ok, this question has probably been asked millions of times by members but after searching the topics, i didnt really find my answer.

I'm currently 215.4lb, 5' 4", and 29 years old. I have read a lot that weight lifting burns more fat than cardio and since my goal is to burn this stubborn fat, while keeping my LBM where it is or better, I joined this group to start stronglifts.
however, I guess I just want to make sure this is a good program to start while I still weight so much. I carry the majority of my fat in my midsection and thighs and it would be ideal to end up thin and flabby. the ultimate goal isn't so much based on how much I weigh (although it would be really nice to be under 200lbs), but looking and being fit and toned.
since i'm just learning about stronglifts, i just want to make sure that i'm not starting this type of workout too soon.

i guess I should also include that i used the scooby calculator and found my TDEE to be 2101 and subtracted 20% for a total of 1680.8 and thats what i have my goals set at. as well as my macros at 50p/30c/20f

thanks in advance for the advice.... im a total newbie so i apologize if this has been explained somewhere that i didnt find it.

This is a good program to start at any weight, because you MUST get a basic foundation of strength training to move on to any more advanced program and really be successful at it. A more advanced program will potentially have higher calorie burns than this because it may be longer, include more met work (metabolic work), etc, but starting on an advanced program without having a foundation is a waste of time because you won't have the strength or knowledge of basic lifts to be able to do anything properly and at best you just won't make progress or you'll be lifting too light, at worst you'll injure yourself.

I highlighted the bold because that is not precisely true, per se -- but it IS true that you must must must do resistance training to retain lean body mass so at a minimum, you should do strength training for your best looking body and if you only have time to do one type of training, then that's what you should do. If you've got time to do both, you can add 30-45 minutes of cardio in any flavor you enjoy to burn more total calories.

But, since you're already planning to eat at a deficit, there's no need for you to burn calories with exercise.

So, the Scooby numbers seem REALLY low to me - is that because you told it you are sedentary and then you plan to eat back your exercise calories? If not, you should re-run them to include your workouts -- and I'd also include the amount of walking you do every day (like if you walk to the store or work, or the subway rather than driving in a car, you should take that into consideration).

The macro breakdown looks fine - percentages happen to work out about right for you, but in general you want to target at least 1.4g/kg of your bodyweight. However if you do the 'eat your exercise cals' back method, and you blast away 1000 calories one day for some weird reason, you do NOT need to eat it back in equal proportions. If you want you can get 1000 calories worth of ice cream. Just hit that basic protein target (there's also a fat minimum but I think most people naturally reach it by eating food, unless they deliberately eat only 'low fat' foods)

Oh god that was long - TL;DR -- use your caloric deficit for fatloss, use strength training to retain muscle mass, minimum of 1.4g/kg of bodyweight in protein. the rest can be however you want unless you for some reason only eat low fat foods, in which case we'll talk about fat minimums.

Sorry everyone, I was sick and didn't realize anyone had been posting to me on here... there really should be an alert for these things LOL..

Luckily I'm finally over the yuckies- and I resumed gym workouts this morning. Of course, the squat rack was unavailable, which seems to be the trend at my gym (maybe its time to find a new one lol) so my sister and I made the attempt to improvise the best we could. Of course this meant using a bar from the womens area that was only a few pounds (the trainer at the desk said it was a 5lb bar) and adding weight to it to equal 45lbs.+ I'm sure that means that we were not really doing it correctly but we did the best we could with what was available :-(

Squats: 50lb
bench press: 50lb.
barbell row: 70lb.

Do these numbers count since we didn't exactly use the right equipment?

Seems pretty perfect to me. It doesn't really matter if you use a heavier bar and lighter plates, or a lighter bar and heavier plates. That only becomes crucial as you go up in weight after a certain point, because the lighter bars only have a certain weight tolerance (as does your upper back as with the squats it's going to be much more comfortable supporting a wider bar).

Great numbers by the way!

Sometimes ya just gotta improvise a little. I'm sure the Stronglifts police (if it exists, which I don't think it does) isn't going to come arrest you over deviating a little and making do with what you have available to you.

Maybe find out what type of bar it is and how much weight it can actually handle. Bars can and will break when overloaded, and that's not something you want to happen to you in the middle of a lift where it could drop on you and hurt you.