I know its fairly normal to retain water weight and wasn't shocked when i weighed myself the day after lifting and i was +2 lbs. What did shock me was gaining another +1 the day after too. I drank plenty of water, and i'll admit i did some munching (not on lifting day, day after).. but nothing that would justify gaining an additional 1 lb on top of a 2 lb gain.
How much do you usually gain the day post lifting? and after how long should i expect it to go away?

i lifted this weekend (and swam and biked my guts out to train for a triathlon.)
My scale was up 5 pounds today. I pay it no heed and won't until Friday when my "official" weigh in day is. That's why my weigh in day is Friday, because I usually do a ton of activities on the weekends and am sore and retaining water for a few days.

Give it some time and try to be patient. When I first started lifting, my losses plateaued for several (maybe six?) weeks until my body got adjusted. Even though I barely lost any scale weight in that time, my composition changed dramatically and I looked like I'd lost 15 pounds or more.

Blueberries is right. Your body does not adjust to a change in a day or two. You can't really meaningfully assess changes to your routine (whether changes in exercise or eating) based upon a day or two, or even a week. You really have to try something for a month or longer before you know how it's affecting your weight loss and the shape of your body.

Starting strength training can give you the illusion that it's slowing down your weight loss for a few weeks, but in the long run you'll be very glad you did it. Just be patient.

I'm not the OP but I'm really glad to see that. I'm at about week 4 of my weight bouncing around since starting weight lifting and it's not really going lower. I was starting to panic because I thought that by 4 weeks it should start going down again. Guess, I'll hang in there for a few more weeks and see how it goes hehe.

I saw the exact same thing happen last week, but 5 days later and I am down all that weight plus about a pound and a half (and I had a "cheat" day in there). So it will come off, maybe not for a couple more days, or a week even, but it will come off

I'm about 2 months into lifting 2x/week.

I am 1.2 pounds lighter than I was yesterday, and I lifted yesterday.

When I started, I always weighed the same or maybe more the day after lifting, but my body got used to it.

I have been eating the same as before I started lifting, maybe more, but I am smaller and more toned-looking than ever!

Oh yes, give it time. I agree with you totally!!

I remember spending over 3 weeks at 136lbs and while I hadn't just started lifting (I've been lifting for years) it was still working. I was a size 8, sometimes fitting into a 6. Over those three weeks my weight stayed the same but I dropped down to a size 4! Everyone thought I lost "so much weight" but I hadn't lost anything!

And then I lost five pounds in a few days. It was strange, certainly, but five pounds is still not enough to move down that many sizes!