Welcome to the final part of our fat loss series. Part 1 covered mindset and Part 2 covered sleep, calories and macronutrients. This part is about the other side of the equation: burning energy. The more you move, the easier the kitchen becomes and the faster your progress, and that does not mean four hours a day in the gym at the expense of your social life. There are three levers: training, lifestyle and NEAT for fat loss, the everyday movement most people overlook entirely. Here is how each works, from the team at Hammer’s Gym in Nunawading.
1. Training
Getting to the gym regularly is the best first step toward changing your body composition, and the benefits reach well beyond the calories you burn there: better mood, more energy and, above all, the muscle that raises your metabolism and shapes your body as the fat comes off. Read why lifting weights is essential for weight loss.
Not sure what to do once you arrive? Classes are often the best start: the instructor welcomes you, you make friends with the people beside you and you get a great workout without planning anything. All of Hammer’s classes are included in membership. Prefer training alone? Follow a structured plan such as our balanced gym program and learn the equipment before you go. If you sit for much of the day, simply turning up and raising your heart rate three times a week is a major stride toward your goal.
2. Lifestyle
What you do outside the gym has an enormous effect. Increasing the time you are active each day keeps your body moving, your energy up and your deficit easier to hold. How you do that can be as creative as you like. Goal-setters might aim for a daily step target or a rule to move for two minutes every hour of the working day. If you prefer improvising, take the hill you usually avoid when walking the dog, walk to the shops for a few items instead of driving, take the stairs, park at the far end of the car park. Individually these are tiny; over weeks they add up to a lot of energy, and they become second nature faster than you expect.
3. NEAT: the movement you do not count
Gym-goers love an acronym, but this one earns it. Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis (NEAT) is the energy your body uses for everything you do that is not sleeping, eating or deliberate exercise: walking, standing, fidgeting, housework, carrying shopping. It is a bigger lever than most people realise.
Your total daily energy expenditure has three parts. Your basal metabolic rate, the energy your organs and systems use just to keep you alive, is roughly 60 to 70 per cent of the total. The thermic effect of food, the energy used to digest what you eat, is about 10 per cent. The rest comes from physical activity, and for anyone who is not a professional athlete, NEAT makes up far more of that slice than workouts do. The difference between a sedentary day and an active one can be several hundred calories, every day, without a single extra gym session.
That is why NEAT matters so much for fat loss. The more you move through the day, the more energy you use, the easier it is to stay in a calorie deficit, and the easier your deficit is to keep, the more sustainable your fat loss becomes. It is the quiet engine behind every long-term success story we see on the floor.
Practical ways to raise your NEAT
- Set a step target and build toward 8,000 to 10,000 a day; a watch or phone keeps you honest.
- Stand or walk during phone calls.
- Take a 10-minute walk after lunch and after dinner.
- Do your own housework and gardening with a bit of vigour.
- Get off the bus a stop early or park further away.
- Choose active social plans: a walk with a friend instead of a coffee sitting down.
Putting the series together
Kind, patient self-talk and realistic targets (Part 1). Enough sleep, a moderate deficit and protein-first nutrition (Part 2). Regular training, an active lifestyle and plenty of everyday movement (Part 3). None of it is a secret and none of it is quick, but it works for everyone who keeps applying it, and it works for life rather than for a season.
Start your journey at Hammer’s Gym
Hammer’s has personal trainers and daily group classes that cover everything in this series, plus a recovery zone to help you bounce back between sessions. If you have read this far and want to try us, claim a free one-day trial and mention this series at reception when you enquire about membership. We are in Nunawading, minutes from Mitcham, Blackburn, Box Hill and Doncaster.