Exercise is one of the many things that contribute to a healthy lifestyle. However, if the current activity guidelines for adults say that you should exercise 150-300 minutes per week, that leaves about 9700 minutes unaccounted for. Those 9700 minutes are the majority of your week, and they can be just as important as the minutes you spend exercising for maximizing your health.
Go NEAT
Calories aren’t the only thing we burn through exercise, which brings us to the concept of NEAT:
Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis.
NEAT accounts for all the activity that your body does throughout the day outside of cardio, workouts, eating, digesting, and sleeping. It ranges from the energy expended walking during work, typing, performing yard work, getting up from the couch, and even fidgeting while watching TV. Even small activities like those listed can help increase your metabolic rate substantially and make a massive difference in your overall physical progress. A sedentary lifestyle is something all of us are very used to especially in the age of quarantines – but this is the opposite of what our bodies need and crave to see progress with metabolic goals.
Have you taken a walk yet today? Could you take the stairs instead of the escalator? Maybe you could park farther away from your destination to get a few more steps in…all of this activity matters.
Making an actual effort to getting in more non-structured activity (like walking) throughout the day can:
- Boost your caloric expenditure
- Help digest food post meal or stimulate your appetite pre meal
- Decrease stress
- Improve mood
Remember. A body in motion, stays in motion! There are plenty of ways to increase your activity level OUTSIDE of the gym, and we are here to support you on that journey.
MSK-0053 RevA