From sedentary to standing

NEAT for weight loss

Keeping active has always been an important part of being healthy but traditionally the vigorous, intense workouts we were led to believe were the best way we would keep weight off has largely had disappointing results. But, what if we could raise our base metabolic rate and lose weight by NOT exercising at high intensity for hours every day!? I bring you…NEAT!

This is so coool to know! empower yourself with NEAT – you won’t regret it! just the tiniest movements from your chair can help you mobilise glucose out of the blood and into muscles that soak it up to use for energy thereby lowering our blood glucose levels and helping us to prevent excess glucose storing in fat cells.

This can be helpful to know if you are heavily overweight, injured and/or have a condition where weight bearing exercise is unachievable.

Then there are those that are time-poor and can’t get to the gym or weather putting us off getting off the sofa and outside, or bingeable series on Netflix are calling and suddenly exercise doesn’t seem an appealing option.

Along with working from home these days with snacks close at hand we can find ourselves in a dangerous situation. If you have found yourself snacking too much and putting on weight where we don’t want it (around the middle) then you need to read on…

Sedentary is a Sneaky Killer

Being sedentary is a killer! The global increase in sedentary behaviour is a contributing factor in the rising obesity epidemic. We really do need to stay active and make an effort to move more. Setting an alarm in a different room to remind you to get up every hour can be a great way to initiate movement.

Movement in any form is better than no movement at all. Getting some form of exercise every day is a healthy goal that all of us can achieve, even if it is from your armchair.

Some of us have apple watches and fit-bit’s to remind us but, do you ignore your fit-bit when it tells you it’s time to “stand up”?  are you sitting down for most of the day due to work or because you have lost your exercise mojo? it is easy to get stuck in a rut of sitting on your bum for too long but let me tell you why you need to stand up more often and what “NEAT” can do for you.

Non-exercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT)

Non-exercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT) is the energy expended for everything we do that is not sleeping, eating or sports-like exercise. This might be energy expended by walking to work, typing, gardening, housework, and even fidgeting. Even trivial physical activities increase metabolic rate substantially and it is the cumulative impact of a multitude of physical actions that all add up to maintaining a negative energy balance.

Common daily activities, such as fidgeting, walking, and standing are high-effect NEAT movements that could result in up to an extra 2000 kcal of expenditure per day beyond the basal metabolic rate, depending on body weight and level of activity. Even jiggling your knees up and down for ten minutes can be enough to mobilise glucose from the bloodstream into the muscles where the muscle cells use it for energy thereby lowering blood sugar levels. If you have pre-diabetes or Diabetes type 2 this is an additional tool in your fight agains insulin resistance along with a healthy, balanced diet that is nutrient dense.

Your basal metabolic rate is the rate at which the body uses energy while at rest to maintain the most basic of vital functions such as breathing and keeping warm. Your basal metabolic rate is unique and accounts for approx. 60-70% of total calories burned each day. You can work your own BMR out on the Fitness pal site using their nifty calculator.

https://www.myfitnesspal.com/tools/bmr-calculator

The benefits of NEAT include not only the extra calories expended but also the reduced occurrence of the metabolic syndrome, cardiovascular disease and Diabetes. There are many scientific articles supporting NEAT for disease prevention where there is an excellent argument being made for GP’s to start recommending it as a daily healthy habit.

“We believe that to overcome the obesity epidemic and its adverse cardiovascular consequences, NEAT should be part of the current medical recommendations.” You can find out more about the science underpinning NEAT here

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25841254/

Healthy eating plus NEAT

So, the next time your fit-bit tells you to stand up, will you ignore it? and think of the exponential effects of eating healthily alongside implementing NEAT – basically stand up and fidget more 😉

Discover how you can eat better in four weeks by eating a healthy diet full of wholegrains, fruit, vegetables, and food in its most natural state i.e. not packaged/processed, which is going to enhance your wellbeing and longterm health, reducing your risk of disease and why not join me for my next healthy eating programme and be part of my Eat Better Feel Better community where I will be there to support you every day for four weeks and guide you through my tried and tested programme that has changed people’s lives and eating habits forever so they never have to diet again.

If you would like to hear from an Eat Better member themselves, watch this video to see how the programme helped them even though they thought they knew everything they could about healthy eating. Simone’s testimonial video 

Meal planning

A great place to start, is your commitment to healthy eating by meal planning. This is a really helpful tool to manage a busy week ahead and reduce waste by planning out healthy meals. You can try some new, tasty, healthy recipes to get your healthy mojo back on track from my recipe page and recipe packs which include a handy meal planner and shopping list. The new simple yet delicious 5-ingredient recipe pack has 40 amazing , healthy  and nutritious recipes which only require ….5 ingredients giving you speedy, easy nutrition to supercharge your energy levels.

As always, I am available for a friendly chat with you if you would like to know more about how I can help you with personalised nutrition advice. Contact me to arrange a suitable call time and I will be in touch very soon.

 

Don’t forget to subscribe to my monthly newsletter for free nutrition tips, advice and recipes (I promise not to bombard you with emails!)

 

Evie

 

 

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