[Mike]

I weighed about 235 a few months ago and have gotten down to around 212 right now after running/working out and now I've been on the South Beach diet for about a week now and it seems to be working out well. I've been going to the gym everyday for the past week and I have been doing elliptical/treadmill for around 30-45 minutes then lifting for a little bit.

My question is if I'm doing elliptical/treadmill around 5 or 6 days a week and I'm looking to lose weight mostly and gain muscle after I lose the weight, how many days a week should I be lifting? I am looking to get down to 180 pounds but I am worried if I stop lifting completely I'll lose muscle and have to "start over" again in lifting.

Thanks
-Mike

Edit:

If it helps I've basically been eating eggs/canadian bacon for breakfast in the morning, for snack I usually have a low-fat cheese stick, lunch is usually chicken breast, salad, or turkey wrapped in lettuce, dinner is some type of low-fat steak or chicken or fish. I've completely cut out fast food and soda for the past couple months and thats seemed to help alot along with drinking lots of water. I'm basically trying to follow the "guidelines" for the South Beach diet though.