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August 23, 2022

Isn't that NEAT?

You’re in the gym 5 days/week, you’re killing it. You’re getting stronger, you’re feeling better, and may have even changed your nutrition up a bit too. You are really happy about your progress so far, but you’re getting hung up on one little detail… the reason you joined a gym in the first place was to lose a bit of weight and you’re not seeing much progress in that area, or you saw progress at the beginning and now your progressed has slowed immensely or has come to a stand still. The answer is not in adding another workout, or subtracting a meal from your day, but now you need to take a look at your NEAT.NEAT stands for non-exercise activity thermogenesis, which is all the energy you expend during the time that you are not doing planned exercise, but doing more than basic human function. We have our BMR, which is our basal metabolic rate, which is based strictly on the functions of the body that we need to stay alive such as: digesting, breathing, and thermoregulating. We have our EAT, which is our exercise activity thermogenesis, which is your hour a day at the gym, it’s your planned exercise time. Then NEAT all the time in between, think about walking through the grocery store, or standing at your standing desk.Now that we know what NEAT is, why does it matter? Well, you’re workout in the gym is great, and you’re killing and adding muscle, which is great for your body in the long haul, but if losing weight is important to you, you need to do more. Your workout in the gym will only burn so many calories, actually only about 10% of your daily expenditure of calories will come from the gym, the rest has to come from outside the gym. I know what your thinking, “but Erika, my Apple Watch says I burned 477 calories, during a class., does this really apply to me?” Yes, yes it does, because no tracker actually provides an accurate reading on calories burned.So what do you do now with this information? You know you need to increase your NEAT, but how the heck do you do that?Well, that fitness tracker that you’re wearing is really good at counting steps, start paying attention to your steps that you accrue and then start creating step goals for yourself. Next, when you have the opportunity to stand instead of sit, take that opportunity. Instead of taking the elevator, take the stairs, park farther away when you go to the grocery store, walk up the escalator instead of standing still. Opt to move rather than being still, opt to stand instead of sitting.Paying attention to your NEAT will be very important if your goal is to lose weight, because if you’re putting yourself in a calorie deficit (which is key to losing weight), then your body will naturally not want to move as much. So having a daily step goal will be key to staying on track and bring you closer to your fitness goals.Erika Martin

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