A NEAT way to fat loss
By Monica Mollica
Are you struggling to lose that extra flab and all those nasty calories that seem to be glued to your waistline? Do you ever wonder why, despite your hard training and dieting, you still have those annoying love handles? Then maybe you should try to implement the NEAT way to fat loss…
NEAT – the ignored component of physical activity, metabolic regulation and total daily caloric expenditure
When it comes to fat loss, a key is to increase your energy expenditure. Therefore, the traditional prescription for fat loss has focused on exercise as a means of revving up your energy expenditure to burn off excess fat. While exercise (both cardio and weight lifting) is essential for fat loss, there is one other less known, albeit important, component of total daily energy expenditure that could be the missing link in your fat loss endeavor. Enter NEAT…
NEAT stands for non-exercise activity thermogenesis (or non-exercise activity energy expenditure). NEAT is the energy expenditure induced by non-exercise bodily movements in daily life, ie lifestyle embedded physical activity 1.
The term “physical activity” represents the full spectrum of movement, with “exercise” being a subcategory representing the higher end of this spectrum 2. The remainder that falls below the exercise threshold is “non-exercise physical activity”, and is illustrated in the graphic below.
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