NEAT Improvement Strategies to Improve Weight Loss

AnnPT77

Before I get to the point - more successful weight loss (Yay!) - please bear with me for a bit of background, so we're all on the same page.

Your daily calorie burn, or TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure) is composed of your BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate, the amount you'd burn in a coma) + NEAT (Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis, your job and chores and such) + TEF (Thermic Effect of Food, calories burned processing food eaten) + EAT (Exercise Activity Thermogenesis, your separately- accounted intentional exercise).

For an average person, the biggies are BMR, NEAT, and EAT, usually (not always) in that order from biggest to smallest. We can't do much to change BMR intentionally in the short run, and most people here are already taking steps (heh) to increase EAT, as they can fit it in.

But how much are we all thinking about and effectively increasing NEAT? It can be an immediate improvement, and for some a surprisingly big one, allowing us to either lose faster, or eat more, depending on our personal healthy goals. (The only downside is that new NEAT calories are hard to estimate, but we'll see them reflected in our weight loss rate.)

Some of the successful MFP weight losers/maintainers here have increased TDEE by a reported hundreds of calories daily by increasing NEAT. A couple of common examples are parking further from the door at stores, and taking stairs more often instead of elevators.

What non-exercise strategies are you using to increase movement in your daily life, to burn more calories via NEAT? Share them below!

(I'll add mine in a reply)

ladyreva78

AnnPT77 wrote: »

[snipped for length]
What non-exercise strategies are you using to increase movement in your daily life, to burn more calories via NEAT? Share them below!

- get out one bus stop early when I take the bus.
- Walk from the train station (approx 20-30 minutes) when I have the time
- Walk to one bus stop further away (15 minutes) to get to the train station from home (too far to walk to the train station itself)
- Take the stairs to the 4th/6th floor instead of the elevator
- Go to the restroom one floor down and take the stairs
- Get up once an hour and just walk around
- Carry the laundry up in the pre-sorted small piles instead of in baskets

Nony_Mouse

*awaits Ann's reply before adding*

ladyreva78

Nony_Mouse wrote: »

*awaits Ann's reply before adding*

You're so much more polite than I am

Graelwyn75

I just naturally seem to move about a lot. I fidget a lot, I am constantly walking back and forth between rooms in my apartment, I have OCD which tends to also involve a lot of additional movement, I always take stairs or walk up escalators (if no one is in the way) and apparently I also move around like a wild woman whilst sleeping, lol.

janejellyroll

I take the stairs for everything that is less than 5-6 flights (I work on the 36th floor so skipping the elevator completely isn't for me!).

I use public transit/walking instead of my car when it's practical and when I do use a car, I park further from the door.

I use a standing desk at work (I have no idea how many calories this might actually use, to be honest, but it makes my back feel better).

I often walk instead of sitting when I read (I have a big island in my kitchen and I'll walk around that).

When I have a one-on-one meeting at work and we don't need to use our computers, I'll suggest a walking meeting.

quiksylver296

I take the stairs at work (4 floors). I walk on my morning, lunch and afternoon break. Other than that, I lift heavy 5 days a week at the gym. I sometimes do a little cardio at the gym, but not much.

cwolfman13

I usually forgo "rockstar" parking anywhere I'm going

I take the stairs at work

I get up every hour or so and walk through my office building which requires me to descend and ascend 3 flights of stairs in both directions...also allows me for some face time with employees.

I work on the third floor and typically use the 1st floor break room to get my water and restroom facilities.

If I just need a few things from the grocery store, I usually walk...it's a mile either way.

I fidget a lot (involuntary)

When I get home from work I spend time playing with my kids instead of plopping down on the couch

deannalfisher

when i'm folding laundry (blergh) - i make extra trips up and down stairs to get my steps in/NEAT up

GottaBurnEmAll

I purposely did this and I have been preaching this in threads (sometimes having it fall on deaf and even hostile ears).

I get over 10K steps a day in NEAT.

I walk around while my tea is steeping, and I drink a lot of tea and let it steep for a long time.

I walk around while I'm on the phone.

I walk around while food is browning.

I put away laundry one piece at a time.

I bring in groceries one bag at a time.

I'm inefficient in the grocery store, doubling back and forth in the aisles.

I vacuum the house every day.

I walk around a lot in between sets when I lift weights.

If something is in the oven for half an hour or less? Time for a short walk.

If something is in the microwave heating up? Time for a few bodyweight squats.

Brushing teeth? Bodyweight squats.

I started out small, built up to this gradually, and now all of these things are habitual. I feel funny if I don't do them.

veganbaum

I commute and work in a one story building, so not many options for parking further and stairs and all that.

But, I walk to someone's office if I need to talk to them and it doesn't require an email for some reason. I drink a lot of water and tea, so I'm in the bathroom quite a lot - it's just down the hall, but the whole point about NEAT is that the little things add up. I have a fitbit, so if I haven't moved enough it reminds me to get up and move to get my 250 steps/hour, and I do so. Sometimes I will even stand at my desk and march in place or walk in tiny circles if the work I'm doing at the moment is just reading or listening to a recording or watching a video. Oftentimes, on Fridays during lunch I will walk down to our little Plaza and look in the shops.

Oh yeah, that's just at work. At home I still get my 250 steps/hr and will park further from the grocery store or whatever when shopping.

RoxieDawn

I cook every day now, hand wash my dishes, purposely keep my house picked up more, go out and play with my dogs more, I park far away from entrances, no longer use drive thrus (food/banking etc), when at work in office/home I have to get up walk around (most times walk on the treadmill for 12 minutes)

My garmin watch tells me to move hourly.. if I can I obey it.

Need2Exerc1se

I stand and work for 1/2 day most days.

GottaBurnEmAll

Oh, how could I have forgotten this! I got a Fitbit with move reminders, but before I got it, I set a timer every hour and used that to get myself off my keester.

sardelsa

I am very forgetful, so I have to go up and down the stairs in my house to get things (especially to the pantry/cold storage in the basement when I am cooking/baking). I also hate parking lots so I will park far to avoid cars if I can. I put on upbeat music when I am cooking, cleaning, folding laundry so I dance and jump around.

AnnPT77

A few things I'm doing lately to increase NEAT:

• Shopping with a hand-basket instead of a cart whenever possible . . . sometimes when barely possible (milk and yogurt are heavy! )
• Doing routine chores as quickly and vigorously as possible, even using unnecessary extra movement ( ) which makes more time for . . .
• Catching up on procrastinated home repair and improvement projects.
• Doing minor, often nearly-invisible exercises during wait times, such as standing
  (barely) on one foot while waiting in line, lat contractions against the steering wheel at stoplights, calf raises while chopping veggies, etc. (these burn tiny calories but help me with other objectives, too, like balance and lat recruitment).

Go_Deskercise

-park further away from the front door at work
-fitbit reminders to get up from my cubicle every hour (sometimes not possible, i get it)
-find A spot at the grocery towards the back instead of wasting time driving around waiting for one closer to the door
-my dogs are a motivation to go walk/jog during lunch and/or when i get home from work
-1 of my dogs is addicted to playing fetch inside (yes only inside), but he won't bring the ball right to you, so I spend a good majority of the time getting up, throwing, sitting back down and repeating for a couple hours

There is literally an endless amount of things you can do to increase your movement during the day.

kimny72

I pace when I'm on the phone.
I used to try to be efficient and get up once to do 10 things in one trip, now I will get up and do one thing every commercial break. If I have nothing to do, I'll do some jumping jacks
I park on the perimeter.
I have a Fitbit Aria that vibrates at 10 to the hour if I haven't taken 250 steps yet in the hour. This has been a godsend because I am a pretty focused person and used to get engrossed in a book only to realize I had been reading for 3 hours and hardly moved a muscle other than turning the page.
I will be reading further comments, because I need to get my NEAT up more!

GottaBurnEmAll

AnnPT77 wrote: »

A few things I'm doing lately to increase NEAT:

• Shopping with a hand-basket instead of a cart whenever possible . . . sometimes when barely possible (milk and yogurt are heavy! )
• Doing routine chores as quickly and vigorously as possible, even using unnecessary extra movement ( ) which makes more time for . . .
• Catching up on procrastinated home repair and improvement projects.
• Doing minor, often nearly-invisible exercises during wait times, such as standing
  (barely) on one foot while waiting in line, lat contractions against the steering wheel at stoplights, calf raises while chopping veggies, etc. (these burn tiny calories but help me with other objectives, too, like balance and lat recruitment).

My kids brush their teeth standing on one leg!

Nony_Mouse

I do lots of the things other mention. I also try to have music playing all the time. I'm a head bopper, and that thing is heavy so its gotta burn something. How much I have no idea of course, and it's something Fitbit doesn't measure. I did get about 100 steps last night massaging my IT band, pretty sure I shouldn't count those though .

If I'm listening to podcasts I'll wander around the lounge/kitchen.

And paying attention to my Fitbit reminders instead of going 'oh f off'.

I should do that daily vacuuming thing, but mostly cos three cats...

kimny72

Oh, yeah - I walk around while brushing my teeth!
And I walk up and down every aisle of the store, even if I don't need anything down there.

shandy82165

For the past couple of weeks i've been regularly getting up and walking the exterior of my building. It's less than 200 steps, but doing that 7 or 8 times a day, plus parking at the far end of my lot, and then a short 10 minute walk once or twice a day. I don't count this extra activity as "exercise", i'm just trying to make my daily activity more...active.

Today while I was waiting for my breakfast to heat up, I did about a dozen reverse lunges. Just small things like that.

And count me in as one of the fidgeters,

try2again

kimny72 wrote: »

And I walk up and down every aisle of the store, even if I don't need anything down there.

I think for many people (myself included), this might create more problems than it solves

dwilliamca

I'm a retired person and days am pretty sedentary, watching TV or reading. However, other days I babysit 2-4 little grandkids who keep me running, take care of my elderly mother who needs lifted, clean the house after the kids and family of pigs, do the laundry and put it away for Mom & me, buy the groceries, put them away, cook the meals, do the dishes & clean the kitchen most of the time, walk 1/4 mile to pick up the mail, and sometimes work out in the yard and garden. The way I loosely measure these activities is that I chose a sedentary setting then add back 200 or so calories on an active day to account for my activities or N.E.A.T. If I exercise "intentionally" I add that as well. These I mostly add to my deficit which is only 600 calories or enjoy as snacks since I'm only at 1200 calories.

try2again

sardelsa wrote: »

I am very forgetful, so I have to go up and down the stairs in my house to get things (especially to the pantry/cold storage in the basement when I am cooking/baking). I also hate parking lots so I will park far to avoid cars if I can. I put on upbeat music when I am cooking, cleaning, folding laundry so I dance and jump around.

I'm very forgetful as well and this happens all the time, and then I started actually putting more commonly used things in the downstairs pantry/fridge so I have to make another trip besides. So, it's usually 1 trip for ingredients for dinner, and then a couple more for the stuff I forget (and only remember 1 at a time ).

Dnarules

This is a great question. This go round I have significantly increased NEAT. I don't know that I have much new to add. I park in the far lot at work. I have a short walk at work that gives me about 1600-1700 steps in about 12 minutes or so, and I try to do that 2 - 3 times a day (it includes stairs). I take an inefficient route everywhere (copier, restroom, lab, etc). During lecture, I don't use a slide advancer; I do the brief walk back and forth to my computer. I do laps in one of our labs while my lunch heats up. At work alone, I am getting 7000-8000 steps through NEAT alone, and then I get the rest at home and a few at the gym.

Graelwyn75

AnnPT77 wrote: »

A few things I'm doing lately to increase NEAT:

• Shopping with a hand-basket instead of a cart whenever possible . . . sometimes when barely possible (milk and yogurt are heavy! )
• Doing routine chores as quickly and vigorously as possible, even using unnecessary extra movement ( ) which makes more time for . . .
• Catching up on procrastinated home repair and improvement projects.
• Doing minor, often nearly-invisible exercises during wait times, such as standing
  (barely) on one foot while waiting in line, lat contractions against the steering wheel at stoplights, calf raises while chopping veggies, etc. (these burn tiny calories but help me with other objectives, too, like balance and lat recruitment).

I did not even consider those things as being much of note. I carry heavy shopping around and home on an almost daily basis.

I also add that I pace a lot while waiting for my food to cook, I am always organising and lining things up, I straighten my bed covers several times a day, I have a thing about my clothing being loose so I tend to expend energy stretching out sleeves and the like, even when sitting down for the evening, when I finally do sit down, I am shifting about the place. I never really considered how much extra energy I might use just from being a somewhat fidgety, stressy sort of person.

AnnPT77

Kegels?

RoxieDawn

AnnPT77 wrote: »

Kegels?

I could have added that hubs and I do 'that' more but I refrained.

yskaldir

Clean your house every day.
Shake your legs when sitting down.

MegaMooseEsq

The biggest thing I've done since learning about NEAT is give myself permission to fidget even more. I've been suppressing the urge to swing or jiggle my legs for years, but now I feel like I have an excuse. Sorry, people sitting nearby! I do try and be considerate...