There are huge differences in people’s NEAT and NEPA levels, which makes them almost impossible to predict. The former would be like fidgeting the latter is like carrying groceries. 9“NEPA” is the number of calories you burn though non-formal, yet intentional movement. “NEAT” represents the number of calories you burn through subconscious movement throughout the day. Your Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis (NEAT) & Non-Exercise Physical Activity (NEPA) Levels.It’s easier to ignore TEF when calculating your maintenance calories. For example, if you eat 500 calories less per day, you’re already burning 50 fewer calories through TEF. It’s also hard to estimate your TEF since it changes based on what and how much you eat. In most cases, the TEF of your diet is small enough that it’s not worth counting. 7,8 If you eat 2,000 calories per day, you’ll burn about 200 calories digesting your food. In most cases it will be around 10% if you eat a well-balanced mixed diet. This is the number of calories you burn digesting food. In most cases this isn’t significant, 6 and you can think of EPOC as a bonus for pushing yourself a little harder rather than something you need to count. 3 You’ll learn how to estimate the calorie needs of people with higher energy expenditures in a moment.Įxcess post-exercise oxygen consumption (EPOC), aka “the after burn effect,” is the number of calories you burn after a workout that is due to the exercise. If you’re moderately active, meaning you exercise around 30-60 minutes per day at a moderate to high intensity, the number of calories you burn through exercise will be around 15-30% above your resting metabolic rate. The problem is that the number of calories someone burns through formal exercise can range from zero to over six thousand calories per day. The more you move, and the more intense your movements, the more calories you burn. The biggest variable in your energy expenditure is how active you are - or your “thermic effect of activity” (TEA). Your Activity Levels & Excess Post-Exercise Oxygen Consumption.We’ll use basal metabolic rate in this article, because we’ll be discussing the other components separately. Your resting metabolic rate (RMR) is your BMR plus the number of calories you burn digesting food, the number of extra calories you burn after exercise, and other small bodily functions. Most moderately active people burn about 60-75% of their calories from their basal/resting metabolic rate. If a larger percentage of your body mass is muscle and other lean tissue, then you’ll burn even more calories. The larger your total body mass, the higher your BMR. Your BMR can change based on a number of factors, but it’s generally correlated with your lean body mass and to a lesser degree, your total body mass. This is roughly the number of calories you burn lying in bed, on an empty stomach, at a comfortable room temperature. The 5 Factors that Determine Your Maintenance Calories Let’s start by looking at the different ways your body burns calories. You want to know the best way to estimate your maintenance calorie needs, so you can use that information to lose fat, gain muscle, or be more flexible about your diet. However, your problem is that you don’t know how many calories you need to maintain your weight. You know that it’s okay to eat your favorite foods in moderation as long as they fit within your calorie limits. You know that fat loss and muscle gain are about calories in versus calories out.