When it comes to increasing metabolism and burning fat, terms like “thermogenesis” are frequently bandied about. Furthermore, fat burner supplements often feature this term on their labels.
But the idea is more complex than one might assume; metabolic process includes far more than simply burning calories through exercise.
1. Walking
Walking is one of the easiest and most effective forms of exercise for anyone looking to lose weight, helping raise heart rate, increase blood flow and enhance metabolism while helping prevent injuries that often accompany high-impact workouts.
NEAT stands for Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis and is often an overlooked part of weight loss. NEAT refers to energy expended through daily physical activities such as walking, typing, doing house chores, playing with children, gardening and fidgeting that don’t count towards formal physical exercise regimes like sleeping and formal gym workouts. NEAT accounts for most of our total energy expenditure outside of these two arenas.
Estimates suggest that NEAT accounts for as much as 30 percent of our daily caloric intake, making it essential that we increase NEAT to optimize it as much as possible. While no exercise program can replace cardio and strength training exercises, NEAT can serve as an invaluable complement for maintaining a healthy diet.
To boost the NEAT of your clients, encourage them to take regular walks throughout the day or opt for stairs instead of elevators when ascending them. Walking is also an excellent way to connect with nature while getting some exercise outdoors and experiencing nature first-hand. A further effective strategy would be taking up new hobbies – playing an instrument or sports such as archery will both increase NEAT.
2. Fidgeting
Fidgeting, also known as spontaneous body movements, can help increase energy expenditure by 29% when sitting and 38% when standing compared with lying still. This increase can mean anywhere from 100 to 800 extra kilojoules burned daily depending on its frequency and intensity.
Fidgeting may help people focus, which may explain its evolutionary importance. Fidgeting may also relieve stress or pent-up energy. But excessive fidgeting may be a telltale sign of mental illness: for instance it could indicate neurological tic disorders characterized by sudden, involuntary movements or vocalizations such as eye blinking and head jerking as well as more complex disorders like Tourette’s syndrome.
While its exact cause remains elusive, experts believe fidgeting may involve the hypothalamus – an area linked to arousal, appetite and wakefulness which may influence how much spontaneous body movement we engage in.
Levine suggests that one’s fidgeting habits could play a significant role in their body weight, according to research conducted on healthy volunteers who were overfed 1,000 extra calories daily for eight weeks; different participants gained different amounts of weight; those who fidgeted more, for instance by changing posture or tightening muscles, put on less weight than those who fidgeted less frequently.
3. Stretching
Stretching before or after exercise has many advantages for muscle performance, from increasing flexibility and range of motion to decreasing risk of injuries in athletes, physically demanding professions or older people with tight muscles. Stretching also helps loosen tightened muscles while stimulating proprioceptors found within tendons and muscles that assist with balance – an invaluable aid for maintaining quality of life during aging and health conditions.
For optimal stretching results, it is crucial to start by engaging in light physical activity to increase circulation to muscles and make them more malleable for stretching. Furthermore, stretching too far could indicate issues within muscles or tissues and could even result in pain – both must be avoided in order for stretching exercises to have maximum benefit.
Stretches involve holding muscle lengthened position with minimal force for extended period (typically 30 seconds). Stretches may be either dynamic or static and come in various forms such as active-static, passive-static and proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation (PNF) type stretches.
NEAT exercises may seem inconsequential, but their cumulative effect can have a tremendously beneficial impact on your client’s metabolic health. Encourage them to increase NEAT activities as much as possible as even a 30- or 60-minute workout cannot completely reverse the adverse cardiometabolic effects of prolonged inactivity; that way they’ll be better equipped to combat all of the health problems related to obesity and inactivity.
4. Sneezing
Sneezing requires energy production. The same can be said of any physical activity not specifically related to exercise, like climbing the stairs or playing with children; these non-exercise activity thermogenesis activities (NEAT) can burn many calories. Unfortunately, in recent decades NEAT levels have declined as people adopt more sedentary lifestyles.
Your clients could benefit from increasing their daily NEAT activities – walking their dog or simply jiggling their legs while sitting on the sofa are good examples. Research shows that sneezing is initiated through neural pathways such as trigeminal ganglia (TG) and the rostral ventral respiratory group (rVRG); specifically NMBR+ neurons from sensory neurons sync up with these groups to control inspiratory neurotransmitters triggered by harmful stimuli and increase breathing rates, leading to more NEAT activities overall.
5. Eating
Hobbies such as playing an instrument, singing, cooking or sports training can help increase NEAT. Furthermore, hobbies may help meet new people and expand your social circle while burning additional calories without increasing total daily energy expenditure (TDEE) beyond REE or TEF limits.
NEAT (non-exercise physical activity), commonly referred to as non-exercise or spontaneous physical activity, comprises most people’s total daily energy requirements (TDEE). While its energy expenditure varies considerably among and within individuals, NEAT typically accounts for 15-30% of one’s non-resting energy requirements and studies indicate its correlation with culture: rural and agricultural societies tend to exhibit greater NEAT levels while wealth and industrialization seem to decrease it.
NEAT can’t replace exercise entirely, but it can greatly benefit your client’s overall health and wellness when combined with an appropriate diet. NEAT is especially helpful for weight loss, toning up, or building muscle mass – those who engage regularly tend to be leaner than sedentary counterparts. Therefore it is so essential that we educate clients about incorporating NEAT into their everyday lives.
