hey shavedgoblin,
i can definitely understand why you'd be feeling 'lost' about all the info you've been given, like you said it all sounds like information over-load and it's difficult to know who to listen to.
the thing with weight loss is that everyone will have an opinion and let you know what it is...the problem is, that not everyone knows what they're talking about, so alot of the stuff you'll know whether to ignore or not. the only problem in your case is the three people giving you the info are supposed to be 3 experts ie the doctor, the nutritionist and the Personal Trainer....so it's hard to know who's right and who isn't.
i really wish i could help you out but i am by no means an expert on anything, if you notice i never give specific advice because i just think everyones body is so different, i just stick to very general/common sense stuff, and usually just give stories of my own personal experience just to let people know what i'm going through, so i'd never dream of telling anyone what to do...
i like to believe i'm an expert of myself alone, i say that just because i've done a million diets in my life time so i finally know what works for me now is not a diet but a health eating plan where i eat portions fit for a human, and not a rodent...lol! (personally i'm following a health eating plan from a health-plan book i felt made some sense so in my case i basically count grams and not calories (not that i have any problem with calorie counting at all), but to each his own right? and i noticed 100% of people on here do the whole calorie counting so there's absolutely nothing wrong with it. But like i was saying everyone has to do what they feel is right for them....at the end of the day YOU probably know a whole lot more about your body than your giving yourself credit for. Try to remember a time in your life when you were smaller and try to remember what kind of foods you were eating and what level of activity you were on, then try to compare with what your being told now. I don't know, does that make sense? I'm really trying hard to keep things general without going to specifics because as i said i'm my own self-appointed expert but no one else's, just because i know what works for me, and i don't know enough about others to tell them what would work for them.
and when it comes to exercise, i've been in and out of gyms since i was in high school, so i pretty much kinda know what works for me exercise-wise and what doesn't. I don't have a personal trainer, not because i have anything against them, but just because i don't feel i need one since i've learned what works for me and what doesn't over the years. The gym i'm at schedules us to meet one of the trainers once a week for the first six weeks, so that's how i got my gym programme done, basically the other meetings are more of an informal Q&A session.
there are some experts on here who really know what they're saying so hopefully just try to read their posts and compare with what they're saying. I know i haven't said much (though it's a long drawn out story...lol), but i think at the end of the day in addition to everything you've been told and read, i think you need to trust your gut instinct because like i said you know more about your body than anyone else. all the best
