Weight lifting for weight loss

HIIT 3 times a week? HIIT is hard work, are you sure you're pushing yourself enough?

Keep the deficit, workout and/or do cardio but most importantly be consistent with your diet.

If you hit a plateau then switch it up a bit, i switched from my basic routine to a variation of GVT. Worked a treat

A few basics:

- weight loss happens in the kitchen: calories in vs. calories out. If you eat less than your body burns, you loose weight (if you don't have a medical condition that prevents it)
- weight lifting encourages your body not to 'eat' muscle to make up for the food deficit you are creating, so you maintain (and maybe even grow a bit in the beginning) muscle mass
- cardio, in general, burns more calories than weight lifting
- weight lifting is primarily used to grow muscles
- to grow muscles, you need to eat a surplus
- ...so weight loss and strength training don't tend to go together.

That said, you said the primary goal is to loose weight through strength training, not gain muscle mass. As such, if you eat a deficit, yes, you will be helped by strength training because it will give you a bit more of a calorie burn, thus increase your deficit (do try to eat back some of your exercise calories!). You are not going to build a lot of muscle mass, though, because you're not fueling your body enough. There is a technique called 'body recompositioning' you might want to look into (blog.myfitnesspal.com/the-basics-of-body-recomposition-how-to-lose-fat-gain-muscle-at-the-same-time/) as well.

Good luck!

It's a caloric deficit that will result in weight loss whether or not you do any type of exercise, measure, weigh & log every crumb that crosses your lips......

Having said that your person in the fitness industry was mistaken. Typically someone like me will lift lighter weights more reps as I'm a runner and my goal are not hypertrophy but a combination of strength / injury resistance (and I'm not lifting to failure). Recent research has also suggested that weight lifters can achieve similar results with either high weight / low rep or lower weight / high reps if both are lifting to failure.

If wight loss is your main goal you may want to add more cardio (don't forgo the strength) for the simple reason that it typically burns more calories. (but, again....it's 80% what you eat....)

Either range is fine. There is certainly overlap between them. If you go the 8-12 rep route you will get stronger, assuming progressive overload. And with 5 reps, muscle building can/will happen with the right nutrition. It's just that different ranges are seen as most efficient for different goals.

That being said, if you like SL 5x5, stick with it and don't change the rep scheme. In other words, just do the program as written. If, on the other hand, you'd like to try the other rep scheme, AlPro's simple beginner routine is one option.