As we come to a close on our three-part series, we want to finish our journey with being active in our day to day lives. As we spoke about in part two with nutrition, we need to be burning calories so that the food we are eating can go towards fuelling our bodies throughout the day. The good thing about this is that the more we move and the more we are burning, the easier it will make things in the kitchen and even help fast track our progress with our fat loss. But this doesn’t mean getting in the gym for 4 hours a day and neglecting our social lives, there are many ways we can increase our heart rate and get moving for the better that don’t interrupt our day-to-day life. The three topics that we will cover today will be training, lifestyle and N.E.A.T.
Getting into the gym and getting moving is a great first step towards achieving our body composition goals. The act of getting up and getting down to your local gym can do wonders to your overall health and fitness both mentally and physically. But what do we do once we get into the gym if we are just starting out? At Hammer’s gym, we over a wide range of classes to get you into and get you moving that are included in your memberships. Sometimes these are the best ways to start out as you will be welcomed by the instructor, make friends with your fellow members and get a great workout without having to plan what to do. If classes aren’t your thing and you rather train alone, we would recommend following a training plan online or even watching videos before you go of the equipment that your gym has so you are familiar with how they work. If you work an office job or are sitting down for parts of your day, just getting down to the gym and raising your heart rate will help make great strides towards your goals.
Your lifestyle choices will also have a big impact on your fat loss journey as this will involve everything you’re doing outside of the gym and the decisions you are making. When we increase the time that we are active throughout the day, it helps keep our body moving and will keep a spring in your step when going about our daily activities. There are many different ways of achieving an active lifestyle, and the best part, you can get as creative as you want. If you are a goal-setter and like things to strive for, you can set yourself a step limit per day that you are looking to achieve, or you may even look to set yourself a goal of moving around at least once every hour during your working days. On the other hand, you may be more suited to roll with some things on the fly and turn them into a more active approach. If you have pets that you walk around the block, try taking a turn that you don’t normally take or going up the hill that you avoid. If you live close to the supermarket and you’re only going to pick up a few things, walk down instead of drive. All these little decisions add up over time and will eventually become second nature. Take control of your mind and see what creative ways you can come up with that get you on the move.
The last step that we will take you through that will help you on your journey is understanding N.E.A.T. It seems everyone loves a good acronym in the gym, and it makes them sound smart as they boast about it. But words don’t mean much when they aren’t backed up with actions. Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis (N.E.A.T) is the act of your metabolism working to burn energy even when you aren’t necessarily exercising. This ties into what we have been saying previously, and that is your body is always working and always expending energy (calories) to continue to function for you. Your total daily energy expenditure (TDEE) can be organized into three categories. Your basal metabolic rate (BMR) is the amount of energy the body uses to support functions of the organs and internal systems. This will equate around 70% of your total TDEE. The thermic effect of food (TEF) is the amount of energy the body uses to convert the food into more energy and will make up around 10% of your TDEE. The remaining total will come from the thermic effect of physical activity. This is how your body burns energy from getting up and about and getting moving. This intertwines with what we have covered already, and that the more you get up and get active, the more your body will use energy to fuel what is being asked of it. The more it burns the easier it will be to stay in a calorie deficit. The easier it is to stay in a calorie deficit, the better chance that you will have of maintaining a sustainable fat loss plan.
Getting down to your local gym is a great way to start if you are looking to, and Hammer’s gym has multiple awesome personal trainers and group classes to cover off the many things we have in these blog posts. If you have read this far and are interested in trying Hammer’s Gym, mention this blog post for a special deal on your new membership when you enquire.
