I'm on the same line of thinking as you.
I've been hitting the gym, doing mostly heavy lifting 2-3x a week and easing off on my calorie restriction. The weight is going back on fairly quickly but I'm also seeing good gains and progression in my strength & lifts.
For instance, when I started, one arm curl was at about 35 lbs, now 3 months later I'm curling 55, bench was 120, now it's 160 (but I'm not pushing hard on gaining bench) and squat machine has gone from 175 to 280.