Petite lady starting 5x5 Strength training help!

My input is this:

1. I'm not entirely sure that 1350 calories is right. I'm 5'1 and 98lb and I burn my way through 2400 calories per day. Granted that yes I am super active (I do about 30,000 steps on a normal day), but my basic maintenance calorie levels for a more 'normal' activity is still around 1750. Being extremely small framed I understand how other tiny framed women might feel they want to lose a little more weight, and if this is the case then you want to lose it as slowly as possible to maximize fat loss and minimize LBM loss, so a calorie deficit of 100-200 calories per day is more like it, and (especially with 5 hours of roller blading) I'm sure your basic calorie level is probably more than 1700, so I'd say you need to be eating at least 1500 calories even in deficit.

2. I started with Stronglifts before moving over to the Strong Curves program. It is easily done at home and I started out with the dumbbells I already had to make sure I liked it before moving over to barbells. So yes it's easily done at home.

3. It's going to be impossible at your BMI to gain any muscle whilst in deficit but assuming your deficit isn't too large you can make massive strength gains (especially at first) and preserve LBM which will mean for each 1lb you lose a much higher % will be fat than if you just dieted. It's much easier to lift in maintenance, it's slow, but I've found my body fat has dropped whilst my weight hasn't changed, so I must be laying down bone and muscle.

Best way to build muscle is to eat OVER TDEE, this builds muscle the fastest, but obviously weight goes up. It's why body builders do a 'bulk'.

Eating AT TDEE will hold your weight but if you lift at the same time your body will slowly burn fat and build muscle at the same rate, so your body fat will drop whilst your weight remains the same. It doesn't happen overnight, especially for us gals with our low testosterone, but it does work. This is what people call 'recomp'.

Eating UNDER TDEE will prevent you from building muscle, but if you lift whilst you do it you increase the amount of fat verses LBM you lose with each lb. This is what people mean when they refer to a 'cut'.

Your three options are to do a bulk then cut, try recomp, or to cut slightly whilst keeping your body weight within sensible ranges. Given your BMI I'd go with recomp in your shoes personally.

Hi I am pretty much in the same boat. I have been doing strength training for a while but I think I don't get as much progress because I don't eat enough to build muscle. I have increased my intake slightly though, and that helps with having more energy. I do want to lose weight though so I will probably have to sacrifice strength and muscle gains for now. ETA: I started 5x5 but didn't have access to the right equipment really. I am doing New Rules of Lifting for Women now, but 5x5 was much more simple to understand!

The thing with lifting at home is that you constantly have to keep asking yourself questions, like are you making progress? If your struggling to lift more weight then you have to start considering things like form, are you eating enough, have you rush up the weights too quickly etc. It's always worth having someone you can talk to about it, even if they are just a sounding board, whether it's your hubby, a friend or a MFP friend.

The only thing I will mention about lifting is that I personally held onto a lot of water in my muscles when I first started. The body floods muscles with water to repair them, so the amount of fluid you carry increases, and therefore you appear to the scales to have put on weight. Obviously it's just water and after a period of about 2-3 weeks my body had stopped holding onto SO much water and things returned to normal. If this happens at the same time as you move up to TDEE there is the potential that you'll panic and think your gaining weight you may not want, just stick with it, it's only water, it'll go, don't be tempted to drop your calories unless it continues past 4-6 weeks. Eating is the BEST thing you can do for your body when you are a lifter.

Thank you alanabanana86 for asking this question and thankyou for all the replies. I needed all of this advice.
I'm two weeks in to SL 5x5 and I'm reading Strong curves but don't want to start it until I understand the programme. Will hopefully do SL 5x5 for 4-6 weeks and then think about changing or incorporating SC.
I haven't really figured out what I should be eating and it is a scary transition from under-eating to lose weight and needing to eat over TDEE to gain muscle. Eek!
Feel free for any of you to add me but add a note.

With your height you have a definite advantage while lifting heavy