NEAT Calculator (Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis)
Estimate the calories burned by daily non-exercise movement — steps, standing hours, housework, fidgeting and occupation — and how much raising NEAT could add to your daily burn.
How it works
Steps ≈ 0.00057 × kg per step; standing (1.8 MET) and housework (3 MET) as MET − 1 × 3.5 × kg ÷ 200 per minute; occupation and fidgeting from Levine’s NEAT studies, scaled by weight
Non-exercise activity thermogenesis is everything you burn moving about that is not sleeping, eating or deliberate exercise — walking to the car, standing at the counter, carrying shopping, tapping a foot. Mayo Clinic researcher James Levine showed it can differ by as much as 2,000 calories a day between two people of the same size, dwarfing the difference a gym session makes, and that it quietly drops when people diet, which is one reason weight loss stalls. Steps are the biggest controllable lever: each thousand costs around 40 calories for an average adult. Occupation sets the baseline — a server or warehouse worker may burn several hundred more per day than an office worker before any workout.
Worked example
75 kg, 6,000 steps, 2 hours standing, an hour of housework, a desk job and average fidgeting: about 660 kcal/day of NEAT. Walking 10,000 steps instead would add roughly 170 kcal a day — 8 kg of fat-equivalent over a year.
Frequently asked questions
Is NEAT included in my TDEE?
Yes — TDEE = BMR + NEAT + exercise + the thermic effect of food. Activity multipliers (1.2–1.9) are a crude proxy for NEAT plus exercise.
Does a standing desk help?
Standing burns only about 0.15 kcal/min more than sitting — 70 kcal over 8 hours. The bigger benefit is that standing people move and walk more.
Related calculators
General fitness estimate, not medical advice. Calorie and performance figures vary widely between individuals — use them for planning and comparison, and check with a doctor before starting intense training.