More muscle = weight gain?

I love the transformation of losing fat and gaining muscle.
fact is a pound of fat weighs exactly the same as a pound of muscle but a pound of fat is, if you can visualize 4 sticks of butter all in a blob and muscle is more like a small sweet potato so on your body you will look smaller even if the scale is going up or staying the same.
Use a measuring tape if you are exercising/weight lifting to see the change if you need too.

don't worry to much about that number on the scale, it's just a measure of your gravity

Keep up the good work.

You didn't post your diary and you didn't mention if you were eating above maintenance for the purpose of gaining muscle. I see you still have a little ways to go so I'm guessing you're eating at a deficit and I doubt you're gaining .5lbs of muscle a week (or any at all). That's pretty hard/impossible to do for a woman. Are you taking measurements? How do they look?

I ask only cause it is tough to add muscle eating a deficit, especially for females. And hypertrophy usually takes around 6-8 weeks. If your strength training is heavy for you and your adding weight overtime you will gain muscle with a good diet.

You could also be retaining more water if your doing tougher and new workouts. And if you've been eating more salt and carbs, you will probably retain more water as well

Should I up cardio? I think am not doing enough cardio...

Nobody can give you an accurate answer until we know how many calories you are taking in and how many you are burning. My guess is that you are in a calorie deficit so muscle or fat gain is highly unlikely. My guess is that what you are seeing is water weight do to an increase in exercise. Water helps muscles recover and it is normal to gain some.

You can still gain weight while eating so called "clean" foods. So if you are eating over your maintenance calories you could be gaining muscle and/or fat. Until we see your diary no one can really help you much.

I eat about 1500 calories a day. I dont track them on here as often.,

Well then it is not fat or muscle so it must just be some water weight. To know for sure though you would need to track actual calories eaten to actual calories burned.

Good luck.

Should I up cardio? I think am not doing enough cardio...

Too much cardio causes you to burn muscle and muscle is what burns fat...I wouldn't suggest overdoing the cardio.

Good idea. I just use dumbells. 8 lbs. not too much. But I do see women in my class using 10-12 lbs but still very lean?

More women need to learn to lift like a man...8 lbs, and even 12 lbs is WAY too light! Heavy lifting will build muscle, burn fat, and you will look a lot better in the end. You won't bulk up like men do - we can't - we don't have the right hormones to do so. Even most men have a hard time gaining muscle. I suggest doing more heavy lifting and cardio intervals, rather than steady-pace cardio.