Ever wonder how many calories you burn in a day?  The technical term for that is Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE).  Your TDEE has four main buckets; Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR), Exercise Activity Thermogenesis (EAT), the Thermic Effect of Eating (TEF), and Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis. 

Your BMR is the rate at which your body burns energy at rest as your body maintains basic bodily functions like breathing, heartbeat, brain function, sleep, etc.  This can be influenced by your gender (sorry ladies, this is why men can drop 10 lbs while we struggle to drop 1 lb), age, lean muscle mass, fat mass, genetics, hormones, etc.  BMR accounts for roughly 60-70% of your daily caloric burn.

Exercise Activity Thermogenesis (EAT) is just as it sounds, the energy burned while intentionally exercising like going to the gym, running, playing sports, etc.  This typically represents 10-15% and will vary based on the activity level of each person.

Thermic Effect of Feeding (TEF) is one of my personal favorites!  Did you know that you actually burn calories while your body is digesting food!  Awesome!  This function typically represents 5-10% of your TDEE.  There can be some variability based on the type of food you consume.  Your body does have to work a little harder to digest protein and fiber.  Makes sense to me, as you tend to stay fuller for longer if you consume a diet higher in protein and fiber.

And the last bucket is Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis (NEAT) which is the energy expended for everything we do that is not sleeping, eating or sports-like exercise. It ranges from the energy expended walking to work, taking the stairs instead of the elevator, typing, performing yard work, and fidgeting.  NEAT can be roughly 30% of your total TDEE. 

So……What’s the easiest way to lose weight?  Exercise more, right?  Wrong!

I’m not saying you shouldn’t exercise as there are many health benefits and exercise is how we become stronger.  However, as we saw, exercise accounts for roughly 10-15% of your TDEE.  Let’s say you go to the gym for an hour six times per week.  There are 168 hours in a week.  Let’s back out time for sleep, so that’s 8 hours per night x 7 which equals 56 hours.  Let’s assume we spend an hour a day eating (ideally more, but just to illustrate).  Starting with 168 total hours in a week and backing out 6 hours for exercise, 56 hours for sleep, and 7 hours for eating, you are left with 99 hours for NEAT.  Try increasing your NEAT to burn extra calories by incorporating small changes into your daily routine. 

Walk the Walk

We’ve all heard that “Sitting is the new smoking”.  This is where I think we have the biggest opportunity.  If you sit at a desk most of the day, find ways to incorporate breaks where you take a lap around your building for 5 min at a time, ideally once every hour.  You could kill two birds with one stone by using a small water bottle and using the need to refill it as an opportunity to get up from your desk.  Do the math to figure out how many times in a day you need to refill it to hit 1 gallon of water and use rubber bands to keep track of how many times you have refilled by adding one each time.  Or better yet, get a Gallon Jug with time markings on it and use the markings as a cue for you to take your next walk break.

For every 20 min of walking that you can get in, you are burning roughly an extra 150 calories.  If you got in 20 min per day 7 days a week, that’s over 1,000 calories!  To give you some perspective on that, in order to lose 1 lb of fat you need to burn 3,500 calories.  What if the only change you made was walking 1 hour per day?  That would equate to roughly 3,150 calories per week!  And by the way, you don’t need to get that hour in all at once.  If you did a 20 min walk before or after your 3 meals a day, you would get the same effect.  Any combination would work.  I personally love going on long walks in the morning before I eat breakfast to maximize my fat burn while I am still in a fasted state. 

Another great way to get more walking in is to try to use it as a form of transportation.  Lately, I have been consciously walking my kiddo to the park that is about a 10 min walk away, and on days where we can’t fit the park in, we’ve been walking too the grocery store to pick up one or two odd items that I need.

Stand Up

If you simply cannot get away from your desk, look into getting a Stand Up Desk.  The simple act of standing burning more calories than sitting.  A 150 lb person who stands 8 hours while at work five days a week burns 1,500 extra calories per week compared to someone of the same weight who sits for those same 8 hours.  By standing for three additional hours each day over the course of a year, you can burn up to 30,000 extra calories and eight pounds of fat. That’s the equivalent of running about ten marathons.  Sorry ladies, once again, men will burn slightly more calories due to their increased muscle mass, but this is a change that still benefits both sexes. 

Child’s Play

Think of increasing your NEAT as a game.  You know those fitness trackers we all have and maybe don’t use?  USE THEM!  If your Fitness Tracker displays your steps, try to beat your steps from the prior day or prior week.  Do a step challenge on the app with your friends.  If your Watch shows your active calories, set a goal on the watch that is an increase over your typical pattern and seek out creative ways to get that extra burn.  Some other ways to get that extra burn in without much effort is to take the stairs instead of the elevator, park farther away from the store or work, clean the house like your OCD mother-in-law is coming to visit, and get out and play with your kids.  These are obviously just a few.  I’d love to hear the NEAT ways you get your extra burn in!  Make it happen!