Women and weight training

Whatever stage you are at, weight training is ALWAYS beneficial. It helps to increase your lean muscle mass which raises your metabolic rate which in turn means you burn more calories generally.

To put it simply the more muscle you have the more calories your body burns :-)

Women have a very hard time bulking up when training with weights it's not impossible but it's pretty difficult. They will tend to just get stronger and sculpt those areas rather than bulk up. Strength training is a great idea though. Check out "New Rules for Lifting For Women". It seems to be the go to book for women.

Thanks, that's kind of what I was thinking. I'm not wanting to become like 'Madonna' toned (ick) but it would be nice to feel stronger and obviously the benefits of resistance training for us women and our bones make it really important. My husband has started to use his weights again but unlike me hasn't an ounce of fat on his body, so maybe I should treat myself to some light weights and join him

Definitely do it. I wish more women would get into weights / resistance training.

If you are eating at a calorie deficit (which I presume you are given are attempting to lose weight) it is unlikely that you will put on any or any significant muscle whether you are a man or a woman. Some people new to weights may put on a small amount (maybe a couple of pounds) but certainly not enough to make them look bigger or bulkier. You will however preserve what you have, which when your body fat lowers, you can show off in a nice toned look. It's unlikley you'll end up looking like Madonna though as that physique requires a LOT of focused planning, exercise and correct nutrition.

ps: what do you mean by "light" lifting? If you mean low weights with high repetitions (12 or more) over multiple sets (3 or more) then you won't get the real benefits of resistance training doing this except for the cardiovasular side of it. Given you are doing cardio already that seems a little pointless. Ask a PT or your hubby to rustle you up a routine or get one from a decent book on the subject. Go heavy and go for it!

I think that Madonna maintains a pretty low body fat percentage, so unless you drop yours pretty drastically, you won't look like her.

There are plenty of really good resources out there for finding a basic weight routine - check out womenshealthmag.com (women's health magazine) or pick up Oxygen magazine (bear in mind that the women in those pages also maintain really low body fat, so they can look kind of Amazon-ish also, but the routines are solid). I think there are also routines on bodyrock.tv. If you want a good book on the subject, check out The New Rules of Lifting for Women or The Women's Health Big Book of Exercises.

There's also a lifting form online here somewhere led by user Guardup. If you want to search for it, I'm sure some folks on that forum can give you some sound advice as well.

Good luck!