Increase your N.E.A.T.!

What’s Your NEAT Factor?

When you walk up or down the stairs, do you get sharp pain in your knees?  Do you have stiffness in your lower back on Monday after gardening on the weekend?  Does walking around the grocery store cause your feet to hurt?  If you answered YES to one of these questions, you may need to lose a few pounds of fluff a.k.a. FAT!

This isn’t Earth shattering news: dropping a few pounds is a great way to help your weight-bearing joints feel better.  Carrying an extra 10-pounds of fluff puts an added 30-60 pounds of pressure on your joints, mainly your back, knees and ankles.  The long-term effect on your joints can lead to osteoarthritis.  Instead of popping pain pills, what if you increased your NEAT instead? 

NEAT, or non-exercise activity thermogenesis, is a fancy way of saying “daily movement” that isn’t purposeful exercise.  Research says increasing your NEAT may be as beneficial, if not more important, to fat loss than structured exercise.  Planned exercise may burn 300 calories, but if you sit the rest of the day, your only calorie burn was from your gym session.  But if you focus on increasing your daily movement, you can burn 3x that much, resulting in a greater calorie deficit and therefore, shedding the extra pounds.  You could be on your way to pain free joints just by getting off your tush!

Here are 10 ways to improve your NEAT:

1.  Clean your house!  Take an hour to vacuum, dust and scrub toilets.  You could burn an extra 100-150 calories.

2.  Have a Zoom meeting?  Stand up during the meeting.

3.  When your watch buzzes to get up, actually get up.

4.  Watching TV at night?  Instead of going into the kitchen, do 10 jumping jacks during the commercials. 

5.  Put the radio on and have a dance party in the kitchen.

6.  Park in the last spot in the parking lot.

7.  Take a 15-minute walk during your lunch break.

8. Banish the elevator and take the stairs.

9.  Yard work.  Mulch anyone?

10.  Shoot for 10,000 steps throughout the day, not in one session.

BONUS:  Have relations with your partner.  You’ll release endorphins too!

Bottom line, if you have painful joints, losing a few pounds could help.  You don’t have to be strapped to a treadmill or glued to a spin bike to burn calories.  Just GET UP and move.  Oh, and consider what you’re throwing down your throat as well; no amount of movement will make up for a high calorie diet!

Until next time, make good choices!