Last week, my family and I celebrated our 20-year wedding anniversary a little early with a beach vacation—our first time ever at an all-inclusive resort. Definitely not our usual kind of trip, but hey, there’s a first time for everything.
And honestly? We had a blast. A perfect mix of lazy beach days and a few fun adventures sprinkled in.
Now, I won’t lie: between the buffet lines and the poolside drinks, I was absolutely expecting to come home and face the scale with a bit of dread. I mean, I easily hit a month’s worth of calories in that week. Think 4,000 calories a day, minimum.
But here’s the weird part: a couple days after returning home, once the water weight settled… no real change on the scale.
Wait… WHAT?
Isn’t it supposed to be calories in vs. calories out?
That experience reminded me of a key (and often overlooked) part of body composition: NEAT.
Not “neat” like “cool.”
NEAT = Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis.
It’s the fancy term for all the calories your body burns doing non-exercise stuff—like walking, cleaning, standing, even fidgeting. Basically, all the movement that’s not “working out.”
So, what happened on vacation?
Even though I wasn’t working out regularly, I was constantly moving: ziplining with the kids, walking everywhere, treading water, standing in line at the omelet station. That NEAT added up. My body naturally increased its daily movement to maintain balance—homeostasis.
This is the same reason people often don’t lose weight, even when they diet and exercise. They might work out hard in the morning, then subconsciously sit more, nap longer, or fidget less the rest of the day. So while they think they’re creating a big calorie deficit, their body is sneakily adjusting to minimize energy burn.
Your body wants to stay stable. It resists change—both up and down.
Here’s the takeaway:
If you’re trying to lose fat or improve body composition, you can’t just pull two levers (diet and exercise). You have to pull the third one too: movement throughout your day. That’s your NEAT.
Crash diets and hard training without NEAT often lead to burnout and rebound. But when you increase your daily movement—in ways that don’t feel like exercise—you can actually tip the scale in your favor.
So here’s your 3-lever checklist:
These three levers working together? That’s where the real magic happens.
And next time you’re on vacation, move more, enjoy the buffet, and maybe… don’t fear the scale quite so much.