Friday Reading Report: NEAT

We do not spend most of our time exercising.  That does somewhat cramp our style in terms of keeping the calorie burn going.  NEAT to the rescue!

NEAT, or nonexercise activity thermogenesis, is, as the name suggests, the energy we burn doing stuff that is neither exercise nor maintenance of bodily functions (heartbeat, breathing, digestion, circulation, etc.).  On the low end, this is where fidgeting is our friend.  We can, in fact, make all that reading or television slightly better for us by wiggling around.

This is also where all that advice about parking in the remotest part of the lot comes in.  That stroll into the store isn’t really exercise, but it is definitely activity.  Gardening that is heavy on the weeding and light on the raking probably falls into activity rather than exercise.  Cooking an elaborate dinner with hours of standing and chopping would also count.

We still need to do real exercise, but for all the time when we aren’t exercising or sleeping, we can use NEAT to keep the metabolism fires burning.