Get Up and Move

Engaging our bodies in regular movement throughout the day, especially walking, can significantly improve our overall health.

What I read: “There's a way to get healthier without even going to a gym. It's called NEAT” by Will Stone for NPR. Published July 22, 2023.

When I read Will Stone’s article, it was validating. For years I’ve touted the benefits of moving around more during our day-to-day activities. That viewpoint is an amalgam of various things I’ve read, learned, and experienced over time.

If someone in my life spends a lot of time on the couch or sitting at a desk, I try to encourage them to get up and move more.

During my tenure in corporate management, I would tell my direct reports to try to get up and move around every so often. Part of that was to break up the office monotony to recharge the brain for creative work, but much of the reason was because I knew it was good for them.

A friend might tell me they’re going to the gym and lifting weights and I always applaud that effort. But at the same time, I inquire whether they’ve moved their body other ways to maintain a more well-rounded level of fitness and health.

The name of non-exercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT) was not previously in my vocabulary, but it appears it describes exactly what my cobbled together perspective on moving our bodies more was founded upon.

It's a concept that goes by the name non-exercise activity thermogenesis, or NEAT, for short.

This is essentially all the calories that a person burns through their daily activity excluding purposeful physical exercise. Think of the low-effort movements that you string together over the course of your day – things like household chores, strolling through the grocery aisle, climbing the stairs, bobbing your leg up and down at your desk, or cooking dinner.

NEAT is a complex thing to study, but scientists who study NEAT have made progress in their research methodologies. As a result, scientists have learned that many of the small daily behaviors and activities we engage in can improve or diminish how much NEAT we get. The more NEAT we get, the better our overall health.

Each day our bodies expend a certain amount of energy in the form of calories. Everyone’s heard of calories. Counting calories. Caloric intake. These are common social phrases. A lot of our daily energy expenditure remains constant, and more than half those expenditures go toward supporting the basic bodily functions that keep us alive.

There’s not much we can do about increasing our expenditures for those basic bodily functions, but we can increase the NEAT in our lives. We can get up, move around, walk more, and engage in hobbies and activities that move our bodies more rather than sit on a couch or behind a desk for extended periods.

Colleen Novak, a neuroscientist who studies NEAT at Kent State University, estimates that there is about 30% to 40% of our activity for which energy expenditures are within our control.

Even if you’re someone who exercises regularly, NEAT is a larger calorie-burning factor than your workouts. Of course, exercise is good, and I’d encourage anyone to keep exercising in whatever ways work for them. But the accessibility of upping our daily NEAT can improve overall health even more.

For those who don’t exercise, leveling up daily NEAT might be even more important. Many of us might not nudge ourselves to a gym or exercise class, but we can build in regular NEAT activities into our day to improve our health.

There are lots of NEAT activities, but it appears the king of them all is walking. I’ve written before about how walking benefits me in “Going for a Walk Stimulates Ideas” and “The Wonder of Walking”. One of my few regular daily habits is to leave my apartment and go for a brisk walk for at least 30 minutes. I rarely miss a day doing this.

Walking can be done in longer stints, or it can be a component of another activity like going to the store or parking your car farther away from your destination to encourage more walking.

Just strolling about one and a half to two miles an hour — the speed people tend to go while shopping — can double your metabolic rate.

All of this starts to give a sense of how seemingly trivial movements, like walking to the corner store, or mowing the lawn, can add up to make a big difference over the course of the day.

So many of us park ourselves on the couch and watch television all night. That’s fine occasionally. It’s not healthy to do all the time. It’s better to do physical projects around the house if you can than to remain still for long periods of time. Our bodies have developed to move. We need to move them.

It's a simple idea at its core: Inject mobility — ideally whatever gets you walking around — into what would otherwise default into sitting time.

For all the weight loss systems sold to us, perhaps fostering the NEAT in our lives is a better strategy. One study cited in the article found that a person’s level of NEAT directly predicted how well they were able to avoid putting on fat.

"People who have the capacity to burn off extra calories and remain thin are people who can switch on their NEAT," Levine says.

I’ll leave it to you to read (or listen) to Stone’s excellent article. The bottom line is that most of us should move more than we do. I live without a car in large part so it forces me to walk. I moved to a standing desk for most of my work because I discovered the science says even the fidgeting we do when standing can improve what I now know is NEAT.

Try to build in more movement into your life, in whatever ways you’re able. Even if you have physical challenges, finding ways to up your NEAT will likely result in better health and fitness.

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