It can be hard to carve out the time, especially if you’re busy or not motivated. Committing yourself to get to the gym (if you’re even comfortable going back at this point) or finding dedicated time on your home exercise equipment may not always be feasible (raise your hand if your home exercise bike is gathering dust). Moreover, even if you’re able to put in the dedicated time once or twice a week, chances are, you’re limiting the impact of that exercise if you spend much of the rest of your time sitting on your butt or trying to minimize your physical exertion. What you really need to incorporate into your life, and what may really bring long-lasting levels of fitness and weight control, is something known as “Non Exercise Activity Thermogenesis,” or NEAT for short.

In essence, NEAT is a fancy term for everything you do that keeps you physically active and moving, beyond dedicated exercise. Also known as “hidden exercise,” or “invisible exercise” NEAT is the type of physical movement that you incorporate all day long with the chores you do- from gardening to walking the dog to picking up your groceries (even just fidgeting or tapping your feet). Over the course of the day, this “undercover” movement can add up to real physical exertion and calorie burning. The more of this type of movement you can work into your day, the better results you’ll see in terms of your energy, physical comfort, and weight maintenance (or even weight loss). And not only do these types of regular daily movements add up when it comes to fitness, but they also cost nothing and are not likely to be nixed (the way you might skip a dedicated exercise session). As experts say, the best exercise is the one you will do.

In fact, the dirty little secret of dedicated exercise is, in fact, it is often not enough for you to lose weight. But with NEAT, experts advise that you can really skyrocket the number of calories you burn. In fact, for physical strength, fitness, and weight loss, the best bet is to do the dedicated exercise and then jump-start the results by sneaking in as much NEAT as you can, so as to minimize your sedentary tendencies. In fact, according to experts at the Blue Zones website, which provides advice on how to mimic the longevity achieved in the world’s Blue Zone regions, people who live in Blue Zones don’t actually do much structured exercise. What they do instead is perform ongoing physical tasks throughout the day- doing chores by hand, going to neighbors, gardening, etc. – so that they achieve high levels of NEAT during their normal daily activities. The advice for how to up your NEAT activities if don’t live in a Blue Zone?  Walk after every meal. Move while watching television. Walk while you’re on the phone. Anything you can do while also moving is a great way to up your NEAT. For some additional ways to think about incorporating NEAT into your life, get on your treadmill and read this book!