Hey,

It's time for another instalment of the Vitamin––the weekly fitness newsletter that helps you be healthier, stronger, and leaner while navigating fitness bullshit.

An actual fat loss hack

There's no shortage of fat loss hacks in the fitness space.

From magical supplements claiming to 'boost' your metabolism and turn you into a 'fat-burning furnace' (whatever the fuck that means) or fitness influencers incessantly prancing around the gym, believing their workouts are burning thousands of calories.

Unfortunately, all of these are just straight up bullshit.

And unless you're an athlete whose literal job is to work out, your weekly exercise routine isn't burning as many calories as you think.

BUT, there's one thing that isn't bullshit. And if there were an actual fat loss hack, this would be the closest thing to it.

It's called NEAT, and we're going to talk about it.

Wait, what the heck is NEAT?

NEAT, or Non-exercise activity thermogenesis, is the component of your metabolism that accounts for all movement that isn't intentional exercise, like walking, fidgeting, etc.

Why should I care?

While the other components of your metabolism can't be changed much, NEAT is the one component that can significantly impact how many calories you burn each day.

For example, one study looked at the effect of occupational intensity on energy expenditure. [1]

As the image above shows, the difference between 'seated work; no option of moving' and 'seated work; requirement to move' is 300 kcals/day. Going from 'seated work; no option of moving' to 'standing work' is a 100% increase in energy expenditure.

So, it's not hard to see how low levels of NEAT can affect your progress. Working out for an hour 3-4 days per week is only 2% of the week. Even 5-7 days of exercise only accounts for 4% of the week, a very small sliver of time compared to the time you spend not exercising.

In contrast, increasing the amount of time you spend moving every day could increase your energy expenditure significantly.

Moreover, research into NEAT and fat gain suggests that people who increase NEAT in response to overfeeding gain less fat than people who don't increase NEAT as much (or at all).

One study fed healthy participants 1000 kcals/day over their maintenance intake for eight weeks. The participants who gained the least fat ramped up NEAT significantly (up to ~700 kcals/day). [2]

Higher levels of NEAT could also play a role in successfully maintaining your weight loss. Ostendorf and colleagues found weight loss maintainers took more steps per day compared with normal-weight controls and controls with overweight/obesity. [3]

Quick aside: While we often think of NEAT as 'walking', this isn't entirely accurate. Walking does fall under NEAT, but a lot of NEAT isn't under our conscious control. For example, some people are naturally more 'fidgety' than others. But because walking (or light activity) is the one thing we can control, it's a good general proxy for NEAT. Alright, let's keep it moving.

But there's more to NEAT than just increasing energy expenditure

One study followed ~4000 men and women for 12.5 years and found individuals with higher levels of NEAT saw a 27% risk reduction of CVD events and a 30% reduction in all-cause mortality. Interestingly, these results were independent of how much regular physical activity they were doing. [4]

How much of a difference could this really make though?

Here's a hypothetical example of how much difference NEAT can make to daily energy expenditure in two people of the same age, sex, body weight, and body composition who engage in similar physical activity levels.

In both individuals, the energy expended from the resting metabolic rate, thermic effect of food, and physical activity is the same. The difference in their energy expenditure comes wholly from NEAT. Consequently, someone with higher levels of NEAT could eat a bit more during a fat-loss diet or maintain their weight on more calories, increasing the likelihood of long-term weight loss success.

While the above was just a hypothetical, there is evidence lending support to this idea.

A 2016 study found low energy intake paired with low physical activity levels was a significant predictor of future fat gain. [5] In contrast, the Look Ahead Trial found higher levels of physical activity accompanied by higher food intake was associated with weight loss maintenance over a four-year period. [6]

One reason for this could be due to something called 'energy flux'. At the end of a diet, you can approach weight maintenance in one of two ways:

• 'Low flux': You continue eating fewer calories relative to what you were eating before, paired with low levels of physical activity
  ​
• 'High flux': You increase your physical activity and eat a bit more food, which could help reduce hunger and increase the chances of maintaining your weight.

While both states lead to energy balance, a high-flux state could help mitigate weight regain by better regulating appetite and closing the ‘energy gap’–the difference in energy requirements before and after weight loss.

As I explained earlier, there's only so much physical activity you can do during a given week, but you can increase light activity every day by implementing small but manageable strategies like parking further away at the grocery store, taking the stairs instead of the elevator, taking calls during a walk, etc.

Yeah, it's not as sexy as the latest 'metabolism booster', but unlike those shitty supplements, it actually works. And it's free.

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–Aa

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