I am in a similar situation. Wanna go through this together?

Eat often but small portions, balance carbs with protein with healthy fats, cut out processed sugar, drink lots of water, cardio, cardio, lots of cardio, I do bicycling, works for me.

Weight loss is a mathematical equation - calories in vs calories out (CICO) - Consuming fewer calories than you expend.

Do cardio exercise to improve cardiovascular health; do strength training to maintain/increase muscle mass while losing weight as the more lean body mass (muscle) you have, the more calories your body will burn. And no, you won't get "bulky".

It can be easier than you think if you do it right. I would download MyFitnessPal on your phone, it's free, just enter your food to track your calories (it can ask you to set goals and all that, but I personally ONLY use it to measure calories). Tracking your calories is the main thing. Then get into macros - like carbs, protein, fibre, and fat. I would say work your goal up to maintaining around 2000 calories per day of mostly protein and fibre like chicken, turkey and vegetables. There are great substitutes for daily unhealthy foods that you can incorporate such as fat free cheese, protein powder, Halo Ice Cream, butternut squash, etc. Then start becoming more active! Speed up your metabolism by incorporating activities that stimulate your heart rate and adding fat-burning foods like cayenne pepper to your diet. Follow this advice and you'll get that rockin body in no-time! ;-)

Hi I just saw your post, and I’m kinda in the same boat. I’ve tried to lose weight a lot of times but nothing ever stuck. I just have a hard time keeping my motivation up, would love to chat to you so we can help each other out :)

I also use MyFitnessPal with great success. I use FitBit and MapMyFitness to track my activity and workouts.

Get into the right mindset and focus on your reasons for losing weight. I would start by getting the nutrition part first with little exercise like 30 mins a day. Once you get into a rhythm with your nutrition, you can start adding more to your workout regiments like weights to help speed up the process and to lose more body fat. You could also to High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) exercises. If you go YouTube and search for Fitness Bender, they have really great (HIIT) exercises if you have no access to a gym.

I would back what Cora_Belle said. It is important for women to do resistance training. Done with proper resistance and rest intervals, you can even reach a 60% max heart rate, which is beneficial to cardiovascular health.

Good luck!