[RoastBeefCurtains4Me]

The key with lifting is to increase every week. When you do a given lift, try to go up 5 lbs. over what you did last week. If you can't then try to do more reps than the previous week using the same weight. You won't always be able to increase, but you can probably increase reps or weight on half to 3/4 of the lifts you do in a week. When you walk out of the gym after increasing on almost all of your lifts that day, it is a great feeling.
You will need to eat well to see gains, but you don't have to stuff yourself. Focus on lots of protein, a decent amount of fat, and just enough carbs to get by without feeling a lack of energy. Get those carbs from veggies, not bread, potatoes, rice, or pasta.
I would say to only exercise 45 minutes a day. If you do more, you start to build up cortisol, which defeats the muscle building process. You can count some warm up, stretching, and cool down outside the 45 minutes, to get to a whole hour.

If you follow this approach and do free weight lifts that target each major muscle group, you should see rapid gains initially, then start to slow down, but still continue gaining. By the time this process starts to plateau, you'll have time to do more research and get some experience with what works.