Fat loss has an identity crisis — and you\u2019re the one suffering from all the confusion.<\/p>\n
While the \u201crules\u201d of fat loss and crushing calories are not overly complex, there\u2019s a reason why the number of overweight people continues to swell. It’s the same reason you struggle to lose the first 20 pounds — or the last 10 standing between you and your abs.<\/p>\n
Why does fat loss have you so confused? Because we misunderstand how fat loss works, and what you can do to help the process be a little less<\/em> complicated.\u00a0Yes — if you want to lose weight, the old adage of \u201ceat less than you burn\u201d is true. But that\u2019s where the problems begin. <\/span><\/p>\n Eating less is not that simple. If you have tried to reduce how many calories you eat in a day, you know this to be true. And telling someone they are “lazy” or “don’t care enough” doesn’t do anything to fix the problem or help. (Not to mention, it’s usually\u00a0not<\/em>\u00a0accurate; weight loss is a difficult process that takes time.)<\/span><\/p>\n Fat loss is not about a single meal or workout. It\u2019s the combination of efforts (like NEAT) that are overlooked.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n And even if you do eat less, you might battle psychological or physiological barriers that make it <\/span>even harder<\/span><\/i> to drop pounds. Or when you start to eat fewer calories, the difficulty of maintaining that pace also seems to force you to quit.<\/span><\/p>\n It\u2019s not fair, but that doesn’t mean it’s a losing battle. Most people never take the time (translation: go to a doctor, get blood work done, examine the mental barriers) to understand <\/span>why<\/span><\/i> the pounds don\u2019t come off. You just understand your reality — you don\u2019t look different and neither does the scale. <\/span><\/p>\n There’s another part of the equation that’s oftentimes overlooked, and it has nothing to do with eating. When you hear \u201cburn calories,\u201d you\u2019re probably thinking about metabolism crushing workouts [soul-crusher], doing cardio, or hitting the weights.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n From an exercise perspective, fat loss is not<\/em> all about insanely intense workouts. In fact, if you talk to some of the leading researchers, it\u2019s the <\/span>easier<\/span><\/i>\u00a0approaches to fat loss that everyone forgets. And it could be the link to you dropping a few extra pounds or jumpstarting a big weight loss journey. <\/span><\/p>\n Still confused? It\u2019s time for you to uncover the missing piece of the fat loss equation.<\/span><\/p>\n Pardon me for a moment while we do a little math. (I promise it won\u2019t take long.)<\/p>\n The total number of calories you burn in a day comes from three sources:<\/span><\/p>\n While NEAT might elicit a sarcastic remark deserving of its name (<\/span>neat? Pssshhh)<\/span><\/i>, if you only think of exercise as the activity you do in the gym, then you\u2019re missing out on huge fat burning potential. <\/span><\/p>\n Don\u2019t just take our advice at face value, <\/span>researchers have been studying it for years<\/span><\/a>. What they\u2019ve found is that NEAT can have an enormous impact on the total calories a person burns\u2014as many as <\/span>2,000 per day<\/span><\/a>. And that\u2019s <\/span>much <\/span><\/i>more powerful than any fat burning supplement or BS appetite suppressant. <\/span><\/p>\n If you\u2019re serious about fat loss, NEAT is the cost-effective (it\u2019s free!), scientific approach that can work for your body. <\/span><\/p>\n Oftentimes, we choose to compare types of exercises. Weights are better than cardio. High-intensity training (things like HIIT) are better than slower bouts of treadmill time. But:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Fat loss is not about a single meal or workout. It\u2019s About the combination of efforts. <\/b><\/p><\/blockquote>\n You already know that a killer 30-minute workout can burn hundreds of calories\u2014but so can a few hours at the mall. For example, an 180-pound guy can burn about 285 calories just by taking a one-hour leisurely walk.<\/span><\/p>\n Just because you aren\u2019t out of breath doesn\u2019t mean your activity doesn\u2019t \u2018count.\u2019 In fact, the opposite is true: All of the \u2018light\u2019 activity you do can tip the scales pretty heavily in your favor. <\/span><\/p>\n For example, in a <\/span>2005 study<\/span><\/a> by Dr. James Levine at the Mayo Clinic recruited a group of 20 people. Half of them were lean, while the other 10 were obese self-proclaimed \u201ccouch potatoes.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n After tracking them for 10 days, researchers found that the obese people sat for 164 minutes longer during the day than their slimmer counterparts. What\u2019s more, the skinnier group stood for about 152 minutes longer than the obese group. <\/span><\/p>\n Levine\u2019s team crunched the numbers and determined that if the obese subjects did nothing else other than stand or stroll as much as the lean group, they would burn an additional 352 calories per day. <\/span><\/p>\n Again: That\u2019s more than 350 calories\u2014nearly 15 percent of an <\/span>average male over age 30\u2019s daily intake requirement<\/span><\/a>\u2014burned without adding any exercise at all. <\/span><\/p>\n But even if you\u2019re not among the couch-bound, NEAT plays a bigger role in your life than you think. \u00a0Levine wrote in a 2004 review in the <\/span>American Journal of Physiology<\/span><\/i><\/a>: \u201cNEAT, <\/span>even in avid exercisers<\/span><\/i>, is the predominant component of activity thermogenesis and is the energy expenditure associated with all the activities we undertake as vibrant, independent beings.\u201d [Emphasis added.]<\/span><\/p>\n Put another way: \u201cThere are 168 hours in the week,\u201d says <\/span>Harley Pasternak<\/span><\/a>, a celebrity trainer who\u2019s worked with everyone from Lady Gaga to LL Cool J. \u201cIf you work out for an hour a day, five days a week, there are still 163 hours\u2014or 97% of the week\u2014that you\u2019re not in the gym.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n Even the most highly committed workout-a-holic will still spend more of their life away from the gym than in it. Your habits during those non-training hours can either work for you, or against you. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n NEAT can help you work toward your weight loss goal. But here\u2019s where things get tricky: Your workout can work against your NEAT.<\/p>\n James Krieger<\/span><\/a>, M.S. nutrition and founder of Weightology, says that some exercisers actually erase all the calorie-burning benefits of their workouts by being less active the rest of the day (compared to a non-training day). And there\u2019s <\/span>research that backs up<\/span><\/a> this idea. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cLet\u2019s say a person expended 200 calories during an exercise session,\u201d Krieger says, \u201cthey can actually make up for it by their NEAT levels going down by 200 calories the rest of the day. It\u2019s like they didn\u2019t exercise at all.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n One possible reason: They\u2019re so exhausted afterward. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI tell people, if you have a client that\u2019s interested in fat loss, be careful how hard you work them because if you work them so hard that they sit around and don\u2019t do anything the rest of the day, you may actually doing them a disservice if they are trying to lose body fat.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n If you needed more proof that <\/span>not every workout should kick your ass<\/span><\/a>, now you have it. But there\u2019s also evidence that biology plays a role, too. \u201cYour body doesn\u2019t like being in an energy deficient state,\u201d say Krieger. \u201cIf you\u2019re dieting and exercising, your body is going to try and resist that by decreasing your NEAT levels, whether that\u2019s by less fidgeting or moving around.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n So what can you do to combat this subtle sabotage? Krieger recommends that people wear a pedometer and try to maintain the same level of activity every single day\u2014even on the days when you do an extra-hard workout. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe key is consistency,\u201d Krieger says. \u201cIf you\u2019re only doing it once in awhile, it\u2019s not going to make much of a difference, but if you do it consistently, it\u2019s going to add up.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n Note that he\u2019s not telling you to give up wind sprints in favor of a walk. NEAT isn\u2019t going make you jacked. Resistance training does that. <\/span><\/p>\n What he\u2019s saying is that you should do the wind sprints <\/span>and<\/span><\/i> take a walk.<\/span><\/p>\n This is <\/span>not<\/span><\/i> an invitation to start forcing mini-workouts into your day. You don\u2019t need to look for ways to break a sweat at every waking moment of the day. You don\u2019t need to perform bodyweight squats while you cook. That isn\u2019t NEAT. That\u2019d be exercise. (That\u2019d also be awkward.) <\/span><\/p>\n Instead, pay attention to how much time you spend moving\u2014or not\u2014during the day. In his book \u201c<\/span>Move a Little, Lose a Lot<\/span><\/a>,\u201d Dr. Levine recommends keeping an activity journal for a few days. You\u2019d want to record at least one weekday and one weekend day. Track how you spend your time in half-hour intervals. Mark each activity into one of three categories: sitting, standing or moving. <\/span><\/p>\n When your log is complete, take a look at each item\u2014especially the ones categorized as sitting. Think of ways you could make those tasks more active. For example, those conference calls you have to be on at work\u2014could you take them standing up, or even strolling around your office? <\/span><\/p>\n Levine recommends 135 minutes of NEAT time during the day\u2014which sounds like a lot, but really only amounts to slightly less than 10 percent of a 1,440-minute day (yes, that\u2019s how many minutes there are in one). And remember, standing counts. <\/span><\/p>\n Small activities burn more calories than you\u2019d think. Vacuuming the house for 30 minutes burns 143 calories. Cleaning the garage for 30 minutes burns 122 calories. Use a standing desk (which <\/span>both Winston Churchill and Leonardo Da Vinci apparently did<\/span><\/a>) for an hour and you\u2019ll burn 98 calories. Everything you do in your garden burns between 100 and 200 calories an hour. So does pacing or walking the dog. <\/span><\/p>\n Think of every step you take as a <\/span>small win<\/span><\/a>. A <\/span>2011 study published in the journal <\/span>International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity<\/span><\/i><\/a> researchers found that taking a 5-minute walking break every hour could burn an extra 660 calories per week. Extrapolate that over one year and you could lose about 9 to 10 pounds just by adding up the 5-minute walks. <\/span><\/p>\n Again, the point isn\u2019t to cheat the system. It\u2019s to understand that fat loss is not just a byproduct of weight training or diet. There are other efforts you can do that — when added up over time (think 2-3 months, or longer) — can have a significant impact and help you finally understand how to make fat loss programs work for you.<\/span><\/p>\n Big Meals vs. Small Snacks: What\u2019s Best For You?<\/a><\/p>\nHow You Really<\/i>\u00a0Burn Calories<\/h2>\n
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The Trapdoor: How to Combine NEAT and Exercise<\/h2>\n
How to Make NEAT Work for You<\/h2>\n
READ MORE:\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/h3>\n