Integrated Wellness Concepts
  • Home
  • Services
    • Testimonials
  • Supplements
  • Videos
  • Blog
  • Contact
    • About IWC
    • Partners
    • The IWC Team

Carl is NEAT!

5/18/2016

0 Comments

 
By Jeremy Koerber

Damn it Carl! Just when I thought about hiring the kid up the street to mow my lawn, Carl, my next door neighbor and client, went out and bought a lawn mower and began mowing his own yard. To set the context, Carl (not his real name) came to Integrated Wellness Concepts in June of 2015 with the goal to lose body fat and get in shape. A savvy business man who knows he can make more income in the hour it takes to mow his yard than it costs to have a lawn service knock it out, I was convinced this was the play I was to take in 2016.

I trained Carl and his good friend Phil multiple times over the next few months and each session was awesome. They left the gym covered in sweat with the butts sufficiently kicked but neither their body fat or waistlines were changing. You could tell the frustration was setting in and Carl was beginning to ask the question many of us ask:

“Why should I continue to bust my *ss when I am not getting any results?”

But it wasn’t that simple. As we dug deeper Carl was exercising hard (when he exercised), not getting great sleep and really hadn’t changed his nutrition. Instead of employing the 85% rule (eat clean 85% of the time) he was very sporadic in how and what he ate. And, there was the sitting. Like, a lot of sitting. Being in the insurance industry Carl sits a lot and that was one of the biggest reasons he wasn’t losing weight. He was kicking tail in the gym but that was all the movement he was getting.

This is a very common issue with clients we personal train and coach. They have great workouts in the gym but work extremely sedentary jobs and are not able to take advantage of a little something called Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis or NEAT. Essentially NEAT is everything we do that is not sleeping, eating or sports/exercise. It can entail fidgeting, long walks on the beach and yard work. Any
movement not in the planned activity category can be classified as NEAT and it can be the missing piece of your weight loss puzzle. Just get up and move!!

Carl and I sat down in February to go over his nutrition and as suspected, there were several improvements to be made. Carl made the changes and began to lose both weight and inches around his waistline.

Then it happened. As the temperature warmed and the grass greened up, you can imagine my surprise when I heard a lawnmower across the fence and saw Carl in command of a shiny new Toro mower. Soon after that sighting, Carl began to text that he had dropped a few pounds. Then came another text, then another and another. The extra movement in combination with the nutrition changes were the missing pieces of his weight loss puzzle.

Will fidgeting, parking remote, taking the stairs or mowing your yard (let me be clear that this entails using a push mower…that is not self-propelled; I know I’m a buzzkill) be the missing component? Hard to say but it falls into the category of “it won’t hurt and it might help”.

The bottom line is to focus on moving more and sitting less. The more you focus on moving, the more you will move and that equates to higher levels of fitness, better heart health, more calories burned and lower levels of body fat. Be like Carl and you too can be NEAT.

What do you do to get more movement in your daily life?
Picture
0 Comments
    Picture

    Author

    Jeremy Koerber, MA is the owner of Integrated Wellness Concepts. An ASCM certified Health Fitness Specialist with 17 years’ experience in the health and fitness industry, his philosophy is to create wellness 
    plans and exercise programming that focuses on integrating physical and nutritional concepts into his client's lifestyles that fit their objectives, interests and personality. 

    Archives

    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    October 2016
    August 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014

    Categories

    All
    Benefits Of Exercise
    Benefits Of Healthy Living
    Cardiovascular Exercise
    Exercise
    Find My Happy Place
    Find Your Happy Place
    Happy Place
    Healthy
    Healthy Living
    Relaxation
    Rest
    Rest For The Weary
    Strength Training

    RSS Feed

    Blog Directory at OnToplist.com
Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.