Weight loss made easy - NEAT

Weight loss made easy.

Just a few years ago most people were looking at and even blaming their hormones for the reason that they were not losing weight. Gluten too, but that’s another story.

Hormones and gluten aside, today many fit pros still go down this route. Now I am not saying hormones do not have their role in successful weight loss or lack thereof but how much we can do about them is hotly debated. In my opinion we cannot do a whole lot, naturally at least.

But over the last few years’ things have taken a turn for the better.

One of the big players that is getting a lot of attention, is the role of NEAT (non exercise activity thermogenesis)

Although this sounds complicated it isn’t really. In essence it’s how much we move on a daily basis apart from formal exercise.

Walking to the station, moving around the office, playing with the kids, dogs…. you get the idea.

For many people their NEAT tends to downregulate with a calorie deficit and weight loss. The body is pretty smart that way – starve it and it auto regulates by moving less.

Move less, weigh less = expend less.

Now some of it we can control and some of it we can’t. We can’t control how much we fidget, move our head to music but we can look at how many steps we take.

It’s very easy with activity trackers these days.

Those that are successful with weight loss tend to spontaneously upkeep their NEAT and those that battle with the same calorie deficit as someone who does not, tend to have a more adaptive NEAT component.

So what can you do to try and guarantee your chances of success?

Before you diet, start tracking your daily steps. From their look at what your average is over the week.

If the daily average is 5000 or below maybe try add in an extra 50 steps a day till you build up towards 10 000. If is high already then there is no need to increase this as it only becomes cardio.

And the secret is to try and maintain your previous base as much a possible when you diet and cut calories.

Keep averaging those steps each day and you should find the diet yields better results.

One caveat – do not replace informal exercise with formal exercise. If you used to walk home from work and instead go to the gym and then catch a bus back, you might have nullified your energy expenditure.

For that reason, we recommend our clients take off their activity trackers when doing formal exercise and wear them when just moving about.

Create a calorie deficit and keep up your normal movement amount. This in turn should help lessen some of the adaptive components of metabolism, that govern weight loss.

Hope this helps some of you and any questions please comment below.

This is just one of the many things we will be discussing in our free weight loss group coming soon.