Ch'i

Cut back on the beer; its full of empty calories, plus you won't feel like crap in morning. On that note, avoid baked goods such as chips, ect. too.

To boost your metabolism, have a big, hearty breakfast. Eat every two-and-a-half hours, or so, and drink plenty of water throughout the day.

With your workout, keep it simple. Bench press, squats, clean and press, pullovers, barbell curls, deadlifts. Do two sets of eight repititions for each of these exercises; for squats, do two sets of twelve. Never weight train two days in a row, and do around an hour of cardio on those alternating days.

Weight training is much more taxing on your muscles than the typical cardiovascular exercises.
Yes that's true, especially since your body requires a decent amount of energy while rebuilding muscle tissue. More energy than the initial training. Interval training is specifically designed to take advantage of this.