What does NEAT mean? How can you increase your activity levels?

The amount of energy (calories) that your body needs (burns) in a day is a combination of exercise activity + non-exercise activity + metabolic activity. The non-exercise part of the energy spend is technically know as NEAT.

NEAT or Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis is the amount of energy (calories) spend for everything we do, when we are not sleeping🛌or exercising . It is a substantial part of your total calorie expenditure in a day and hence very important in obesity management too!

All the work that involves walking around such as that of a nurse, trainer, teacher etc involves a reasonable amount of energy spent as NEAT. Here are a few methods to improve your NEAT, if you have a sedentary / desk job-

1) Take the stairs instead of taking the lift, as much as possible

2) If you are talking on the phone for a longer duration, get up and start walking up & down in the room, instead of sitting in a chair and talking

3) Schedule a ‘moving-around’ break for 5 mins, if your job involves sitting somewhere for a longer duration

4) Avoid escalators in the malls and airport, metro/railway stations. Instead, take the steps

5) Shop for the groceries, by yourself instead of ordering through an app or getting it done by a help

You can also use an activity tracker like pedometer to track the steps count.