What happens?

I am 5'8.

I was 260 lbs.
Now 205 lbs.

I want to drop below 200 lbs and start lifting.
Without changing my diet and changing my cardio to lifting what's going to happen exactly?

Will I look smaller but more tone?
Serious question btw, total noob.

How LEAN you are only depends on bf%.
Dont say tone. Ever.
You will get stronger and perhaps make minimal muscle gain cause noob.
How big is your deficit?

u r going to die

Nothing will happen

From sound of things you're a beginner so you'll probably get stronger.

About 400 to 300 below depending on the day.


But continue to lose weight and not look more muscular?

depending on a few factors it is possible to lose fat, gain muscle and gain strength. Typically gains are much slower than if you actually bulk though, for obvious reasons.

When i first started going to the gym I lost around 5 lbs of fat but gained 10 of muscle, and 30+% strength in all areas in the first 4 months. The longer you go to the gym consistently the more difficult it is to do.

How do you gain strength without gaining muscle?

I think what I need to do is gain a little muscle, then lift at a deficit to burn some fat around it and it make it more pronounced?

As for your second part, post pictures for a better assessment of what ppl think you should do

Protein's have mass so it's more to do with neural adaptation than anything