The Secret Half of Your Metabolism You’re Probably Ignoring [Ep. 153]

0:00 this is the Eat Well Think. Well Live Well podcast. I'm Lisa Salisbury and this is episode 153. The secret half of your Metabolism, you're probably ignoring I. Welcome to eat well. Well, the podcast for busy women who want to lose weight without constantly counting, tracking, or stressing over every bite. I'm Lisa Salsbury, a certified health weight loss and life coach, and most importantly, a recovered chronic dieter here. You'll learn to listen to your body and uncover the reasons you're reaching for food. When you're not truly hungry, freeing you to focus on a healthier, more fulfilling approach to eating.

0:40 Hi, welcome back to the podcast everyone. Hoping you're having a, a great summer. That always makes me think of the yearbook, you know, like, have a great summer. Anyway, uh, today I'm answering two questions. What is neat and how can you increase it? I'll give you a little spoiler upfront. Walk more. Is going to be a theme here, but there's more to it than that. You might be surprised by how much this kind of movement can impact your weight loss efforts even more than your formal exercise routine. So let's get into it. I've had some great guests talking about exercise over the years on this podcast, but no one has covered this topic.

1:20 So today's episode is based on my own research and what I've learned through my certification programs. I covered this way back a few years ago. But I knew it was time to refresh and discuss again because this is such an important topic. Back when I was deep into fad dieting, I spent a lot of time thinking about how to limit the energy coming into my body, meaning counting and tracking calories, food, macros, all the things. But I never really thought about how my energy got used. So like many people, I only paid attention to my formal workouts and assumed that that was the most important part of my energy output and I was wrong.

2:04 I. When we think about movement and exercise, I want you to separate it from your nutrition. Diet culture has welded these together. Diet and exercise. Diet and exercise. That's what you hear all of the time, and it comes from the, you know, calories in versus calories out approach. The truth is, while I don't recommend this approach, you can absolutely lose weight without exercise. As long as your nutrition is dialed in now, what's less likely is that you'll lose weight from exercise alone unless you're already maintaining your weight and the only thing you change is adding in workouts.

2:47 If you're counting on exercise alone to lose weight, you'll probably feel frustrated long before you see any real changes because let's be honest, results from workouts don't show up in a week or two. And it's actually way easier to skip supersizing your next takeout order, or skip that random handful of crackers every time you walk through the kitchen than to try to burn 500 calories through intense exercise. Plus, your body is smart. And this is sometimes unfortunate, but it adjusts, right? So you might feel hungrier or start moving less in other parts of your day without realizing it if you're overdoing it in the gym.

3:27 That's why exercise on its own isn't the most effective weight loss tool. But the good news is exercise does give you some immediate returns. You feel more energized, your mood improves, you sleep better, and all those wins make it so much easier to stick with your healthy habits overall. Think. Nutrition here long-term. It helps you keep your muscle, stabilizes your blood sugar, and protects against chronic illness. So remember that exercise is doing a lot behind the scenes that really matters. So it a hundred percent is super important to include exercise in your routine. I mean, movement is essential, but we want to.

4:09 Uncouple it from food so we don't fall into these patterns of punishment or reward based on our workouts. So today we're gonna be focusing on going beyond that formal exercise time that you carve out for yourself. Okay? So not only do I wanna uncouple the formal exercise time, but even what I'm gonna continue to talk about here today, which is that. Neat portion. Okay, so what is neat? That's what this episode is about, right? So most of my exercise type episodes have focused on that formal movement. Um, I've done several on resistance training, like the one with Maverick Willett Kin 2 20 23.

4:51 I've had yoga instructors, Pilates instructors, Steph Gaudreau on rocking, and just, you know, a myriad of personal trainers. But what about the other 23 hours of the day? That's where NEAT comes in. NEAT stands for non. Exercise activity thermogenesis. This is the energy you burn from all of the little movement in your day that isn't your workout. So to understand why this matters, let's break down your total daily energy expenditure. That is your TDEE. Now, I'm gonna give you all of these percentages, but if you are a visual person, I actually created. A little graphic, and it's the same one you've seen like all, uh, you know, all over the internet.

5:34 The one that is most common is black and white, but I just created a little one, and I put that as the artwork for the cover of this. Episode. So instead of doing a cute little picture of me or some stock photo or whatever I normally use, this chart is actually the artwork for the, for this episode. So that way it was just like a little freebie there for you. You can look at that. Most applications that you're listening to your podcast in will show that. Um, but if not, just message me. I'll, I'll send it to you. Okay. So for your total daily energy expenditure, TDEE, 70% of this is your basal metabolic rate, your BMR.

6:18 This is the energy that your body requires to stay alive. This is like heart, lungs, brain, right? It's the amount of energy it would take to lay on the couch all day and not move or. Eat. Okay. This actually doesn't include your digestion. This is obviously the majority of your TDEE, your total daily energy expenditure. This is also known as your REE or your resting energy expenditure. Okay? So then the next comes your NREE or your non resting energy expenditure, which is made up in of three categories. So we have 70% is that BMR?

6:58 So we have 30% left, right? Okay. So 10% then is thermic effect of food. The TEF, this is the cost of digestion. Okay? 5% is your exercise activity thermogenesis, your EAT. This is your formal exercise routine and 15% is your neat. The NEAT, the non-exercise movement, so NEAT actually contributes three times more to your daily energy use than your formal exercise. Routine neat. Also makes up about half of your non resting energy expenditure.

7:39 So we're talking, walking, fidgeting, cooking. These move the dial far more than we give them credit for. While we're talking about daily energy use here, I wanna touch a little bit on taf, TEF and protein. Your body uses energy to digest food, and it uses the most energy to digest protein. So fat is nine calories per gram and the T, the TEF on that is zero to 3%, so the most calories per gram and it. Is the least amount of work for your body to digest it. Carbs are four calories per gram and the TEF is five to 10% and that's five to 10% of the total calories that you ingest eating that.

8:24 Piece of fruit. Okay? Protein is also four calories per gram, but the TEF on protein is 20 to 30%, so it requires 20 to 30% of the calories in that protein to digest it. That's why meals with enough protein help you feel fuller longer, and they burn slightly more energy. Um, uh, because it takes a long time to digest'em, so it kind of feels like, oh, well, if it's burning that much energy, like, why would it stick with you? Be, but it's because like it's, it's going on for a long time. Right. I, I don't count macros with clients as far as dictating their grams of fat and carbs and protein. I just emphasize including protein in every meal.

9:07 I do have protein calculators if you wanna know like how much those are in my, my client base programs. Um, I do have some recommendations for protein broken down in my new GLP one Success Starter kit, and that is a great place to start on nutrition even if you aren't taking the medications. Um, but if you are, there's also some extra, um, information for you specifically on side effects and what to do about the mindset piece of weight loss. So really that success starter kit is good for anyone, but there is some, um, protein information in there as well. Okay, so back to the neat here. What counts as neat if it's 15% of our total, total daily energy expenditure.

9:48 Um, that's a lot. 15% is actually a pretty large number, considering that NEAT includes things like cooking and cleaning, walking upstairs, carrying groceries, gardening, dog walks, playing with your kids, um, even fidgeting. Pacing on calls, knitting, crocheting, right? Like anything you're moving your hands. Also, any job that keeps you on your feet. So restaurant, retail, construction, massage therapy, you know, a lot of those things. Pretty much anything but what I do, which is like sit at my desk and like write new programs and record podcasts. Um, but when your doctor asks you if you have an active lifestyle, they mean.

10:32 This, they mean neat, not so much your workout routine. Typically that'll be a separate line item. How many minutes of exercise do you get? And then do you have an active lifestyle? These are like two different things. So there are some environmental and seasonal effects that we wanna be aware of when we're thinking about our need. And of course we're gonna talk about increasing it. So. Of course the industrial and urbanization effects on Neat are pretty huge if you live in a city and walk most places, as opposed to those of us like me who live in the suburbs and drive everywhere I go. Um, I'll go to drop something off at a neighbor and I'll get in my car like just automatically.

11:15 And I have done this, like, I literally remember like I pulled out. And I'm like, wait, she literally like lives around the corner. What am I doing? It's like less than a quarter of a mile. Um, so we have these like built in habits. So if you are someone like me who lives in a suburb and is just normally used to walking or normally used to driving everywhere you go, um, we have to start developing some new habits. And, um, you know, walk, walk to the neighbor's house if you can. There's also seasonal effects on neat. We tend to be less active in the winter months for various reasons, but naturally, if it's cold, we tend to walk outside less. Um, I was just looking at my step count over time and on average.

11:59 I walk about a thousand steps less. This is per week. I look at my averages per week. I walk about a thousand steps less in the winter months than I am in the summer months. Like that's, that's a pretty big number. Um, I tend to want to run errands less. I also get more steps in the summer. Because I tend to hike more in the summer, so that'll bring up like my monthly or weekly total when I have a big hike day. That's, you know, thousands and thousands of steps. I think I'm also just more hunkered down in the winter. I don't wanna move around as much, even in the house when I'm cold and cuddled under a blanket. So. You don't have to be a gym rat to have an active metabolism, but you do have to move and think about these things and think about the ways that you can move throughout the day.

12:47 When you increase your neat, you're adding energy output without typically the wear and tear, or sometimes the mental effort of another full workout in a day. So I mentioned things that count for neat, but what about ways to increase it if you're like, okay, well I know all those things count, but like maybe I do all those things. So there's some typical advice, right? Take the stairs whenever. Practical. You've all probably seen those, um, images or videos of, um, the stairs right next to escalators and the escalators are full and the stairs are empty. Take the stairs.

13:28 Really, truly, if you can, if there is a choice, take the stairs park farther away when you're going on errands. Um, you know, don't drive around and look for the very closest, most, you know, best parking spot. Walk around during phone calls if you're talking to your sister. Like maybe even get out and walk around the block. Do some of your household drawers? I have to say, like I do have a housekeeper that comes just once a month to help me get on top of things. And sometimes I get really lazy in the month and I like, don't do as much of the like maintenance as I should. But, you know, vacuuming, mopping, straightening up, carrying the laundry up and down stairs, all of those house chores count and I often, um.

14:14 Think about this. When I'm doing laundry, my laundry is downstairs and my bedrooms are upstairs, and that's where I fold my laundry. And so I will purposely take more trips than it requires. Like maybe I am trying to carry up my laundry basket and my water bottle, and instead of trying to get everything in one trip, I'll just take the laundry basket up, dump that out. Walk back down, get my water bottle, walk back up like one or two extra. You know, climbing of the stairs counts. If you are an office worker or you work at home, like I do stand and stretch regularly during work hours. As annoying as you know, Fitbits and Apple watches and all of those things can be, I gotta say I leave on my stand reminders.

14:58 Those reminders that say like, you have not stood up for an hour. Like, come on now. I'm like, oh yes, thank you. I am actually so grateful for those. 'cause sometimes I do get in the groove and I'm just like working and I don't stand up. And so I do love to keep those on it. Um, mine reminds me 10 minutes before, I think, I think it's 10 minutes before, so. Use those kind of devices. If you have, if you have a fitness tracker, be sure that those reminders are turned on. use errands and grocery runs as step opportunities. So this actually like really goes against my nature to say this, but you know, maybe.

15:39 Walk through the grocery store in a very inefficient manner. If you have time like this, like pains me because I do not wanna be in the grocery store longer than I need to be. And if I have to backtrack, I'm like kicking myself. But you know, you don't have to be that efficient. You can use that time to like walk up and down the walk, walk up and down every aisle, even maybe even if you don't need something on that aisle. but the other thing about using errands and groceries for a chance to get in extra neat is. We have used a lot of services for this. So, you know, grocery pickup services and, um, you know, DoorDash and all kinds of delivery. Now, I, I hate to say this, like, don't do that anymore because number one, I don't have little kids anymore.

16:24 I think if I had three little kids, like trying to cram in a cart, I probably would be using grocery pickup as well. So, for you, you're gonna have to, you know, increase your meat in other ways, because I get, you don't wanna take, you know. A, a boatload of kids into the grocery store. But if you are able to run your own errands, like do that as an opportunity to increase your, um, you know, your activity during the day, you can stretch during TV shows in the evening. caring for house plants or a small garden outside. I have a small garden. I have three small, grow boxes. I mean. My tomatoes don't, didn't get the message that they are in a small space.

17:07 Uh, they are like going crazy. They're. I have a couple of tomato plants that are like over eight feet tall right now. Um, but anyway, side note to that, you know, just the weeding and going out and picking the tomatoes and tucking in the branches and just like the little tending that I do, like the, the major thing was the planting day. And then because I have boxes, they're pretty like low maintenance, but also caring for house plants, like carrying them back and forth to the sink for watering. And then. Um, even just fidgeting, like this is also against my nature. I'm not really a fidgeter. I tend to sit pretty still when I'm watching tv, um, or otherwise just talking to someone. But fidgeting does count for neat.

17:48 I can't also like bounce my leg or anything like that because it drives my daughters nuts. But one thing that I can do. Instead of fidgeting because I'm just not naturally a fidgeter is have hand work in my lap. Things like crocheting or knitting, if you like that, do that while you're watching tv. That's a another great way to just get in a little bit of upper body movement. Um, but ultimately any way that you can stand versus sit. That's gonna be a win. Anytime you can do a few extra walking things, that's going to increase your non-exercise activity. Thermogenesis. Our lives are just so efficient that we've removed a lot of this everyday movement.

18:32 By no means do I wanna go back to, you know, hauling water and washing my clothes by hand on a washboard. I don't wanna do that. But because we're not doing those things, we do have to be intentional about upping our daily movement. So some final thoughts for you. The title of this episode says this is the secret half of your metabolism you're probably ignoring. To be fair, it's not quite half, but you'll be surprised how much easier it is to meet your weight loss goals when you increase this movement, and where I get the half is it's half of your exercise activity thermogenesis, right?

19:16 So check that chart in the little icon if, um, if the math isn't math in your brain, but I just want you to think about. Not dismissing the take the stairs type advice. Those small choices matter. And if it feels like old school diet advice, just remember you aren't earning your food by doing these things. There's so much more to daily movement from a health perspective, and it is so much more than earning food. That's not what it is about. At all. Like I said in the beginning, let's separate out our exercise from our nutrition, and that is gonna be the healthiest mindset to have. Whether you're navigating weight loss naturally or if you're using GLP one medications, your neat movement will benefit you no matter what.

19:59 If you feel stuck, increasing daily movement could be your missing piece. If something in today's episode made you think differently or gave you that little nudge that you need, that's exactly why I do this. And if you are ready to take it further, I'd love to support you. Start with a couple of my freebie. Number one, if you're considering GLP one medication or if you are already on it. I have a brand new GLP one success. Starter kit GLP ones are a great tool to assist you with your weight loss, and so I've developed a program that is specifically for people who are on these medications, so check that out. It's free. It'll give you an idea of how I will coach you and how it might be a little different if maybe you have been a past client or checked me out before, but now you are using medication.

20:45 I have really added a lot to my repertoire and, um, in developing that new coaching program and it is benefiting both sides of my client practice. So if medication is not up your alley, that is perfectly fine. My new knowledge I will tell you is going to really benefit you as well. if you are a person that you find you are overeating too many times in a week to see lasting weight loss. Then I want you to grab my What to do when you Overeat. Course. This has a reset and recover guide and a video series that goes with it, and it just helps you figure out how to reduce your overeats and not beat yourself up about it. Of course, I'd love for you to schedule a free consult session to see if my one-on-one coaching programs are right for you.

21:26 All the links are in the show notes. Remember, it's not just about the food. It's about empowering yourself with choices that truly serve you. Have a great week and as always, thanks for listening and sharing the Eat Well Think Well Live Well podcast.