Thread: Sayin' Hello - Quick questions

ChefCB welcome to IM!

hey welcome ChefCb. Sorry I cant answer your questions, i'm pretty new myself.

Originally Posted by ChefCB

I just thought I'd say hello to everyone. I have been browsing this site for a couple weeks and the amount of information available here is unbelievable.

I started out looking for some good training routines and new exercises, and have now decided I am going to drastically change my life around. My main goal is overall health, but I'd love to look like I did 6-7 yrs ago.

Right now I am 5'10" 240 lbs, looking to drop about 30-40 lbs. I am aware this will take some time (like 4+ months), and I am aware that diet plays a very important role. I have a very muscular build and consider myself to be pretty atheletic. I have been lifting seriously 3 days a week for about 3 months. I just maxed out in some lifts and was wondering....

1. If I increase my intensity throughout the week, will I gain muscle\weight?
2. How can I gain strength without gaining weight?
3. Which is more important- Cardio or Diet?

Hey Chef!!


1. Increasing cardio intensity will make you drop body weight/body fat, but as for increasing weight training intensity and gaining muscle/weight, there are a lot of factors that play into it- if I know some of the answers to the following questions, I can probably help you out a bit more.

A. What are your 1RM maxes? By knowing these I can tell you what intensity you need to be training at to do certain things- there are certain % of 1RM
that can dictate different training results- training @ 60% of 1RM will cause different results than training @ 90%
B. What set/reps/exercises are you currently using?
C. What are your short term and ultimate goals- this will help dictate what you do in the gym!!

2. You can gain strength w/o gaining weight- it is called body recompostion- which is a fancy word for altering your % of body fat and lean mass. You can lose body fat, while at the same time gaining muscle, and your body weight will stay the same. However, like I stated above, there are a lot of factors that go into this- I can probably help you a little better once I know more about you!!

3. Great question!! They both are very important, BUT (this is my view) it is easier to stay away from a 200 calorie doughnut than it is to do the exercise to burn it off

Hope this helps, and either post up the answers to my questions, or PM them to me- I think I can help you out!!