Physical activity in daily life - or incidental physical activity - can be very important for health. “It is all the exercise we do in the tasks of daily life, on a day-to-day basis. But to get the most out of it, we must do them consciously,” explains physiotherapist Lluís Puig on RAC1.cat. Housework, traveling on foot, active breaks at work or climbing stairs are activities that Puig gives as an example.
This incidental activity, also called NEAT (non-exercise activity thermogenesis), has a great positive impact on health if done well. But there is an effect that makes us eliminate this activity when we train in the gym. It is the so-called reward effect or compensatory effect. Surely it has happened to you that you have gone to the gym and when you returned home, you took the elevator to go up home. Your body and your brain are telling you that you have done enough exercise.
A meta-study from the University of Copenhagen analyzed 24 research papers describing people's daily physical activity levels before and during interventions with different structured (gym) programs. “In 67% of the studies we have seen that people reduce physical activity in their daily lives as compensation for training more. This includes walking less, cycling less, and taking the elevator instead of taking the stairs,” said Julie Marvel, author of the study and graduate student in the Department of Nutrition, Exercise and Sports at the University of Copenhagen.
Many people who try to lose weight or get in shape do not succeed precisely for this reason: they get carried away by the compensatory effect, and no longer do any type of activity. In fact, one of the studies included in the meta-analysis, published in Current Nutrition Reports, concluded that this decrease in daily exercise resulted in a 22% lower weight loss than expected in the training program. According to researchers, there are two reasons to stop doing daily physical activity when we go to the gym. On the one hand, there is purely physical fatigue, but on the other there are psychological factors, a kind of reward system.”
According to Cristina Rotllan, physiotherapist, physiologist and collaborating professor of the UOC's master's degree in Nutrition in Physical Activity and Sports, "this often happens in our sedentary society, perhaps we are active people because we go to the gym, but then we spend eight hours a day in the chair, and we take the elevator when we get home. It is very difficult to change that sedentary lifestyle.
Would it be healthier not to do intensive training in the gym and make the most of daily physical activities? "We have to be active in daily life, but we need a point of exercise that makes us get tired and leave our comfortable zone, intense exercise. Otherwise, we don't create muscle or become more resistant. We can't run when we have to catch the bus. That is, we must work more than we need for daily life," adds Rotllan.
The post-gym feeling leads to less physical activity, but also, in some cases, to eating more. While it is true that playing sports generates a greater physiological need to eat calories, there is a psychological aspect, we believe that we can eat more, because we have already "burned it off."
"Eating consumes more calories than we lose by climbing stairs. Sometimes, if you have dinner or a meeting, you go to the gym earlier to give way to your hunger, and that is a mistake," explains Clara Bergé in RAC1.cat, physiotherapist at CEM Trèvol Lleida, professor of Physiotherapy at the Tecnocampus of Mataró and member of the Board of the College of Physiotherapists of Catalonia: “Exercise should not be done to be able to eat more, or to be able to eat worse", but rather "we must do it because it is good for cardiovascular, metabolic, musculoskeletal health and longevity. It should be done to generate endorphins, have fun and be healthy, not to compensate for what we eat," she adds.
The Danish research also showed that people who had “positive affect” (those who enjoyed exercising and showed positive moods such as joy, interest and alertness) also ate less and therefore achieved more weight loss than those who had a “negative affect” (those who thought exercise was difficult and not very fun).
“This shows that the psychological aspect is important in determining whether or not you are successful with your training program, and it also means that you need to find the right type of exercise for you,” says Julie Marvel.
