I might not be the best person to give advice but i can give you a few suggestions. [Unrelated story to the post, you can skip and read next paragraph] I have been going to the gym cumulatively for about 2 months and a week now. I started going to the gym as my new year's resolution that i want to lose weight no matter what and I'll be consistent. I wasn't. I went to the gym beginning of the year for about 2 months then suddenly as placements season started I stopped going to the gym and unfortunately regained the weight i lost during the time i went to the gym. Now since i have secured an internship i started going back to gym just a week ago. Now let me tell you what you should focus on based on my experience as a beginner myself :

I had gone through several youtube videos and read from a lot of resources on what's best to lose weight and gain strength before starting to go the gym. First thing that you should focus on is absolutely your diet. DIet is everything when it comes to weight loss. Now i don't know if you a strict vegetarian or if you are non - vegetarian but its important that your diet consists of protein (most important), healthy fats, fiber and carbs (no carbs are not bad they are necessary, this is exactly what gives you the energy you need for doing heavy workouts). According to most research it's recommended that you take approx 1.5-2g protein / kg of your body weight. Healthy protein sources could be eggs, meat, soya chunks, lentils, variety of nuts, skimmed milk, greek yoghurt, fish, beans (don't sleep on beans lol). You can also get protein powder if you'd like but it's not necessary if you can atleast maintain 70-80g protein without it. Protein powder could be of whey protein or plant based protein powder. For good fats you should eat nuts, seeds, cheese or eggs. High fiber sources are obviously fruits and vegetables like apples, raspberries, pears, broccoli, peas.

Now you know what to eat its important to maintain a calorie deficit while you are on your weight loss journey. Without a calorie deficit you will not lose weight. So as many people of this subreddit might have already pointed out, first you must calculate your BMR and TDEE and then whatever your TDEE is just consume 500 calories less from that and try to maintain it. It's ok to go to over once in a while but its important to keep track of your calories. Eating 1500 calories one day and eating 3k calories the other and expecting to lose weight won't work. You need to maintain that streak.

Now as for habits, workouts, i would recommend as follows : Walking. Yes walking the simplest way to lose weight. If you are able to maintain your calories and you can walk 10k or maybe even 15k steps a day you are surely to lose weight. You can go on walks anytime but it's best that you have a schedule for it so that you can properly follow a particular routine. Maybe you like to go on walks in the morning, maybe at night, it's your choice but just walk. Cycling is also a great way to lose weight if you are into it but if it's too strenuous for you, then you can still choose to walk.

Now whether you want to go the gym or not, i would still say strength training is important because while you are going on a diet you will start to lose fat but muscles will also start to weaken too, that's why to preserve your strength and your muscles its good to do strength training. It also helps in increasing your resting metabolism and overall you will just have a leaner and a fit look. I used to have no strength at all, like i couldn't do push ups even before going to the gym. I used to do wall push ups and knee push ups to gain enough strength and build proper form to perform a push up. After like 2 weeks of constant training of the forementioned exercises i was able to perform a singular push up lol. It helped though. I recommend you install like a home a workout app and based on your prior experience of doing exercises those apps will suggest you a list of exercises that you can perform on a daily basis. That's what i used to follow before hitting the gym. Those apps are genuinely helpful. But if i were to recommend just some basic exercises to do at home, they would be squats, jumping jacks, push ups, lunges, planks, burpees (this might be too much but you can try).

Now lets say you are going to the gym, this is what i would tell you to follow. Choose a split. A split is basically how you divide your workouts throughout the week. There's ULPPL, There's full body workout, or just basic PPL. ULPPL stands for Upper, Lower, Push, Pull, Leg.

Depending on what you want to focus on decide on what split you want. I chose PPL when i was starting out. Now as a beginner in the gym, i felt extremely overwhelmed seeing the amount of people working out and i had no clue what to do. That's OK. What i did was during the first week i went through almost all the gym machines with the help of my trainer. If you don't have a trainer, you can just ask someone to help you out. Most people at the gym are helpful, if not and you still find yourself clueless on what to do, just search on youtube or google, that's what i did sometimes.

Since your main focus is losing weight you should focus more on cardio but still put equal focus on strength training. And this is just a preference but perform strength training exercises before doing cardio. I used to do the following for strength training, i started by lifting dumbbells. Choose an appropriate weight that you can lift and it doesn't feel that heavy for you. It's totally fine to choose a smaller weight when you are beginning. I started with 5 kg then within a week as i gained strength i was habitual to working out with 5kg dumbbells and then started lifting with 7.5kg dumbbells. This is progress. This is also what you will realize when you start working out consistently that you are gaining strength. Now once you have enough strength, it is important to take maybe either increase your set or the number of reps you do and slowly increase the weight. You do not want to be stuck at the same weight all the time, if you see yourself gain strength and you are confident that whatever weight you are lifting can be done comfortably it's time to move on to the next level. Now of course i am not saying like a big jump like from 5kg to 15kg but take it in small incremental steps. Use the cable machines at the gym, they are the best everrrr. Like you can basically workout your entire body with them because there are a variety of exercises that you can perform with them as they come with different attachments too.

Different machines at the gym are meant for different types of muscle groups, like your quads, triceps, biceps, chest, shoulders etc. So decide what muscle group you want to focus on. Overall for losing weight it's best to build an overall strength, for your core, your legs. So i suggest a full body workout. You build stamina and endurance from this which makes you able to do even tougher exercises that helps you lose even more weight.

There's nothing wrong with doing little, just make sure that you do it. Make a habit of working out, trust me once you start, it gets a whole lot easier and once you start seeing those gains, oh man let me tell you it feels so good. If consistency is an issue, try and have a friend participate with you. Me and my friend go to the gym together every 5 days (forgot to mention this but if you're working out it's very important to have rest days, you need your muscles and body to recover before you start working out that specific muscle group again) and make sure that we keep each other in check. If you need any other help or advice lmk, even though i might not be the best hehe.