weight loss/preserving muscle

I'm going to break-up your post into sections so it's easier to follow my reply to your questions...

Okay so I decided to take a less aggressive approach and set my deficit for .5lb a week and am focusing more on macros and trying to count accurately. This seems to be recommended for people who are within 10 pounds of their goal, want a longer term effect, and don't want to lose too much muscle.

I'm strength training MWF to lose as little muscle as possible while I diet as well as improve my strength, and after doing some reading I've upped my protein goal to make sure I'm getting approx 1g per pound of body weight.

I would say 1g per pound of LBM should be the bare minimum; increasing that to even 1.5g per pound of LBM wouldn't hurt. In addition to being the most muscle-sparing and metabolic macronutrient, protein also has the greatest effect on satiety. Protein aside, the carb/fat macro that you can stick to is the best one.

Just a couple of questions- on the days that I'm not lifting, do you think it's necessary to get that much protein? Should I be eating even more than 1g per pound of bw on lifting days?

More protein isn't going to hurt. I would also look at cycling your carb and fat intake levels

Also is it true that cardio can actually work against you if you're trying to minimize muscle loss? I like to get on the elliptical before and after a weight session and sometimes on my in between days. I know it's not necessary for weight loss if I eat in a deficit but it makes me feel good and I hate not exercising on my non-lift days.

Yes, but there's no real black and white, cut and dry answer with respect to what form of cardio is best. To simplify it as much as possible, there are some considerations that should be taken when deciding what type of cardio you plan to do, such as:

1) The only definitive I will put in here is that on weight training days any cardio you do should be performed *after* your strength training session. Anything more than a short, low- to medium-intensity cardio warm-up almost certainly will result in residual muscle fatigue that impedes your strength training.

2) When are you doing your cardio? LISS (about 25-50% VO2 Max) is ideal if you're doing cardio in a fasted state; carbs likely will reduce the level of fat oxidation. The presence of carbs, however, has not been shown to have any impact on fat oxidation in trained subjects when doing HIIT or moderate- to high-intensity cardio. LISS is neither as time efficient nor effective as HIIT in terms of caloric burn, but it does increase your caloric expenditure while posing low risk for muscle fatigue, detracting from weight training, et al.

3) Training Split & Recovery. Hopping on the elliptical at Level 15 and doing a 30 minute round of cardio on Monday won't afford your legs sufficient time to recover if your "Leg day" is Tuesday.

4) I would recommend you limit any sustained medium- to high-intensity cardio to no more than 3 sessions per week. Any additional cardio should be LISS. Examples would include: walking on treadmill (set Incline level to 10-15 and speed to 1.5 to 2.8 mph) for 25+ minutes; doing the stair climber (again, slow speed, long duration), or, if you prefer the elliptical, doing a low-intensity session on it.

5) Consider incorporating HIIT into your cardio 2-3 times per week. Treadmills aren't the best option for HIIT training because the interval training options built into them tend to be rather restrictive and when done manually the speed changes are incremental. Nonetheless, you can do HIIT on them. The elliptical is great for doing HIIT. Example HIIT protocol would be 60 seconds at high-intensity followed by a 60 second recovery interval, repeating from anywhere from 8-15 rounds. Higher intensities burn more calories both during and after the exercise bout is over.

I agree with protein being important. 1-1.5g/lb of lbm (lean body mass) is good. I am 138 and eat 140 average, whether it's a lifting day or not. Just easier for me and the repair of the muscles happens the day after anyways

I like HabuBlue's approach to Cardio, couldn't have said it better