There are many
ways to lose and maintain weight: newfangled diets, special pills, and day
after day of super-intense workouts without rest are a few options. But, when
you try those and fail to lose the weight you want because these aren’t healthy
long-term solutions, you’ll learn that it takes a commitment to changing your
lifestyle in order to realize weight-loss success that’s sustainable.
To lose weight and
make it stick, pair a sensible, nutrient-packed eating plan that doesn’t feel
overly restrictive with an exercise routine that includes cardio and strength
training with the right mix of intensity and recovery. But, you should also try
to work in more overall activity — in addition to your exercise plan — into
each day.
Identify
opportunities in your day that allow for more physical activity. Seemingly
insignificant movement adds up over the course of days and weeks to help you
lose weight, so don’t dismiss anything. Whether it’s walking up an extra flight
of stairs or vacuuming your living room more often, these things burn calories
whether you call them exercise or not.
Intermittent
movement throughout the day is often referred to as NEAT: Nonexercise Activity Thermogenesis. This can include washing
the dishes, mowing the lawn, and taking out the garbage. It is the activity you
complete throughout the day that isn’t categorized as “exercise.” This type of
calorie-burning activity isn’t often included in weight-loss tips, but it can
be one of the most impactful strategies to burn extra calories.
To be sure, NEAT has been called an “essential tool” for
controlling body weight. In fact, the Mayo Clinic reports that the differences in
energy expenditure between two people of about the same height and weight can
vary as much as 2,000 calories per day based on NEAT.
Why Fitness Should Be an All-Day, Every Day Thing
The dangers of
sitting too much are well documented. According to one report, average people
spend more than 50 percent of their waking hours sitting. We sit to work at our
computers, watch television, eat, and the list goes on. The same review, which
looked at 47 different studies on sedentary behavior, found that even for
people who exercised up to an hour a day, sitting for prolonged periods of time was linked to an increased risk of
deleterious health outcomes ranging from cardiovascular disease to mortality regardless
of physical activity.
Other research
backs this up, showing that a large amount of sedentary time was associated with risk of chronic diseases, and
it can impact healthy heart
function.
The Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention recommends 150 minutes of
moderate-intensity aerobic activity and 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity
aerobic activity each week. Paired with a healthy diet, this amount of
exercise, combined with regular movement throughout the day, can help boost
overall health and wellness while combating obesity.
So how do you
incorporate more NEAT into your days to help you shed pounds? It’s easy! Here
are a few NEAT weight-loss tips to get you moving:
·
Park in the
farthest spot in the parking lot at work
·
Take the stairs
instead of the elevator
·
Schedule walking
meetings
·
Walk to the mail
box instead of driving
·
Use a bathroom on
a different floor at work (and take the stairs to that floor)
·
Make a couple of
extra trips to the water cooler
·
Get up from your
desk and stretch at least once an hour
·
Wash the dishes by
hand
·
Walk to a
co-worker’s desk rather than emailing
While this type of
movement may seem trivial, it compounds quickly. It only requires that you tune
into your day and be more mindful of how often you are sitting. When you shift
out of autopilot, you’ll notice that not only does intermittent movement help
you burn more calories, but it also wakes you up mentally, making you sharper
and better able to concentrate throughout the day.
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