NEAT Beat

In a burst of sudden and foolhardy motivation, I decided to do the famous Cindy Crawford workout.  After all, she was THE model of my times, and how hard could a model workout be?  Three days later, I still found it difficult to move without pain.  Ms. Crawford had me doing lunges, push-ups, and odd concoctions of yoga-like poses that looked physically impossible.  Ms. Crawford was only the beginning of my infatuation with workouts that personified my mantra of “no pain, no gain”.  There’s no such thing as fitness without sweat and pain, right?

Think again.  I just finished reading the game-changing book written by Dr. James Levine called Move a Little, Lose A Lot.  Dr. Levine introduces the idea of NEAT, which stands for Nonexercise Activity Thermogenesis.  Basically, you don’t need to sweat or feel pain in order to be fit.  Instead, you have to identify moments in your life where you can incorporate more movement.  The idea is to avoid the creep of sitting disease.  Everyone has a natural inclination to move, which he describes as the NEAT beat.

I had heard of NEAT before, and have always been a skeptic.  I considered it fairly ridiculous to rate a few extra steps each day as more important than a sweaty, fatiguing session pounding iron at the gym.  However, I did try it several years ago.  My health insurance offered free pedometers to members, which included use of a website to track daily step goals.

I had fun with my pedometer, and even passed it along to my daughter and husband.  I lasted for about a month or so.  It was a novelty, which soon became a shelf trinket in our home.  Perhaps I was too much a victim of sitting disease.

Earlier this year, I lost my job.  It was a very emotional time for me.  Did I mention that I am an emotional eater?

[bctt tweet=”Between my emotional upheaval and more time spent at home, I anticipated unprecedented #weight gain. But, it never happened. Here’s why.”]

According to Dr. Levine, a homemaker has standing work which results in a NEAT expenditure of approximately 1,400 kcal a day.  I can testify that I almost never sit down, and I am rarely still.  I have not gone to the extent of making my office space a walking area like Dr. Levine has, but I am constantly on the go.

Even though I don’t belong to a gym and only occasionally complete one of the many exercise videos I have at home, I have not gained any weight since I lost my job.

Not only has my NEAT beat prevented me from gaining weight, but it has also helped me lose those stubborn 10 pounds from my last pregnancy.  My daughter is well into toddlerhood, so there is no good explanation for why I haven’t lost the weight earlier.  The only conclusion I can draw from the loss of those 10 pounds, without a disciplined diet or exercise plan, is that my NEAT beat has been set free.  I now have permission to move!  And, I love to move!

Maybe there is something to all this science that Dr. Levine has spent his life researching.  As for my old mantra of “no pain, no gain”, I would instead say, “move to the beat of your own drum”.

How will you find your NEAT beat?