NEAT or Non Exercise Activity Thermogenisis accounts for all the unplanned activity you do every day. This can include standing instead of sitting down, fidgeting, hand gestures, gardening, cleaning and cooking. All these extra little activities soon add up to help increase your caloric expenditure (the amount of calories you burn in a day)

However, your body just loves you being right where you are (homeostasis) and is a sneaky little thing when you try to enter a calorie deficit (consuming less calories than you burn) Your body will subconsciously make you move LESS! So where you may have stood up before, you will now sit down. Where you talked using your hands, you will now keep them still. Chances are you won’t even realise you are doing it which makes it even trickier to spot! This is your body’s way of trying to save energy. It does not like you being in a calorie deficit and will try to save energy wherever it can!

So how can you stop it?! Well, you can’t really but you CAN consciously add activity wherever you can. So try to aim for a step count if you have a fitness tracker or make sure you take the stairs instead of the lift, walk to the shop instead of drive, get off a stop earlier when on the bus, park further away, go to the toilet on the next floor up in the office! You will be surprised how much all of the little extras add up! This will help to counteract the reduction in NEAT.

Hope this helps! Let me know if you have any questions.

Sarah