Unless you are having problems with your present pedals don't waste your money on clipless pedals and bike shoes. This equipment only comes into play when you are riding very rough trails or when you are riding very tough hills and long distance. For a beginning rider this equipment is not going to help very much at all.

For casual rides under 10 miles just platform pedals and sport shoes will work just great. I used to ride 20 miles with platform pedals and sneakers. Sometimes the bottom of my foot would get hot but all that I had to do was to start lifting my foot off the pedal on the up stroke and the feet would cool back down.

I now have clipless pedals and bike shoes and they may be more efficient and I can use my ham strings to pull the pedals up on the up stroke but you know I only have one heart and if I put out power on both my quads and ham strings my heart and lungs just get over loaded and become the limiting factor as far as performance. Just because you can deliver more power does not mean that you have more power to deliver.