General movement, also known as Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis or (NEAT) refers to calories burned from movements such as steps, housework, fidgeting, or any activity outside of purposeful exercise. Think of it like this. Any time you move, you’re contributing to calories burned through NEAT. While exercise can be important and will burn calories, for most individuals, NEAT will have a much larger impact on your results. Research shows that being more active increases your chances of being at a healthy body weight.
As we know from the energy balance email, we burn calories from 4 different sources (BMR, NEAT, Exercise, and TEF). NEAT being the second-largest burner for most people, shows how important it is. We often associate purposeful exercise as a large contributor to weight loss but relatively speaking, it’s a small percentage of calories burned compared to the amount we can burn through NEAT. It sounds weird, but we’re calorie-burning machines all day long so it’s important not to forget the “bonus” we get that a bit more movement provides.
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