NEAT Improvement Strategies to Improve Weight Loss

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  • workinonit1956
    workinonit1956 Posts: 1,043 Member
    @AnnPT77 that’s how I handle it also, I consider any added NEAT activity to be a part of my activity level.
  • middlehaitch
    middlehaitch Posts: 8,486 Member
    Totally agree with the above. ^^^

    I upped my neat initially because I am a petite, old, sloth at heart and my weight loss, then sedentary maintenance calories, was set at 1200 cals. Completely reasonable for my stats.

    Increasing my NEAT activity initially meant I could reach my goal weight without too much stress.

    I wasn't willing to do more than an average of 1hr purposeful exercise a day, or drop my cals below a base of 1200. (I did drop my exercise from 200 to 150per hr for the last 5 or so lbs).

    More exercise, or less calories, for me, would have meant lethargy, that would have dropped my NEAT.
    The best thing I could do was make small permanent changes to increase my daily activity. MFP expects ~3500 steps at maintenance, I was probably under 1000- though my arms and body were moving a lot.

    As far as those occasional heavy duty jobs go. I would give myself an extra 200 cals that day. Mainly because that would be my daily exercise burn, and if the job was so exhausting I was going to miss my class that day, I knew I had burned that. I also knew my next day/following hours would probably be 'Mrs Sloth reads a book for recovery' time, so a lower than average NEAT.

    Also the heavy job, (or painting/sewing-I don't play an instrument) usually meant that what I would regularly be doing in 'daily activity' was put aside for that time.

    Cheers, h.
  • kardsharp
    kardsharp Posts: 516 Member
    I bought a BOSU and I stand on it while watching TV. As an added bonus, my dog uses it for his agility training.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,408 Member
    kardsharp wrote: »
    I bought a BOSU and I stand on it while watching TV. As an added bonus, my dog uses it for his agility training.

    Love the mental picture of dog + BOSU! :)
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,408 Member
    kimny72 wrote: »
    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!

    My Fitbit logged 1.39 minutes of sleep yesterday when I was lying on the couch, half watching TV and using my phone as a coloring book. I was way too still!

    My Garmin Vivoactive 3 frequently logs reading, texting, etc. as sleep. In one case, texting was somehow REM sleep. I have timestamps to prove it wasn't. ;)

    Just to put this slightly on topic for the thread: It seems to me that my VA3 (and possibly other fitness/activity trackers?) fails to notice NEAT stuff that actually does have a bit of impact . . . but perhaps that's partly down to my nearly-unresonsive heart rate response. Don't care; gonna keep wigglin'-jigglin'-dancin'. ;)
  • nowine4me
    nowine4me Posts: 3,985 Member
    This may be a really stupid question, but is it possible to substantially increase your BMR?
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,408 Member
    nowine4me wrote: »
    This may be a really stupid question, but is it possible to substantially increase your BMR?

    Sure. Gain 50 pounds or so.

    Okay, joking, kinda. I don't know. I believe muscle mass increase is BMR increase, but that's not a "substantial" increase, over any reasonably short time horizon.

    Anybody?
  • jennifurballs
    jennifurballs Posts: 247 Member
    try2again wrote: »
    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 ;)

    I agree, so when it's raining or cold outside, I go to Sam's Club and walk on the left side of the store only (the non-food section).

  • emmylootwo
    emmylootwo Posts: 172 Member
    This thread has inspired me! I finally pulled the trigger and bought a brand new fancy Fitbit (I've had the zip for a long time, now I have the new Charge 3) I hope to up my NEAT significantly. Lately I've been spending most of my days in bed with nothing to do (between college graduation and starting work). Now I have a new reason to get out of bed!
  • Lillymoo01
    Lillymoo01 Posts: 2,865 Member
    emmylootwo wrote: »
    This thread has inspired me! I finally pulled the trigger and bought a brand new fancy Fitbit (I've had the zip for a long time, now I have the new Charge 3) I hope to up my NEAT significantly. Lately I've been spending most of my days in bed with nothing to do (between college graduation and starting work). Now I have a new reason to get out of bed!

    My Christmas present was a Charge 3! It does occasionally tell me to get my butt moving though. :D
  • middlehaitch
    middlehaitch Posts: 8,486 Member
    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    When it comes to devices, they can be a great inspiration/incentive, with step counts, move reminders, and the like . . . but do keep in mind that there are movements that they don't recognize, but that still burn a couple of calories. The devices count a lot of things. Your body counts every little thing.

    Oh, so true @AnnPT77, so true.

    I am not a device person because the one time I borrowed a Fitbit for a couple of months my focus was so on getting a certain number of steps, that my actual daily activity suffered and my NEAT dropped.

    There was so much movement that I did in normal life, (and I think I’d myself as a sloth) gardening, working at an easel, painting walls and slip covering furniture,that wasn’t accounted for in those 2 or so month I decided device’s were not a good fit for me.

    That being said, if you are encouraged to move more by using one, do so.

    Cheers, h.