What is non-exercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT), and does it offer enough advantage to your metabolism that it will help you to boost your weight loss? This is a very good question, but understand the answer, you need to know just how it all works. Let’s take a closer look.
What is Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis?
Non-exercise activity thermogenesis sounds like something exceptionally complicated. The good news is that this helpful process is actually quite straightforward. All NEAT is referring to is the calories your body burns through during your regular daily life, except for the times when you are formally exercising.
When you’re exercising, it’s called exercise activity thermogenesis (EAT). NEAT, on the other hand, includes the calories burned when you’re getting dressed, having a shower, brushing your teeth, brushing your hair, making a meal, cleaning up afterward, and so on. All those activities might not be the same as an intense gym session, but the calories they burn certainly add up.
For that reason, it’s important not to shrug off the activities you do throughout a day just because they’re not formal exercise.
NEAT is Vital to Understanding and Treating Weight Challenges
A study published in 2007 in the Journal of Internal Medicine pointed directly to the role non-exercise activity thermogenesis plays in regulating the way our bodies use energy and in how we regulate our weight. Its author, Fondation Ipson’s Rare Disease Institute Director James Levine also stated that “NEAT is important for understanding the cause and effective treatment for obesity.”
How Much Does Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis Help Weight Loss?
The number of calories burned through NEAT will vary broadly from one person to the next and from one day to the next. It depends on what activities you’re taking on, how long you do them, how vigorously you move and how frequently, and so on.
If you sit at a desk all day long, you won’t burn nearly as many calories as you would on days when you are continually getting up to fetch a coffee refill, drive to the store to pick up a few things you need to make dinner, and so on.
Similarly, if your job is more physically demanding, you’ll burn more calories every day through NEAT than you would at an office job. A desk job will usually come with around 400 to 500 burned calories per day, but a farm laborer or a construction worker might feel more like they’re using the best energy and weight loss supplement as they burn closer to 2,000 calories per day through NEAT.