10 Aug 2018
By Luke Carlson Posted in caloric deficit, fat loss, calorie intake, nutrition for weight loss, counting calories, body fat, mcdonalds, Stength training, fast food With NO Comment Permalink

Fast Food & Fat Loss; Can they go hand in hand?

By Luke Carlson ON August 10, 2018 With NO Comment

Improving body composition, defined as the percentage of our body weight that is comprised of muscle versus fat, is a paramount goal for the clear majority of exercisers. Two primary interventions drive body composition improvement: 1. Strength training in order to increase lean muscle tissue; and 2. Nutrition intended to lose body fat (and support increased muscle tissue). With so much misinformation and wasted effort in our pursuit of improved body composition, I thought I would share a success story that illustrates an evidence-based, albeit unpopular approach to improving body composition. 

01 Sep 2017
By Luke Carlson Posted in Body Composition, strength training, burn calories, caloric deficit, calories, cardio, exercise, fitness, Exericse Research, fat loss, cardio for weight loss, losing weight With NO Comment Permalink

Cardio doesn't do what we think (or hope) it does

By Luke Carlson ON September 01, 2017 With NO Comment
It's the prevailing myth that so many fitness enthusiasts still cling to: Cardio will help me lose weight.  For nearly 12 years, we at Discover Strength have worked at combatting this misnomer.  I don't think we've been very effective.  Not a day goes by where I don't hear clients mention that they need to increase their cardio to really start improving their body composition.  In full disclosure, I love cardio.  In fact, I have a bias toward cardio.  I run marathons and I do cardio religiously five days per week.  I'm almost rooting for cardio to be effective for weight loss.  However, I'm also aware of what the research continually tells us:
Cardio doesn't do what we all think it does.   
That is, cardio isn't effective for weight or fat loss.  If we survey all the people on a treadmill, elliptical machine, in a spin class, or in a kickboxing class, and we ask them, "What's your objective?" 99% of the answers will be along the lines of, "To lose weight" or, "burn calories."  Stated otherwise, we're all using cardio to help us lose weight; but cardio simply doesn't help people lose weight.  What is cardio good for?  As the name implies, cardio is great for improving cardiovascular fitness and function and potentially mitigating cardiovascular disease risk factors.  Cardio IS valuable, but not for the reasons most of us perform it. 
30 Nov 2016
By Discover Strength Posted in Weight Loss, ancel keys, starvation, study, university of Minnesota, caloric deficit, calories, nutrition, research, Uncategorized With 2 Comments Permalink

A Surprising Lesson about Caloric Intake from a Classic Study

By Discover Strength ON November 30, 2016 With 2 Comments

Our entire training staff read an article published in the Journal of Nutrition that chronicled and provided historical context for the famed “Minnesota Starvation Experiment.”  This study commenced in 1944 toward the end of WWII.  Ancel Keys, a physiologist at the University of Minnesota conducted the most exhaustive study in human history on the topic of human starvation.  The aim of the study was to learn what happens to humans when they are systematically starved.  Equally as important, Keys (and the War Department) wanted to identify a prudent way to re-feed or re-fuel the massive populations of starved POW’s as the war seceded.  The end result was a 1385-page text titled “The Biology of Human Starvation.”

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