NEAT: How Daily Movement Transforms Blood Sugar levels, cardio Health, Metabolism & More

One of the most important things we do at The Active Lifestyle in our personal training sessions is to educate our members on how to get the best out of their daily lives; to improve their overall health outcomes, mental health and reduce pain. What we do in training sessions is obviously of the utmost importance, but what about the other hours of the day?

A factor that simply cannot be ignored is 'NEAT', which stands for Non Exercise Activity Thermogenesis. It's a fancy way of saying 'movement outside of actual training'. The benefits it provides are well worth paying attention to.

Mount Eden Boardwalk - E James Bowman - Photographer, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=134298270

NEAT includes:

• walking

• sitting to standing and vice versa

• climbing stairs

• household tasks

• gardening

• playing with your pets or children

• light movement throughout the day

  
  

According to Levine, NEAT is the single biggest contributor to daily caloric expenditure for most people. In practical terms, incorporating more NEAT represents a sustainable, long-term method of increasing daily calorie burn outside structured workouts.

Benefits of NEAT Daily Activity - Lower blood pressure

Swartz et al studied 18 women with a family history of type 2 diabetes and prescribed them an 8 week walking program (after a 4 week control period) with no changes in diet. The goal was 10k steps a day on the provided pedometer - the control period had participants walking an average of 4972 steps per day, and they increased their average steps to 9213 steps per day on the 8 week program. Participants saw a significant improvement in glucose tolerance, and lowered blood pressure - even without changes in body mass or body fat.

Hamasaki found that regular daily physical activity was associated with a reduced incidence of Type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular events, and overall lower mortality rates.

For many people, especially those with sedentary occupations (e.g. desk-bound professionals and business owners, NEAT offers a realistic, sustainable complement to structured workouts. This supports the notion that “daily movement matters beyond just scheduled workouts.”

As the personal training studio is located in Mount Eden, Auckland, we are very lucky to live in such a wonderful place for parks, open spaces, and nice scenery. You can walk up Mount Eden, visit Potters Park, or check out many of the smaller parks nearby heading towards Mount Roskill including Centennial Park, Pollard Park and Fearon Park. In Sandringham there is Gribblehurst Park, or Epsom has the awesome Windmill Park with it's own basketball courts. Big King in Mount Eden/Three Kings is a favourite location for many due to it's dog friendly nature and moderate incline.

References:

Neat by Levine PMID 12468415 Nonexercise activity thermogenesis in obesity management by Villablanca et al PMID 25841254

Increasing daily walking improves glucose tolerance in overweight women Swartz et al PMID 14507493

Daily physical activity and type 2 diabetes: a review Hamasaki PMID 4914832