DBT: How to burn 400 calories by doing almost nothing

 

Fat loss is rarely easy. The workouts, the food deprivation, the temptations, the sweating, the chafing, the tasteless vegetables. Arghhhhh. At times, it can be downright miserable. 

 

But….. It doesn’t have to be. You can turn the miserable into manageable with a few simple tweaks like spices, HIIT, spandex shorts, and something we’re going to talk about today – NEAT. 

 

If you go back to the first few DadBod posts, you’ll see an equation that dictates how weight loss occurs:

 

Calories out > calories in = weight loss

 

It’s this caloric deficit that results in weight loss (hopefully primarily fat loss). 

 

And it’s created by either:

1. Eating less.

2. Burning more.

 

We’re going to focus on #2 in this post. 

 

There’s 4 ways we burn calories:

1. Resting metabolic rate (RMR) – the amount of calories we burn just by living.

2. The thermic effect of food (TEF) – the amount of calories we burn metabolizing the food we eat. 

3. Exercise

4. Non-Exercise Activity (NEAT) – Movement that isn’t exercise such as fidgeting, pacing, gardening, standing instead of sitting, etc. 

 

Because we’re focusing on easy (or easier) methods for fat loss, we’re going to look at NEAT in greater detail. 

 

Why? 

 

1. It’s an easy way to burn an extra 400 calories per day, which over time can make a big difference. 

2. No one talks about it. The focus is always on HIIT vs steady state cardio or weights vs. cardio. 

 

Just how easy?

 

This easy… 

 

If you sit all day at work, you can burn can burn an extra 400 calories per day by standing. 

 

Over a course of a year, that’s an extra 100,000 calories. Said in another way, if you typically burn 500 calories in a workout, it’s like adding an additional 200 workouts per year WITHOUT ever stepping foot in the gym. Now that’s easy. 

 

Although pedometers are often looked at as archaic pieces of technology, they’re actually a really cheap tool that makes NEAT even easier. Put it on your waistband each morning, count your steps, and turn it into a game. Anytime you can turn something into a game, it instantly becomes more fun and in turn, more likely to be done. Don’t roll your eyes either. After a few days, you’ll be getting ready for bed, realize you’re a few steps under yesterday’s total, and take a few more laps around the house to break a record. Trust me. It will happen. And over time, those steps will add up and result in weight loss. You’ll go from hitting under 5,000 steps per day to hitting over 10,000 steps per day. 

 

And that my friend is NEAT. Use it to your advantage. Sometimes it pays to take the easy road.