Why Structured Exercise Is Not Enough- Introducing Non Exercise Activity Thermogenesis (NEAT)

Here at somebodylied.com, I don’t like to just give you the same old structured routines. Life is more than working out and besides it is more fun and sociable to do a sport or just get out with your mates and party or walk around shopping with your friends.

[Walking the stairs instead of taking the elevator each day can contribute significantly to your Non Exercise Activity Thermogenis. Are you guilty of constantly taking elevators?]

Today I am going to talk about Non Exercise Activity Thermogenis (NEAT for short) which is essentially what you are doing when you are not working out. It is also referred to as simply non-exercise activity.

Why Structured Exercise is Not Enough and Non Exercise Activity Thermogenesis Is So Important

Often people get frustrated with all their hard work in the gym, and see they are making no progress. Who can blame them? They are taught that if they exercise intensely using all the after burn effects of this type of activity, they will burn calories around the clock. Let me tell you something, the afterburn effect is real and important, but it is so over rated.

Check out these words of wisdom from bodybuilding literature when it comes to gaining muscle.

“Why run when you can walk. Why walk when you can sit. Why sit when you can lay…”

Do you see why I rebel against bodybuilding methods now? Do you see why I created this fitness resource for you. It isn’t all about gaining muscle or losing fat, but their are health benefits to what I teach. Anyway, this post isn’t about building muscle but more on your fat burning endeavours.

How Comes Some People Do Tons Of Exercise and don’t lose weight?

Easy enough question to answer. To lose fat, you need a calorie deficit. Often people who do tons of cardio, increase their appetite and wind up eating more. Also, cardio is just a tool to making this calorie deficit larger. What a lot of people don’t realise either is that they go on a machine for an hour and see they burned 600 calories. This just isn’t the case however unless the machine is calculating what you would have burnt just from sitting down through metabolism. You see, if you just rested for that hour, you would of burned calories anyway, so would be 600-x you burned in that session.

What people need to focus on when losing weight, is the calorie deficit. The easiest way at making this deficit bigger is through your diet, it is well known that I practice intermittent fasting following Eat Stop Eat and I create a massive deficit simply through this. The next step is resistance training, which sends a signal to my muscles to stay and not be used as energy. Fasting and no resistance training will result in muscle wasting so make sure you resistance train at least twice a week when doing this. I actually done an experiment for 3 months to prove this.

Watch this video for similarities between fasting and exercise.

Introducing Non Exercise Activity Thermogenesis

We have already seen a few ways to creating a calorie deficit, but one that is often overlooked is Non Exercise Activity Thermogenesis. NEAT is simply all your physical activity throughtout the day not including your structured workouts.

NEAT includes and is not limited to casual walking, shopping, yard work, housework, standing, pacing and even little things like talking, chewing, changing posture, maintaining posture and fidgeting. Walking contributes to the majority of NEAT. Non exercise activity is all these little things, and at the end of the day, week, month, year they all contribute to expended calories and therefore burning fat.

I always encourage people to live active lives, play a sport, do some structured exercise, there is plenty of time to achieve all these things and I am a perfect example as a 3rd year uni student, part time lifeguard, blogger, boyfriend, yet I still find the time to watch what I like, talk to people and exercise.

Why Structured Exercise is Not Enough

So you start exercising, and then eat more and wonder why you aren’t losing weight. Well duh, you are in a calorie surplus just by eating more. Here is another video with Brad Pilon but also with Craig Ballantyne of Turbulence Training.

They, then say exercise is a waste of time and jump on the next magic diet or even worse diet pills. As explained earlier, dieting alone will lead to muscle wasting and leave you with a skinny fat body, you don’ want that. Want to lose weight? Sort out your diet, add resistance training, then add in cardio and metabolic circuits as your results dictate.

A Symptom Of Intense Training

Be honest, and leave a comment if this applies to you. So you chug down your pre workout meal, work out like an absolute beast in the gym, drink your post workout shake and for the rest of the day instead of doing your usual chores, yo have a nap, wake up and watch TV or surf the internet and leave the washing up for the next day. A long time ago I was guilty of this, nowadays however my training enhances me and makes me more able to perform basic chores.

The next day comes, and you are suffering from DOMS (Delayed Onset Muscle Syndrome). Now you really don’t feel like moving, and this is your designated rest day as you been taught to split your workouts up with days off. You leave the washing up, the plates keep piling as you order takeaway because you cant be bothered to cook. Can you see how working out too hard can actually be counter productive. Now think back to that bodybuilding quote earlier, this lifestyle goes hand in hand and compromises your health.

Ways To Add Non Exercise Activity Thermogenesis To Your Routine

First a quote from Bruce Lee:

 ”never train the body so hard on any given day, to the point where the body is too weak on the following days to train more or to fight”

This quote has stuck with me for a very long time. There were days I used to really serious leg workouts, heavy squats, heavy lunges, leg extensions, the lot. This ruined the look of my legs but more importantly than that I often couldn’t walk for up to 5 days as my legs were just too sore. The majority of NEAT comes from walking so take Bruce Lee’s advice and train to enhance oneself not to make yourself redundant. So that is the first way to add more NEAT, make sure everyday you feel your best. To get more NEAT in just substitue walking for things like the elevator, walk/ride a bike to the local shop instead of driving etc.. you get the gist.

Here are some unique NEAT activities may sound ridiculous but they all add up…

• Laugh more- A study conducted at Vanderbilt University showed that real laughter will burn 10 to 20 percent more calories, which means that 10 to 15 minutes of laughter per day could increase total calories burned by10 to 40 calories (as much as 4 pounds lost in a year
• Stand up- Standing burns about 50 percent more calories than sitting. So, by standing while talking on the phone, working at your computer or reading the paper, a 155-pound person can burn as many as 50 more calories per hour. Pace while you talk and you can burn another 35 to 40 calories per hour.
• Get a Stepper for Under Your Desk or to Use While Watching TV- Using a mini-stepper under your desk your NEAT activity. According to a study by Dr. Levine that was reported in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, by using the stepper you could burn an additional 100 calories per hour. Here is a link to one from Amazon.comYou can also pick up the Stamina InStride Electronic Mini-Stepper from Amazon.com for about $60.
• Shopping- no, not internet shopping, good old fashioned walk around the mall type shopping can contribute to NEAT, even if you have no money, you can look around and check out the nice girls
• Partying- this is a big contributor, typically you will be dancing your arse off for quite a few hours, limit the alcohol consumption for greater calorie expenditure. I reckon I burn more calories than I consume simply by dancing. By the way guys, girls like the fun looking guy, so don’t just drink and stand around in the corner, look like you are having fun.

Please leave your comments as I would love to hear the way you add unique Non exercise activity thermogenesis to your routine.