Menopause Monday : NEAT caloric burn

The old school message of “calories in vs calories out” may be passé, and I'm not advocating for just counting calories to help with weight loss, but it's important to recognize that we need to get enough fuel —which is made up of calories— to keep our bodies and brains functioning 24/7. We also want to make sure we aren’t consuming too many or not expending enough. It’s a balancing act for sure. 


The amounts of macronutrients — protein, fats and carbs — that make up the calories we consume are also important. This too is a balancing act, and can vary a bit from person to person. I don’t vilify or glorify any macros. They all play certain roles in keeping us healthy and strong. 


I’ll dive deeper into this in a future post. For now, be sure to consume “whole” foods along with plenty of fiber. Eating whole foods will give you a leg up on getting enough vitamins and minerals too.


A lot of women may have relied on “dieting” i.e. eating too few calories in the past, but we want to make sure we are getting enough fuel as we enter perimenopause and into post menopause. Eating too little is a stressor on the body. Getting enough energy and proper amounts of macronutrients will help us repair and build muscle and bone as we age. If we undercut our needs, we risk breaking down muscle and bone mass. No es bueno. 


So today I'm covering things you may not consider about energy in vs energy out, with special attention to NEAT, Non-Exercise Activities Thermogenesis.


Let’s start with the big picture. 


TDEE - Total daily energy expenditure -- The total number or calories needed to keep our bodies and organs functioning 24/7, fuel our workouts, aid with digestion (yes, you burn calories as you consume them. How cool is that!?), and all the time in between. 


BMR - Basal metabolic rate -- Think BASE LINE. If you were in a hospital bed, this is what your body would need to function. It’s the the largest chunk of the total calories we burn each 24-hour day to fuel our brains and organs, just staying alive. Going below this amount repeatedly can be detrimental to our health. When we consume fewer calories than we need, our bodies interpret it as being in famine mode, and the body will break down its own tissues to keep the body functioning.  Women who diet a lot of their lives can be more at risk of losing muscle mass and bone density once they enter menopause and beyond. You can calculate your BMR. To protect your muscles and bones for long term, avoid diets that amount to less than your BMR.


TEF - Thermic Effect of Food -- this is the number of calories burned while eating and digestion. Eating complex carbs, healthy fats, proteins and fiber require more energy (calories) to digest. Yet another reason to cut out the empty calories of processed foods. ⠀
EAT - Exercise Activity Thermogenesis -- this is the number of calories you burn during exercise.  EAT will vary based on how long you workout, the intensity and how much muscle mass you have. Side note, the more muscle mass you have, the more calories you burn at rest. Other side note. People often over estimate how many calories they burn during a workout. Read on. . .
NEAT - Non-Exercise Activities Thermogenesis -- which is the calories burned when you aren't specifically exercising, but moving your body. NEAT can be a game changer in your efforts to lose weight over time and maintain your weight as you age. It may not be strenuous but the little amounts you burn through non-exercise activity can add up. 


NEAT activities are considered ones that don’t get your heart rate up, but burn more calories than sitting or at rest. The other perk to NEAT activities is they shouldn’t spike your cortisol levels that long duration high intensity exercise can. Depending on the NEAT activity, they can be good for your emotional and mental health too. Here are some examples:


Strolling — window shopping with a friend down Main Street, through the hood with a slow senior dog, even around the grocery store aren’t taxing enough to satisfy the recommended 150 minutes of moderate intensity exercise per week, but they all burn more calories than sitting! I personally will walk around the house if I’m on the phone. We live in a two-story house so I run up and down the stairs when I use them.


Fidgeting — If you are a fidgety person, great! You’re burning more calories than non fidgeters. I’ve never considered myself a fidgety person. I don’t bounce a knee when seated or tap pens on my note book. But when I think about it, I’m in motion whenever I’m standing. I may be pandiculating, moving my joints through ranges of motion, undulating my spine or mindfully stretching. Since I hate to sit, I’ll move in my seat a lot too. Honestly, writing these blog posts make up the longest stretches of sitting I do in my week. Ha!


Chores — vacuuming, unloading the dishwasher, folding laundry, wrestling with bed sheets and slip covers all burn calories. I know a lot of people who hire others to do these tasks, but in our house we do them ourselves. I intersperse them with work-at-my-desk time. 


Exercise “snacks” — these are little bouts of exercise. They can actually be a bit strenuous, but short lived. Things like doing a set of pushups on your lunch break, traveling lunges across the house to put things away, having a pair of hand weights by the couch and doing a set of overhead presses when you sit down. Or getting up at a commercial break to walk/run a lap around the house. The possibilities are endless! 


Gardening — gardening can actually be pretty strenuous, depending on the activity. I get a ton of steps mowing my yard. Our lot is on a slope so there’s a lot of pushing and pulling of the mower too. It takes time to mow a half acre, but I like the sense of accomplishment when I finish, as well as the added exercise for the day, so I do it! 


Dancing — I think my gen-x style of dancing in college was serious exercise! You know what I’m talking about. But even if you just sway around your bedroom while getting ready for the day, it is a nice way to burn a bit more energy, without calling it “exercise.” This is also a good opportunity to move your body in different ranges of motion than just facing/moving forward. 


Crafting — depending on your craft, it can be fairly active. I still get down on my hands and knees to cut fabric and back up to the sewing machine. Ripping fabrics to make my crochet rag rugs is a task. Any hobby that requires you to move your hands and arms repeatedly is more calorie-burning than sitting scrolling or telly-watching. 


The point of these NEAT sessions is they help you expend more energy through your day without overly taxing your body. Excessive amounts of high-intensity exercise can back fire, causing elevated cortisol levels, overuse injuries, and just plain exhaustion. In fact some people workout so hard that they end up being sedentary for the rest of the day, even into a day or two after the extreme workout. That ends up negating their efforts.  


People have a tendency to over estimate the amount of calories burned while exercising, but lets consider a 150 lb woman working out at 70% her maximum heart rate. She would burn around 210 calories in 30 minutes. 


Now consider what she might burn during her day outside the gym. This list is an example of NEAT for sh*t that needs to get done, but men of course could do them too!;-) My husband does the vacuuming and a lot of tidying at our house. I do most of the deep cleaning and grocery shopping. 

• Vacuuming (30 minutes): 119 calories
• Grocery shopping (30 minutes): 119 calories
• Light gardening/ yard work (60 minutes): 204 calories
• Playing with the dog while standing (30 minutes): 95 calories
• House cleaning (60 minutes): 204 calories

I wouldn’t have time to do all these things every day, though the point is, NEAT adds up! On average NEAT makes up 15-30% of your energy expenditure per day. This type of activity is really good for women as we age. It's gentler on our stress levels, easy to incorporate into our days and burns more calories between our more strenuous workouts. As the saying goes, "It all adds up!"
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We are meant to move! What kinds of NEAT activities do you enjoy? Or are there ones you want to try? I’d love to know, so drop a comment below. 


Ciao for now,
Kristin