Vanity question for those who lift
 

I'm not gonna beat around the bush - I'm too lazy to lose more weight right now. It's not a priority and while it would be nice, I realize pounds don't just magically jump off your body.

I have started weight training for the first time ever. I aim to lift progressively heavier, with the intent of achieving stronger and hopefully bigger arms/shoulders/back/core. I run and do cardio pretty regularly and my legs are pretty cool as they are, but I like to squat and leg press too.

I think I'll be able to live and die happily if I can scootch down from my current 6 (and they're often kinda loose...!) to a soild 4 on my bottom half. I'm a little bottom heavy but not a pear. Think this is doable if I just keep lifting and exercising on the regular, and don't diet?

Yep, I do. You will tighten up. Especially if what you mean by "don't diet" is basically maintaining what you are doing now for eating.

I've scootched down a whole size (4s to 2s, and 2s to 1s in my Old Navy jeans) just since the beginning of January, without losing so much as a half pound. And as you know, I'm not a total newbie to weight lifting, so I think there's an even better chance that you'll see that change. :)

Man. I spent about 30 minutes on mybodygallery looking at other people my height and weight - they all look infinitely more fit than I do! By "diet" I mean "eat at loss calories."

it will work if you eat at maintenance but not if you overeat - no amount of weightlifting will compensate for improper eating habits.

I ate a surplus over the winter and didn't gain any weight. I lost a dress size, too ;). I didn't go crazy, by any means... and I still ate whole foods. I just wasn't tracking my calories very closely. I'm sure I was eating above my BMR.

Now that I'm back in a deficit I've lost 2 dress sizes in 7 lbs. So you can definitely get smaller and weigh the same with lifting ;).

Yeah...well..I don't know about that site. When I look up people my height and weight none of them are fat. I'm 4'9" and 133lbs. That's clearly overweight. You can't compare yourself to other people. We're all very different.

Krampus, you should pick up New Rules of Lifting for Women. It is entirely possible to recomposition your body (lose fat gain muscle) while eating at maintenance.

I have been exactly the same scale weight for the last year at maintenance, but my thighs are much tighter than they were when I first got to goal. There used to be a fatty layer that sagged down dramatically when I did pushups and planks, so I never did them in the gym, only at home. I just noticed this week doing planks in summer workout shorts that they don't do that any more. I never measured my thighs though, so I don't know if they've shrunk or just filled tighter with muscle, if you understand what I mean. I am eating at maintenance calories (although I don't subtract exercise cals, so maybe just a bit in deficit?) but making sure to get enough protein. None of the places that I measured -- hips, waist, arms -- seem to have changed numbers though.

not necessarily.

someone 5'8" weighing 240lbs with a BMI of 36.5 could be chubby or they could be third-place Mr Olympia.

Krampus it's totally possible. I did that a little over a month ago. I maintained my weight but lost inches to drop down a size. :) During that time I ate low carb, high protein but I think it was more that I was eating enough calories than anything else.

When I started lifting a few years ago the same thing happened: I went from a 14/16 to a 12/14.