Strength training newbie question.

Hire a personal trainer for a few sessions to get your form correct. Otherwise make friends with youtube.
Start of with a beginners program like stronglifts, or new rules of lifting or ice cream fitness.

I'm not sure about gaining muscle, I can feel myself getting stronger and I'm not bulking up thank goodness. However I'm female and eating at a deficit.

I'm not an expert though. Lots of others can help you.
Check out the lifting stickies at the top of the fitness section

debsbiggs wrote: »

Try something like circuits workouts - this will increase strength but because there is cardio in there too you won't "bulk up"/gain weight.

That really isn't a great idea, for OP's goal. Circuit training is very inefficient at getting someone "strong," like OP wants.

mrsfitzy gave you a few good programs. Pretty much any reasonable beginner training program will be good.

Yes, you can (probably, depending upon current strength levels) get strong without gaining weight. I'm going to differentiate weight and muscle mass. "Recomp" is where you maintain your weight by (slowly, most likely) putting on muscle while losing body fat.

Below are two links. One is a thread here on recomp. It's long, but you hopefully won't need to read all of it (unless you want to, of course), while the other one has a couple more routines, in addition to what mrsfitzy said above. The beginner workout and the muscle building workout there are probably pretty good ones. If you do one of those, start with the empty bar and add 5-10 lbs when you can.

http://www.aworkoutroutine.com/the-muscle-building-workout-routine/
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10177803/recomposition-maintaining-weight-while-losing-fat/p1

I have been lifting for strength, without bulking up. Lift no more than 2-3x per week. Use lighter weights and higher reps (Guys looking to bulk do heavier weights and lower reps.). The personal trainer who put me on my plan said I should be looking at 15-25 reps per set, doing 2 sets. Do one exercise per major muscle group.

You should feel a little sore the next day, and the last reps should be hard to finish, or the weight is too low.

So on my chest, I do 2 sets of 20 reps with 35lb dumbbells. By the time I hit that 20th press, my body is screaming at me that I can't finish it. (3 months ago, I could only do 10 dumbbell presses at this weight)

And now that I think more about it, there are a bunch of phone apps called "30 Challenge." They have them for all the major muscle groups, and they rely on body weight. Before I ever went to the gym, I started with 30-Day push up, 30-Day squat, 30-day Abs, and 30-Day Back. I could tell a significant difference after a couple of weeks.

The con is the more days into it, the more reps you are doing. The ab workout alone was up to 30 minutes, and I was running out of time. Still, it's a good place to start, without paying a gym fee or buying weights.

Interesting subject from the OP and one that I'm sure many people have asked in some form or another. Firstly I'd say well done on dropping so much weight its a great achievement. Secondly to truly get strong you need to build thicker more resilient muscle fibres. Utilising mid range repetitions and between 55-75% of your 1rm, also work with good quality resistance bands. Obviously muscle lb for lb weighs more than fat in terms of size, and adding muscle mass to your frame will make you initially slighty heavier depending on your nutrition program. But doing high intensity, shorter rests and maintaining a measured amount of calories, your body will adapt to your exercise regime and level out. So in answer to what you said. You will probably put on a small amount of weight as you add muscle but it doesn't have to be to much if you focus on the look and size you want, just takes time for endocrinatic and sympathetic nervous systems to engage and adapt to new routines. Keep at it