When it comes to health and weight management, many of us think about diet and exercise. For example, if we want to lose a few pounds, we try to eat less and exercise more. Or to improve cholesterol levels, we may try to eat more fiber and go to the gym. But what if I told you there was an easier way? Something you could do every day that wasn’t hard or cost money or required extra time? Would you be willing to try it? 

Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis (NEAT) are the calories you burn outside of sleeping, eating, and intentional workouts—think everyday movement like pacing, fidgeting, or just standing up. Lately, health experts have shifted their focus to these ~110+ waking hours each week instead of relying solely on a few brief gym sessions. The findings show that tweaking your routine daily movement offers a realistic, long-term way to shed weight without fitting extra exercise into an already packed schedule or pushing past your physical limits.

Think about your daily routine and how much of it is spent sitting. Sitting in the car, sitting at a desk, watching TV, eating. The list of seated sedentary activates is long. Even if you worked out for an hour in the morning, if you spend the next 12 hours sitting your metabolism slows, blood flow is reduced, and your spine is strained. Over time, this daily sitting raises your risk of weight gain, heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and early death, matching health risks linked to smoking or severe obesity.

This is where NEAT comes in. A 145 lb. person burns approximately 102 calories an hour while performing their office job in a seated position (1.7 kcal / minute) but burns 174 calories an hour if performing those same office duties while standing. 174 calories may not seem like much, but it translates to 18,000 calories or a little over 5 lbs. over a 50-week work year (250 workdays). By comparison, that same person would need to squeeze in 60, 30-minute runs at 5 mph to achieve that same caloric burn. 

The goal of NEAT is to add more movement into your day. Here are ways you can add more NEAT into your daily routine:

• Stand more. Start by attempting to stand or move about for 5 to 10-minute increments while you complete various daily activities.

• Pace the sidelines at your kids' athletic games.

• Park farther out and turn simple errands into extra daily activity.

• Walk to your neighbor’s house instead of driving.

• Take the long way to the bathroom.

• Walk a lap around the house between emails and/or meetings.

• Pace while talking on the phone.

Every movement throughout the day counts. If you can stand, fidget, pace, or walk your way to burning and extra 100 calories a day, this translates to approximately 10½ lbs. lost in a year.  200 calories equals the loss of 21 lbs.

Build lasting health and manage weight by combining NEAT, regular workouts, and fiber-rich, unrefined foods. You can start right now by taking a lap around the living room.