What is "NEAT"?: Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis Explained
What is NEAT? Non-exercise activity thermogenesis refers to calories burned through daily movement outside the gym and plays a major role in metabolism, fat loss, and weight maintenance.
NEAT stands for non-exercise activity thermogenesis, which refers to the calories you burn through all movement that is not structured exercise.
If you go for a run, lift weights, or attend a workout class, those calories fall under EAT (exercise activity thermogenesis). Everything else counts as NEAT — getting out of bed, walking around the house, standing, fidgeting, cleaning, commuting, and even changing posture throughout the day.
NEAT and Total Daily Energy Expenditure
Total daily energy expenditure is made up of several components.
Basal metabolic rate is the number of calories your body burns at rest to maintain essential functions such as breathing, circulation, and organ function. This is largely determined by body size and composition and is not something you can meaningfully control day to day.
Physical activity is the component you have the most control over. This is divided into structured exercise (EAT) and non-exercise movement (NEAT).
NEAT is often overlooked, yet it can contribute more to total daily calorie burn than formal exercise.
Why NEAT Matters More Than You Think
When people want to lose weight or improve fitness, the default solution is often to join a gym. Even calorie calculators tend to ask how many times per week you work out, rather than how much you move throughout the day.
Modern lifestyles make this problem worse. Desk jobs, public transport, screen-based entertainment, food delivery apps, and remote work all reduce the amount of natural movement built into daily life.
In physically demanding jobs, people can burn thousands of additional calories per day compared to someone who is largely chair-bound. This far exceeds what most people burn during a standard gym session unless they are endurance athletes.
NEAT and Fat Gain
NEAT has been shown to significantly influence how individuals respond to overfeeding.
In one study where participants consumed 1,000 calories per day above maintenance, fat gain varied tenfold between subjects. The primary factor explaining this difference was how much their NEAT increased in response to excess calories.
In short, higher NEAT can help offset fat gain during periods of overeating.
NEAT, Weight Loss, and Metabolic Adaptation
Physical activity also plays a role in adaptive thermogenesis — the reduction in energy expenditure that occurs after sustained weight loss.
Research shows that successful weight loss maintainers tend to have higher daily step counts compared to individuals at a similar body weight who did not previously lose weight. This suggests NEAT may be a key factor in long-term weight maintenance.
Can Exercise Reduce NEAT?
There is also evidence supporting the concept of constrained total energy expenditure, which suggests that higher levels of structured exercise may reduce NEAT in some individuals.
A simple example would be completing an intense workout and then spending the rest of the day sitting due to fatigue. In this case, exercise calories are not purely additive because spontaneous movement decreases.
This helps explain why exercise alone does not always produce the expected weight loss results.
The Takeaway
NEAT is an often neglected but highly impactful component of calorie expenditure.
High levels of NEAT may help reduce fat gain during calorie surpluses, support fat loss, and play a crucial role in long-term weight maintenance.
The best part? NEAT is free and requires no gym membership or special equipment.
Simple strategies include walking instead of using public transport, taking the stairs, parking further away, standing and moving regularly during desk work, and generally building more movement into daily life.
People often say you can’t out-exercise a poor diet. Likewise, it is very difficult to out-exercise a sedentary lifestyle.