[LisaS]

Being at a caloric deficit is what will get the weight off. If a workout burns 300 calories, you can do that or you can skip the cookies - either one makes a deficit for you. But if you want a 700-1000 calorie deficit (or more) per day, most of that will have to be from diet.

What weight training does for you is make you stronger, help your bones, make your everyday life easier, give you confidence and a body that can do stuff. Plus, make sure that once you slim down there is something underneath to show for all your work.

NROL4W, as you have read, is written to bust myths that many people might hold about weight training in general and women in particular. If you are looking to lose a size or two and change your body composition then the diet & exercise recommendations are great. You eat at about maintenance and add weight training and things will change. But, that might not be the program that you want to lose 40-50 pounds.

Some people have found that eating at a big deficit and doing the training from NROL4W is too much all at once - it leaves them wiped out and by being a slug the other 23 hours of the day the results are not what is wanted. Others do the program just fine on a big deficit. Others do the program on a small deficit and see the body recomp as described in the book (almost same weight, smaller size & more firm).

It really is YMMV.

If you are a beginner to working with weights, almost any well-written program using the big moves will be fine for you.