Whilst we all know a combination of regular exercise and a well-structured diet is highly effective in weight reduction and improvements in body composition, something that is usually overlooked is the activity completed during our everyday routine.
Particularly following the effects from the COVID-19 pandemic and most workplaces requiring employees to work from home, sedentary behaviours have increased substantially and subsequently increasing the risk of not only weight gain, but various other chronic conditions including but not limited to hypertension, cardiovascular disease and diabetes.
This is why in an ever changing professional landscape more importance should be placed on increasing the amount of incidental activity people are completing throughout their daily routines. More specifically for weight management, a crucial component that is often not spoken about among the general population is Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis (NEAT).
What is Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis (NEAT)?
NEAT is the energy expended during daily living that doesn’t include sleeping, eating or structured exercise. It ranges from the energy expended walking, typing, performing household chores and even fidgeting. The graph below shows an example breakdown of daily caloric expenditure. This specific example shows that NEAT encompasses more expenditure than structured exercise, hence why it is so important!
Image Source: https://drscottlear.com/2020/09/30/non-exercise-activity-thermogenesis-neat-and-your-health/
In another example, we can see the difference between workers in more strenuous roles such as farmers and construction workers compared to more sedentary and inactive professions such as office workers and teachers.
There is a substantial difference in the NEAT between these two graphs which subsequently greatly increases daily energy expenditure, which is a key component of effective and sustainable weight management.
Image Source: https://in.pinterest.com/pin/127789708164628879/
Examples of Ways to Increase NEAT
Depending on the structure of your specific workplace and daily schedule, there are a wide variety of simple but effective ways to increase your daily activity and subsequently your NEAT.
Some examples include:
• Parking your car slightly further away from the office every morning to increase your steps to work. If working from home, start your morning slightly earlier and go for a walk around the block or up the street and back.
• Taking meetings/correspondence via phone call outside rather than sitting at your desk. Similarly, instead of completing some meetings within the office walls, find a local café or spot close to the building that you and your co-workers can walk to.
• While working in the office, instead of emailing a co-worker at the other end of the room, physically stand up and walk over to their desk to deliver the message.
• Having a small cup of water at your desk that requires you to constantly walk up to the kitchen and back to fill it up.
We don’t necessarily have to reinvent the wheel when it comes to increasing your NEAT. One cohort study conducted in the UK found that women that sat for 5-6 hours a day and increased the amount they were fidgeting while sitting reduced all-cause mortality risk compared to those that sat for over 7 hours a day.
Therefore, any strategies that you can employ, no matter how simple or quirky they may sound that will result in you becoming more mobile and active throughout the day, the higher your NEAT will become and consequently both reduce the risk of various chronic diseases and assist in more sustainable weight management.
Reference List
Chung, N, Park, M-Y, Kim, J, Park, H-Y, Hwang, H, Lee, C-H, Han, J-S, So, J, Park, J & Lim, K 2018, ‘Non-exercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT): a component of total daily energy expenditure’, Journal of Exercise Nutrition & Biochemistry, vol. 22, no. 2, pp. 23–30.
Hagger-Johnson, G, Gow, AJ, Burley, V, Greenwood, D & Cade, JE 2016, ‘Sitting Time, Fidgeting, and All-Cause Mortality in the UK Women’s Cohort Study’, American Journal of Preventive Medicine, vol. 50, no. 2, pp. 154–160.
Levine, JA & McCrady-Spitzer, SK 2017, ‘Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis (NEAT) and Adiposity’, Sedentary Behaviour Epidemiology, pp. 179–191.
Levine, JA 2005, ‘Interindividual Variation in Posture Allocation: Possible Role in Human Obesity’, Science, vol. 307, no. 5709, pp. 584–586.
