Hello Hey Hey Beautiful
I agree with keiiii on this one - chances are if you're female you wont 'get big' lifting weights. For a start, women have 7-8 times less testosterone than men. Since testosterone is a muscle building hormone, it's much harder for women to get that bulky look.
Also, getting big requires a calorie surplus. In other words, you have to eat much more than you burn over time. So if you're lifting weights but not eating much more than you burn, you'll just look more toned and loose fat instead.
In my opinion, lifting weights is way more effective than cardio if you want to get 'in shape', lose fat, and look toned. From a calorie point of view, the total amount of calories you burn each day from cardio is negligible when compared to fidgeting, walking to work, burning energy at work, toe tapping etc (scientists call this non-exercise activity thermogenesis).
The difference between an hour long run and one hour of intense weight training in the gym might not be much in terms of calories burned.
BUT
If you don't pump iron and you eat less than you burn, for every pound of weight you drop, you'll tend to loose at least half in the form of muscle - which means that it becomes harder to lose fat and look toned.
A recent BBC documentary did not have many good things to say about cardio... Check it out, it's called 'The Truth About Exercise'. One of the ideas they push is that three minutes of intense workouts a week can burn more fat than longer workouts.
Also, I'm writing a post on this topic that you can check out on my
blog when it's up.
Cheers
Rohan the Fat Loss Boss