How NEAT is Your Life?

The big impact of small movements

No, this isn’t a post about tidiness—although that’s important to live well, too. This is NEAT: Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis. About 15 or 20 years ago, I first read an article that linked NEAT to longevity, and it left an impression on me. Since then, I have viewed mundane, daily tasks in a much different light.

You may not have heard of this specific term, but you are probably aware of the concept. We see it in the popularity of things like standing desks (standing burns 47 more calories an hour than sitting) and even the trend of intentional fidgeting (which can similarly burn calories and increase metabolic rate). Being active is a foundational characteristic of the Blue Zones inhabitants, who are among the longest-living groups in the world. While 9 Blue Zone factors have been identified that contribute to joining the centenarian club, at the top of the list is the core underpinning of NEAT: sit less, move more.

All movement matters
NEAT goes way beyond merely standing while on the computer or knee-bouncing; it is a measure of the energy that we expend doing even seemingly inconsequential activities such as eating, brushing our teeth, or chewing gum. All of these movements require energy… and the more we do during the day, the more energy we expend, the greater the benefit.

NEAT has most often been formally studied in terms of managing weight, especially for sedentary people who struggle with obesity. For instance, in a two-year study of obese people, those who increased daily activity—not structured exercise—by 35 minutes a day had a weight loss, while those who had a decrease in activity demonstrated a reciprocal gain.

Another study tracked the energy expenditure of 300 adults of varying levels of fitness. The conclusion revealed that the people with the lowest mortality risk weren’t the exercise fanatics, but rather the ones who were holistically active, incorporating various exercise and physical activities into their daily lives, such as stair climbing, volunteering, socializing, gardening, etc.

In a review published on PubMed, an aspect of NEAT struck me as particularly important for overall health and longevity: low-level physical activities that stimulate energy expenditure have the potential for a high adherence rate. That is a critical, foundational tenet that applies to both diet and exercise and ultimately affects our health span. Unless habits become our mindset and lifestyle, they will most likely fall away over time, especially as we age.

Lifestyle habits
This is precisely why most diet and exercise programs have limited long-term success. Programs are transitory. It’s human nature to lose interest and revert to old, comfortable habits. But if we can reframe our mindset and create a lifestyle, we are more apt to maintain long-term changes that positively affect how we age.

The other day I was making chocolate chip cookies as a welcome-to-the-neighborhood gift for new neighbors, and it got me thinking about all of the things that people did 50, 60, 70 years ago throughout the day that most people don’t do anymore.

Take, for example, the aforementioned humble chocolate chip cookie. Imagine all of the steps involved in the process of making cookies from scratch, especially without a mixer. Amassing all the ingredients, bowls, pans, and tools; creaming the butter and sugar with a wooden spoon; beating in the eggs and vanilla; incorporating the dry ingredients; and finally, chopping the chocolate and folding the bits into a stiff batter.

After all the work of making the dough, the final effort is actually baking and cleaning up. I typically wash, dry, and put away all of the baking bowls and utensils right away. The former 45-minute process of constant motion and energy expended in baking cookies from scratch is now very often replaced with opening a bag in the blink of an eye. 

Consider all of the other activities that have fallen by the wayside in our modern world, creating an epidemic of a sedentary lifestyle. Even as recently as 60 years ago, it was commonplace to change a car’s oil and spark plugs; hang clothes outside on a clothesline; vacuum, dust, and mop; host the bridge club; go to Bingo night at the community center; and compete in a bowling league. And even that is a far cry from a couple hundred years ago, when we didn’t have electricity, used outhouses, and stored our winter rations in root cellars…not to mention ran down our dinner.

Now robotic vacuums scurry over floors, washers, and dryers are elevated so we don’t have to bend over, and perhaps the worst offender: DoorDash has taken the convenience of take-out to an absurdly low level of laziness. Instead of the drudgery of climbing into a car, driving to a restaurant, walking inside, and talking to the person who is handing you your bag of food, people sit on a couch, lift a phone, and message the driver to leave the order next to the door. In contrast to the considerable energy expended in making dinner in the good ole days, our dinner prep work is now compressed into a short walk to the door. 

Ordinary, daily activity has been so curtailed in present times that even structured exercise can’t counterbalance and fill in the movement void. Luckily, NEAT can actually play a more significant role in calorie burn than many realize. For instance, if a person spends the evening in front of the television, they may expend about 30 calories. However, doing household chores or engaging in a project during that same evening time frame could increase the burn up to 500-700 hundred calories or more.

Don’t be lazy
For me, it is vitally important to keep the benefits of NEAT at the forefront of my mind. It helps me look for and welcome micro moves in my day and keeps me from being lazy and taking shortcuts. Rather than having my nearly 6-foot-tall son assist me in retrieving a big bowl out of the top cabinet, I pull out the stepladder to do it myself. To whiten a dingy shirt, I go the extra mile and take the drying rack downstairs and outside to harness the sun. Even though we have a dishwasher, I’ll often wash and dry a few dishes. 

Lazy begets lazy, but movement begets movement. I make a point to get up from my desk often, walk outside, do a quick chore, anything that gives me a break from sitting and gets me in the mode of moving. Walking around the house more often, usually leads to walks around the block, and increased walking is associated with lowering premature mortality and adding productive years to life. 

Small, everyday movements add up to an overall greater expenditure of energy that goes beyond weight management and has a cascading impact on our lives. NEAT is a small but mighty tool everyone can have in their longevity arsenal. It reminds me that it’s really the little things that make the difference in living well, aging great.

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