Hi!! Welcome

Hi there! Welcome to the group. Everyone here is awesome and such a great source of information and fun!

Gaining muscle will not make you gain fat. People often gain both at the same time because they are "bulking" or eating at a surplus.

The reason you see so much on the main boards about gaining fat and muscle at the same time is because it is almost impossible to build much muscle on a deficit. But, as a newbie, you can still gain strength, and improve the muscle you have, even on a deficit. While you won't be truly building new muscle tissue, you will get stronger and you will likely see a change in muscle definition. The most common way for lifters to put on muscle is to "bulk" where they eat at a caloric surplus and are able to build more muscle, but they will gain fat at the same time. They follow this with a "cut" cycle, where they go back to a deficit to lose the fat they gained. The other option is "recomposition" where you eat at maintenance and hopefully gain a bit of muscle while losing a bit of fat. It is a much slower process, but can work. If you are in the group "Eat, Train, Progress", there is a thread there with really great pictures of a recomp. The woman there ate at maintenance, her weight did not really change, but her body composition definitely did.

Switching from loss to maintenance is mentally hard! I am still new to lifting, but my suggestion is to start lifting and slowly up your calories each week. If you start seeing the scale go up, you can always cut back. Keep in mind though, that the first month-ish of a new routine can be tricky with the scale. Your muscles can retain water which make it look like you have gained weight, so don't freak out if you see a bit of an increase! Give it time to stabilize. I have been doing SL for 5 weeks now. I have been eating at a TDEE-20% deficit as I have fat to lose still, but I can still see changes in my body. I can flex and see muscles in my arms and shoulders! It is pretty cool

Yes to everything people have said above. I calculated my BMR and TDEE and created a modest deficit in my TDEE to try and cut some to see how I look and feel. I count exercise calories but I do it very conservatively. Some weeks I eat over, other's under, but I don't worry too much about it because I'm active, lifting, and I'm pretty much at my goal weight anyway. It seems you're kind of in the same ballpark.

As for helping you get over the "OMG I'm going to get fat" thoughts, here's a summary of my story with that - maybe it will help. Full disclosure, I've always been thin but in my early twenties, I started working a desk job and stopped being active so I wasn't too thrilled with the couple pounds I gained and the fitness ability I lost by my mid twenties. I actually thought my pants were shrinking at one point until I saw pictures of myself at some event and I was like, well, I seem to have gained some El Bees :-\ So I did what so many people do and I went overboard with cutting calories and I ran a lot.

Sometime in 2013, I realized I was eating too little and obsessing. I knew I needed to make a change and, frankly, I was eating more than I counted anyway because it's not sustainable living on 1200 calories or whatever and I was starving. I stayed pretty active and was never really cardio obsessed as much as I was worried about eating "too much" and gaining. I calculated my TDEE and upped my goals gradually. I started to feel so much better, mentally, physically, and emotionally that I just kept going.

That said, I kind of got over cardio for the sake of cardio while training for a half marathon. It's so much running that I got tired of it. Plus, I have bad knees and arthritis in my foot so my body was also mad at me. During my training, I picked up New Rules of Lifting for Women and read it cover to cover. The "aha" moment was that lifting burns relatively few calories while it's going on but the after burn is greater and the body adapts to cardio overtime.

By the time I started SL which was maybe two months after NROL (the program wasn't really for me) I was eating normally and soon realized that as those lifts get heavy, it is so essential to properly fuel myself. Even on days that I don't eat enough before I lift, I feel weak and miserable so it's extra motivation to not fall into old habits. Honestly, I am so proud of my lifting abilities and progress that I just stopped caring as much about what I look like. And this is recognizing that I think I look better than ever - I see muscle definition, my clothes fit nicely, I actually have some curves where before I was more straight up and down, etc.

My focus is lifting but I walk, ski when I can get to a decent mountain, do the elliptical sometimes at the gym, I ride my bike, I want to get back into swimming, I kayak, and I plan on running once or twice a week once it's nicer out (I can't do dreadmills). I do think cardio is important but it's more to up my endurance and help me feel good and physically fit vice working off food.

So this was long winded but my advice is to start lifting, up your calories gradually if you need to, and just see what happens. Unless you go wild and eat over your TDEE for a long time, you're not going to gain weight. On the contrary, I think you'll really like how you look and feel.

Hello! I am new here too. Similar story...cardio cardio, minimal weights - got to goal weight, looked terrible kept doing cardio to get my "dream" body, never happened so I gave up fuly, put all the weight back on. I don't want to fall down that cardio path again and all I hear from friends is LIFT WEIGHTS, so here I am. SL seems like the right fit for me. I picked up NROLFW but with my gym set-up I feel like I will be running back and forth to get the equipment I need. Oh and getting married in Oct so I need all the help I can get!

Hi Dawn,

Thanks for the welcome. The things you listed are the exact reason why I was turned off by new rules. The simplicity of SL appeals much more.

I'll be sure to post there, especially once I have some progress pics to share!!

New Rules of Lifting for Women-it's a lifting book with a different progressive plan than Stronglifts, and it varies more of your workouts (from what I understand).

Thanks for that @questionfear‌ and I will look at it.