It’s no secret that moving more can help to shift excess body fat, build muscle and improve health. But spending more time in the gym isn’t always the best strategy, says biohacking expert Dr Molly Maloof. Instead, we should look to expend more energy through everyday tasks (known as NEAT). Dr Maloof spills the beans on this easy form of exercise.
‘Non-exercise activity thermogenesis’ is a fancy way of describing the energy you expend to do everything during the day that is not sleeping, eating or purposeful exercise (like sport, running or gym workouts). NEAT is achieved by just walking around, running to catch the bus, gardening, cleaning, even fidgeting. This activity can add up significantly throughout the day.
You often hear that exercise, while good for you, doesn’t really impact weight loss. That’s true – but what does impact weight loss is NEAT activity. How you move throughout the day contributes to a lot more energy usage than a single exercise session. When you move, your mitochondria get the signal to produce more energy, not just during your exercise time but all day long.
Also, NEAT counteracts the hazardous effects of being sedentary. Moving throughout the day uses up the energy molecules (ATP) your mitochondria are producing and minimises the buildup of cellular exhaust (ROS) that is a byproduct of energy production.
Doing NEAT activities is like opening the garage door to let the exhaust fumes out and taking the car for a drive. We want our ‘car’ to be driving around (moving, living), not sitting in the garage. We need to use our fuel.
The connection between moving and eating
Spontaneous movement isn’t necessarily spontaneous. It’s an instinct based on energy intake. The natural human (and animal) tendency is to move in response to eating more, and to move less in response to eating less. The problem is that we have overridden this instinct because of how easy it is to overeat and how easy it is not to move in our current culture. You can start to counter this mismatch between movement and energy intake, however, by purposefully moving more. If you don’t sit for long periods of time and move your body at least every 30 minutes or so throughout the day, you can get back into sync with your appetite cues.
Track your steps
A simple biohack for beginning to monitor how much you move around during the day is step tracking. Smartwatches, smartphones and inexpensive pedometers are all ways to track steps and see if you’re moving around enough. Begin by measuring how many steps you take on average.
Track your steps for a week to see where you land
