The credit that you deserve is in the fact that you reached to a reliable nutritionist. You don't know how many people at any gym are completely devoid of any of the knowledge that you just wrote about. I know countless 5 day a week bicep workers, simultaneous bulker/cutters, low speed treadmill walkers etc.
I actually used to be one of them, though not to the degree you mentioned. A few years back, my routine was a 6 days rotation, with one day for Abs, Shoulders, Back, Legs, Chest, Biceps/Triceps. Basically kill one muscle group per day, no cardio, tons of protein, go in the next and bang out another one. Noticeably I was sore all of the time, my body fat always seemed to be about the same, even though my muscle definition was significantly increased.
And to compare to my new routine that I'm doing now, which is significantly harder in comparison, yet on paper doesn't seem so bad:
3 days a week of core stability training, with 1 day break between each. 5 days of HIIT cardio. 2 days per week off. Kind of hard to explain what core stability training is, since I've already been given like 25 exercises, so it isn't quite as cut and dry as say biceps, but I'll toss up a few examples (I do 3 sets of all exercises listed):
1) Stand tall, walk out into a pushup position with your hands, pushup, walk back to your feet. 15 reps.
2) Use one of those ab balls (the squishy ones), but the ones with only half a ball, and a place to stand. Invert it, stand on it, and 15 prisoner squats. (basically, if that is confusing, think of it like balancing on a surf board in the ocean doing squats without using your hands).
3) Dumbbell bench press with one hand at a time. Position: your ass/pelvis lifted off of the bench. One foot on the bench, bent knee. Other leg is straight out in the same direction as your body, which is angled at like a 45 degree incline from the bench. (So, think of it like a decline bench position, but on a flat bench.) 15 reps per hand, opposite leg is extended relative to the hand you are pressing with, your 2nd hand can not touch the bench at all.
There are others, I'll try to find an easy way to explain, but its really difficult to without pictures.
-Eric
