Pondering the question ‘what is non-exercise activity thermogenesis?’ We reveal everything you need to know, including how many calories it burns and how to increase your NEAT.

In layman’s terms, it refers to calories burned during everyday activities rather than formal exercise (also known as exercise activity thermogenesis or EAT).

The number of calories burned through NEAT will vary enormously depending on an individual’s situational factors.

For example, someone’s job will have a huge impact on their total daily energy expenditure; a laborer who is on their feet carrying out physically demanding tasks will expend far more energy than an office worker who remains seated for the majority of the working day.

“The number of calories burned can vary widely depending on the individual’s job,” Holmes says?

Through this, he says, NEAT is often responsible for burning more calories than formal exercise or EAT - although your energy expended through EAT varies depending on the type and duration of exercise you are doing.

“The amount of energy burned during exercise has numerous variables such as how much effort you are putting in, your skill level and the type of training,” Holmes says.

For the most part though, it is only athletes participating in “long duration endurance exercise or very high intensity training multiple times a day” who will burn more calories through EAT than NEAT each day. .

“Decreasing energy in and increasing energy out.” In other words, consuming fewer calories through food and burning more calories through increased daily activity levels (EAT and NEAT).

It states: “NEAT is a highly variable component of daily TEE (daily total energy expenditure) and a low level of NEAT is associated with obesity

You can make substitutions in your everyday life, such as walking or cycling rather than driving, or taking the stairs rather than jumping in a lift, to increase your total daily energy expenditure

Non-exercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT): a component of total daily energy expenditure (opens in new tab)

Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis (NEAT) (opens in new tab)