Burn More Calories Daily By Increasing Your Activity!

What a crazy idea? Increasing your daily activity!? To burn more calories? Yep – And its not even an idea, its a fact! Below I broke down somewhat complicated technical talk into some basic concepts. Stick to the basics as much as possible, here we go:

Your metabolism is always working to burn energy. During periods of higher activity, your body will burn more calories than when you are at rest. Your body is constantly burning calories though. When we workout we burn more calories than most other times, but heck, even reading this you are burning calories! Moving around more during the day could be exactly what you need. Here’s why:

There Are Three Categories Of Ways Your Body Can Burn Calories:

1. Basal metabolic rate (BMR or RMR) is the amount of energy the body uses to support the functions of the organs and physiological systems, and comprises approximately 60-75% of TDEE. The three organs most responsible for burning calories at rest are the liver, brain and skeletal muscle, which burn 27, 19 and 18 percent of the RMR, respectively. It’s worth noting the brain alone uses about one-fifth of your RMR. This helps explain why you don’t think as clearly when you’re hungry. Think of BMR/RMR as the calories you burn laying on the couch doing nothing binge watching a show or napping all day long.
2. The thermic effect of food (TEF) is the energy the body uses to convert the food into more energy or to move it to a location to be stored (as fat) for use at a later time. This makes up about 10% of daily energy expenditure. In short, this is the calories your body burns digesting the food you eat.
3. The thermic effect of physical activity (TEPA) accounts for the remaining energy expenditure—about 15-30% of daily energy output. Included in this number is the amount of energy the body burns after exercise to return to its normal state. In short, this is the calories you burn moving around doing stuff.

There Are Two Types of TEPA = (Ways You Burn Calories Moving Around Doing Stuff):

Planned exercise and the spontaneous non-exercise activities occur every time you move. Standing up from a seated position or running to catch your dog, or exercising.

Exercise is an important form of physical activity that can burn hundreds of calories at a time. Other forms of physical activity are called Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis (NEAT), can play a significant role in helping maximize the total amount of calories burned in a day. In short, think of NEAT as all the moving around you do daily that is not part of your workout.

Six ‘Neat’ Things To Know About NEAT

• Lipoprotein lipase (LPL) is an enzyme that plays a critical role in converting fat into energy. Remaining sedentary for long periods of time can reduce levels of LPL. Moving consistently throughout the day can help sustain LPL levels and help the body maintain its ability to burn fat.
• Standing can make a difference. A growing body of evidence shows that sitting still for too long can be hazardous to your health. Simply standing is one form of NEAT that can help you burn extra calories.
• Daily steps add up. The U.S. Department of Health has been promoting 10,000 steps a day as an achievable goal for daily physical activity. Even if you don’t make it to 10,000 steps, adding extra steps to your day is an important component of NEAT that can burn calories, while adding activity to your day.
• Park further away. Parking further away from the store or work and walking that extra few steps will add up over time.
• There is cleaning and then there is getting-ready-to-host-a-party or have-your-mother-in-law-over-for-dinner cleaning—we all know the difference. Doing additional tasks around the house or putting a little extra effort into your daily chores can be a great opportunity to increase daily NEAT.
• Play with your kids. Carve out even a few minutes for playing catch, kicking a ball or walking down to your neighborhood park, you will be spending precious time with your child while racking up extra activity. An additional benefit to playing is that it can also help boost neural activity and cognition, so not only are you burning a few more calories, you could actually be increasing your brain function as well.

NEAT, Weight Loss, & You

If losing weight is your primary reason for exercising, NEAT is an essential component of that objective. I mean, burning more calories by moving around more should be a priority then right?

But wait, just because you are going to be moving around more doing chores doesn’t mean you can skip your workouts. Let me be clear – do not skip your workout because you are going to have an active day – workout like normal and still have that extra activity for the day!

Increasing NEAT by 200 calories per day while also making healthier nutritional choices to reduce caloric intake by 300 calories (the equivalent of a 12-ounce soda and a small bag of potato chips) equals about five hundred fewer calories a day. If you do that seven days a week, you will quickly reach the amount of calories necessary to eliminate a pound of fat (3500 calories). While seemingly small, making the effort to change your daily habits by adding more activity along with reducing overall caloric intake creates a foundation for long-lasting weight-loss success. Throw in some extra weekly workouts and you will be a rock-star!

Interested in becoming a rock-star but don’t know where to begin? Check us out at www.LakeCountryTraining.com and we will help you become that rock-star you know you can be!

Thanks!