While you may have been scolded as a kid for fidgeting too much, it turns out that things like tapping your fingers on your desk while you study or bouncing your knees up and down while sitting at your desk are actually very good things to keep doing, especially as you age. There’s an official name for all that fussy fidgeting, too.
Any physical activity you do throughout the day that isn’t formal exercise is known as “NEAT” – non-exercise activity thermogenesis. The more NEAT activities you can do throughout the day, the better, according to the experts.
“Encompassing this NEAT into your daily life, this will nudge a person toward making it easier to maintain weight and not gain or not keep gaining,” said Colleen Novak, Ph.D., an associate professor in Kent State University’s Department of Biological Sciences who studies NEAT.
Novak explained to NPR’s “All Things Considered” that more than half the energy we burn during a given day goes toward simply keeping our body functioning. Another 10% is used for digesting and metabolizing the food we eat.
“That leaves the remaining 30, maybe 40%, for all your activity,” Novak said.
Novak explained that much of that remaining energy is taken up by NEAT, or all those tiny micromovements made throughout a regular day. These include everything from walking from a store to your parked car, climbing the stairs to do a load of laundry or getting up from your desk and walking around your office several times a day.
According to James Levine, M.D., Ph.D., who pioneered research on NEAT while at the Mayo Clinic, simple household chores like ironing or folding clothes can use up to 15% of your daily energy. This compares to sitting (such as in front of your computer), which only increases your metabolic rate about 5%, and that’s only about 5-7% more than what you’d burn while lying down. Standing, such as using a standing desk, would double this energetic usage to 10%. Going for a leisurely stroll (think window shopping pace), Levine said, increases your NEAT by a whopping 100%.
While it won’t lead to major weight loss, it will keep you farther away from the health risks of a sedentary lifestyle, Novak said.
Learn more about Kent State’s Department of Biological Sciences.