise snacking)—can be just as good as one longer workout.
By making minor lifestyle changes and incorporating more movement into every day, you can burn more calories and improve your overall health without even realizing it. This DOESN’T mean you can skip vigorous activity altogether, but it DOES mean you can get true benefit from these smaller efforts.
Here’s why it’s as important as a workout: While cardio and strength training are essential to improving overall conditioning and building muscle, boosting your NEAT is equally necessary, especially if you’re trying to lose weight.
We spend most of a 24-hour day— approximately 63% of our time—in this physical state, whether we’re thinking about it or not. Which makes this the best time to dial up movement, increase those NEAT levels, and achieve more calorie and fat burn.
9 Ways to Get More NEAT:
Want to make the most of your non-exercise movement? Try these 9 simple strategies:
- Stand instead of sitting. Standing for just 15 minutes every hour can burn up to 130 calories.
- Get more steps. Stepping 10,000 times is often hailed as the magic number we need to reach every day. But one study found significant benefits at just over 7,000.
- Clean and do household chores. Here’s motivation to tidy up: Cleaning the house, doing laundry, or washing dishes can burn up to 150 calories an hour.
- Get NEAT while watching TV. Doing simple exercises like squats, crunches, or leg lifts can burn an extra 150-200 calories an hour.
- Take the stairs more often. Taking the stairs instead of the elevator or escalator is an easy way to increase physical activity.
- At the office, take mini breaks each hour to stretch your legs and walk around. This helps to get your blood flowing, burn calories, reduce stress, and clear your head.
- Stretch—during a work break, while watching TV, or even when making dinner. Stretching relieves muscle tension, reduces injury risk, improves overall health, and boosts your NEAT.
- Play! With your kids on the playground, with friends at the park, beach, even indoors at the bowling alley. Play increases your physical activity and burns calories.
- Fidget! YES, it counts! Bounce your legs, tap your toes, or drum your fingers—these seemingly insignificant movements move the NEAT needle.
