Neat
We are told if we want to lose weight, “burn more calories than you eat” or “calories in vs. calories out”.
It sounds simple, but it’s literally against our genetic programming and instincts to lose weight.
Additionally, when I say weight, I mean fat. No one wants to keep fat and burn muscle.
Let’s dive into the different ways to get your calorie burn on and your 10 easy ways to burn calories!
A crowd favorite for many is something as simple as sleeping or watching tv! You can literally lay in bed and watch tv and burn calories via your basal metabolic rate. I like to call these “keeping the lights on calories”, because these calories are used for our bodies to function and carry out important tasks like: pumping gallons of blood through thousands of miles of arteries and veins thousands of times a day, or generating enough electricity to power a home in our nervous system tissue, and helping us take thousands of breaths a day. Your body is always working!
A third way to burn calories is simply to increase your protein ratio. Eat more meat! (Really anything high in protein will do) It takes a lot of energy for our body to break down a big steak or filet of fish into amino acids. In the digestion process, we burn energy to make energy. However, with the protein it’s amplified by 4-6 times the amount compared to carbs and fats. Simply having a higher protein diet (while keeping calories the same) will actually result in a small amount of fat loss.
You may be asking how this could be if calories are the same, and you’d be right to inquire such a question. Say someone eats a diet of 2500 calories with 25% of those calories coming from protein. Then that same person switches to a diet of 50% protein. The first person burns roughly 33% of the 625 calories from protein, netting about 481, and a total calorie burn of 2,356. The second diet yields 1250 calories from protein, and a net of 962, and a total net of 2212.
So you see, just by switching your macronutrient ratios you can “burn more fat”, or simply expend more energy resulting in a greater overall calorie burn.
Lastly, we arrive at NEAT. NEAT is pretty neat. It’s an acronym meaning Non Exercise Activity Thermogenesis. You may be doing it right now as you read this, and to some degree you are for sure because you are simply moving your eyes 👀 to read this text. It takes some energy to make those guys/gals move tens of thousands of times a day! Basically neat is the heat generated by moving that isn’t any of the above (exercise, metabolism, or thermogenesis from food). Let’s deep dive into some more concrete examples you can apply to your everyday life to burn more calories without working out!
1. Hit The Stairs, Jack!
The majority of people will take the elevator or even the handicapped ramp instead of the stairs. This is a huge mistake! By taking the stairs every day, you are missing out on several thousand extra burned calories! That is pounds worth of calories. The benefits don’t stop there either for health benefits. Taking the stairs to increase your hip strength, something that greatly diminishes oftentimes as we age. By making stairs a daily practice, you are helping to solidify more independence in your golden years. Not getting up in age yet? I always like to think of action situations. How face can I get up these steps if a kid is falling or there was an emergency? I’d like to answer that I could get there in time. I remember in my exercise science class in college seeing 20 something-year-olds taking upwards of 7 seconds to go up a flight of stairs as fast as they could and then be out of breath! Can you imagine having to run up like 3,4,5 plus flights for an emergency and struggling on the first flight? An easy way to make it easier to do these little things that don’t seem like a big deal is to make it practice for an emergency, sporting event, or bonus points towards mental toughness and physical fitness. This is one of the easiest forms of NEAT for sure.
2. Fidget like a kid!
All through childhood we were told to “stop fidgeting” or to “just hold still for a moment”. Well, I’m saying as an adult you should be more like your kid self and let those fidgets loose (when appropriate of course). Fidgeting throughout the course of the day can burn several extra hundred calories depending on how much you fidget. It’s also a great way to train your nervous system to fire those muscles. It is a lot easier to run if you are already walking compared to laying down. Something similar may be said in regard to using a muscle group and associated joints fidgeting throughout your day, compared to being sedentary with little to no moment. . another great benefit is increased blood flow. This will aid in keeping joints lubricated and getting more oxygen and nutrients to tissues. So go ahead and fidget your way towards fitness!
3. In a parking lot far far away... (don’t park close)
Next time you go shopping, visit a friend, or anything that involves parking, park further away. I oftentimes park 3/4 away from the store or in the vary back. This is for three main reasons. The first, you have to walk more and expend more calories. Secondly, you often don’t have to wait for people to get in and out, or wait for pedestrians to cross. It is almost faster sometimes to just park in the back instead of going through the circus near the front door. Thirdly, it’s easier to get out of dodge for an emergency as the traffic will be the heaviest in the front center. As a bonus reason, there may be someone less mobile that actually needs to be closer to the door. Help a neighbor and yourself out, and park further away. They and your waistline will thank you for it!
4. Doing your chores old school is NEAT!
Does the grass need to be mowed? Instead of buying a riding lawnmower, grab a push mower to get the job done. You will save more money, burn more calories, and use less space for storage. Do the hedges need to be trimmed? Use a pair of clippers instead of a powered hedge trimmer. Does the carpet need to be vacuumed? Use a manual vacuum rather than or in addition to a robot vacuum. Do the dishes need to be done? Scrub those things like no tomorrow with soap instead of just loading the dishwasher (sometimes this even cleans them better!).
5. Legit PLAY with your kids
Be the “big monster” that chases them around the living room or park. Be the parent/siblings/community big brother or sister, that sends them to the moon in the pool when you throw them up in the air (87 times in 30 minutes). Play hopscotch with them. See who can jump rope the longest. Play a game of horse at the basketball courts. Teach them how to play ping pong. Pretty much any sport or game will do! You want to be the parent/relative that the little kid looks up to as a real-life superhero. Amaze them with how fast you can run. Astound then with how high you can jump. Wow them with how easily you can pick something so heavy up with at any moment. Who doesn’t want their kid to see them as a superhero?! At the very least your kids will be thankful you played with them.
6. A (neat) walk to remember
Go for a fun or romantic walk with your significant other, family, dog, or heck your favorite playlist! We have been walking since the dawn of mankind. Our bodies are very use to it. That is one of the reasons why it is such an easy moment. It’s very low intensity, low impact, and doesn’t really feel like much work. Add in some quality time with a quality someone(s) and you won’t even notice you spent 30 minutes walking around and burned 226 calories in the process. Are your joints a little tender? Opt for walk on the sand if you’re near the beach or in the grass if you’re more inland. I highly recommend going barefoot if the surface is safe for walking on. This is great for increasing the awareness of how your feet interacts with the ground and always helps with grounding, leading to more relaxation and reduced stress. All wins for sure!
7. Keep the food in the kitchen
Instead of bringing all of your dining entrees to the couch or coffee table, keep them in the kitchen. Only take a small amount of food with you, so you will have to get up to get more. To get bonus points (aka burn more calories) sit on the floor (assuming this is a causal healthy pizza and movie night or similar 🎥 🍿). This will be a little more energy-expensive to get up and go get more food. The bonus benefit is you may not feel the extra food is worth the trip and you save calories that way! I don’t know about you, but I can definitely eat faster than I get full, so this is a big win for keeping from overeating. I simply wait for a slower part in the movie as my refill time. That extra time waiting helps my body catch up and feel more full as opposed to just knocking out calories left and right.
8. The pen 🖊 is mightier than the keyboard! ⌨️
Next time you go to write something, use a pen and paper instead to jot down those notes. While a keyboard may be easier, writing ✍🏽 will burn more calories over time. The added benefits of writing something are that you will have better fine motor skills. You will also have more dexterity and strength with your hands and fingers. There is just something neat about seeing your words come to life at the tips of your fingers. It also creates in internal sense of mastery of your penmanship. Lastly, it really stands out when you do have to write something and your penmanship is awesome! Another thing it shows is that you really value whomever you are writing it to give to read. I know it always means a lot to myself and to those I have written a letter to as well. I highly encourage this practice and believe it’s one to keep alive and well in the years to come.
9. Bike it, bike it real good
Instead of taking your car to work, you can bike your commute. Even if this is a really far distance, you can still get from a to B in a decent amount of time. This is definitely becoming more towards The exercise side of things, but it still counts as neat activity for your everyday calorie burn. I had a college professor who would almost everyday bike to the University. The only times he would use his car would be days that it thunder stormed or it was just terribly cold outside during Wintertime. Another factor to take into account if you want to go this route is you how to be safe when riding a bike. In addition to burning significantly more calories than driving a car, you will also save on your finances when you don’t have to get gas all the time. Furthermore, to take things to the extreme, I once read an article about a man in New Jersey who did not want to take the subway anymore, and so he would actually kayak across the Hudson river to work instead. I don’t necessarily recommend going about things this way, but it does show that you have some viable options to get to and from work on your daily commute.
10. Carry your groceries home
Back in the olden days, people used to carry groceries back home from their local market. This was generally much more feasible for them and was more of daily practice, lightening the load. Today, myself included, we normally have so many groceries we need a cart to carry them around at the store. When we get home we save them for days on end, sometimes even longer, depending on the food. Way back when people didn’t have much or any access to a refrigerator. This made a daily trip to the market mandatory in practice. So, for these reasons, they didn’t have to carry as much weight as we do today. During my time in New York, I would often curse because I would carry so much food in bags from the store, to the subway, and back to my apartment in New Jersey. I’m sure I burned a ton of calories, but man was I happy to have a car here in California. I have found that a good inconvenient middle-ground is to get a beach/Park cart that you can use or multiple things, like a trip to the beach, a camping trip, and packing your groceries to haul to your apartment or wherever. I actually highly recommend using one of these and will leave a link here for it. I even went as far as to use it to move my apartment to a new place just across the street. It made things so much easier and I have definitely made my money back in both times saved and not overdoing any heavy hauling.
Summing it all up!
So there you go, pretty NEAT huh? Wether it’s something simple like taking the stairs or kayaking to work, you have a lot more to help you get through the day in favor of fat loss than just your diet and exercise plan. The great thing is there are no limits! Get and keep that body in motion any which way you enjoy, and it will be that much easier to keep in motion the next day. The biggest win of them all is making these little things a habit. You don’t think about tying your shoes or washing your hands because they are habits. Make Neat a habit and you will get the benefits without feeling like you are using a lot of willpower and/or effort. I’d love to hear what your preferred form of NEAT is in the comments below. Take care, have fun, be fit, and keep up the NEAT work!
Sincerely,
The Orange County Personal Trainer
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