Frustrated and overwhelmed beginner unsure of how to proceed with lifting.

I am a beginner and I have no idea where to start - because not of a lack, but rather an abundance, of information.

 

To give you all some background, I grew up fat. I was borderline medically obese through my teens, and when I graduated from high school, I beheld my pictures and noted that I looked like a tennis ball on a watermelon. I resolved to fix this problem, and began reading up on nutrition, metabolism, and weight-loss. The collective information of the internet pointed to one conclusion: track calories, and eat less than daily expenditure. I did so, and since graduating at the end of May last year, I have lost 85 pounds. I am the healthiest I have ever been in my life. Yet, I am still frustrated with my health.

 

I started looking at weightlifting at the beginning of this year, when I recognized that although I was no longer a tennis ball on a watermelon, I was now a tennis ball on a stick. I tried ICF for about 3 months, and eating at 1600 calories a day, made zero gains on any of my lifts while losing the last few pounds to 150lb, despite the fact that reddit likes to mention noob gains.

 

And now I have no damned idea on how to proceed.

 

The internet, it seems, disagrees on lifting a lot more than on nutrition. On one hand, Starting Strength recommends that I start eating 3500 kcal a day and begin with the basic compound lifts only. On the other, the general consensus from reddit's past threads seem to indicate a more conservative bulk of +300-500kcal excess. Even more websites say that I should try for maintenance calories and recomp for as long as I can while gaining (although I have no idea how to do this, seeing as I've never gained before). And finally, other websites recommend that I cut to 10-12% bodyfat before bulking because mumbo-jumbo-hormones-somethingsomething.

 

What do you all think I should do, now?

 

To summarize:

 

6' 1.2" male, 150lb, 20-25% bodyfat (stomach present, ribs visible), extremely low muscle mass (DL=115 lb, squat=65 lb, bench=60lb, can't do pullup), would like to lose the stomach and gain muscle proportionally, have excellent control over time and diet in university but no idea how to apply it.

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