I was 5' 10" and about 170-175 lbs and had dieted before and it never worked. Then this semester it magically worked and I weigh around 150-155 lbs and have gained some muscle as well. My trick is AVOID SUGAR:

- No sweets, at all. No candy, ice cream, cookies, pies, banana bread, etc. Nothing with chocolate or sugar in general. Try to replace desserts with fruit (berries are typically the healthiest).
- No juice (I make an exception for small amounts of 100% juice without anything added), soda, tea/coffee with added sugar, or hot chocolate, etc.
- With the above said, only drink water and milk if you can.
- If you eat yogurt only eat the "greek" type although the fruit at the bottom has some sugar.
- No ketchup or condiments in general, yes they have sugar. Also avoid sauces (like mayo) on sandwiches.
- Do not eat jam/jelly, that shit has a ton of sugar.
- No apple sauce.

Not eating sweets isn't too hard after the first week. I have gone about 3 months so far. Note that I do not eat red meat/pork or drink alcohol either. I also workout (mostly lift) 2-3 days a week. Avoid fried foods or anything greasy in general. By cutting back on sugar you can still eat a lot of normal stuff and still be much healthier since desserts have 0 nutritional value. For example, I do not eat salads and still have lost the weight.

What did you eat? I know most deli meat has sugar added. How about Eggs and Chesses?

Mainly eat sandwiches, fruit, grilled chicken, hummus and pita bread, fish, pasta occasionally, raw almonds/ dried apricots/ greek yogurt as snacks, and sushi occasionally...

It's hard to say because I go to university and eat what they have that meets my standards basically. Like nothing fried (at all), no pizza, I typically avoid eggs but am fine with cheeses (but not like cheese on pizza, the cheese is the worst part on pizza), no chips (I make an exception for plain "baked" chips- but in general chips are bad), I drink skim milk (even though it tastes like poop), my "fruit" primarily consists of cantelope, melon, pineapple, grapes, and bananas, As I said, I don't eat meat, I don't eat any kind of fast food (other than chipotle, but if you eat chipotle don't get a burrito- the tortilla is nearly 500 calories alone), I don't add butter/salt/dressing to anything, and I only have the fish when I am at home.

Concerning deli meats, the pre-packaged kind is obviously worse but since I eat the university food I do not have that much of a choice. I typically get wheat bread with turkey, some sort of cheese, and lettuce/tomatoes/green peppers. Since I stopped eating crap my diet consists mainly of sandwiches like that. I would definitely cut out fried foods, fast food, and sugar (including drinks). Then, from there you need to decide what makes you feel the best.

^yeah it should work like that.

Also start some lifting because you'll still look like shit if you only lose fat. You need muscle as well to look good.

start working out a lot, convert that fat into muscle

In my personal opinion, exercise is more important than diet. If you cut out pop, especially dark pop and other carbonated drinks it could help. Drink mainly water, you probably already know to stay away from junk food. DO NOT CUT CARBS FROM YOUR DIET! Carbs are your body's main energy source, and they have muscle sparing properties. If you just want weight loss, cardio training would work well. This includes jogging, exercise bike, swimming, and stuff like that. I would recommend 45 minutes of cardio training at least 3 days a week, but preferably 5 days a week. If you want to build muscle mass, weight training would be helpful. You might not lose weight this way, but you would still lose body fat. If you have more muscle mass, you will burn more calories at rest. A good weight training routine is generally at least 4 days a week. Work separate muscle groups each day, for example on day 1 work chest and back, day 2 work biceps and triceps, day 3 work shoulders and legs, day 4 work abdominal, obliques and intercoastals. This is just an example routine, you can probably find better ones on bodybuilding.com. Good Chest exercises include Bench presses, Flyes, Peck Deck, and Crossovers. Back exercises include pulldowns, deadlifts, and rows. Biceps exercises are mainly curls. Triceps exercises include triceps extensions, kickbacks, and presses. Shoulder exercises include shrugs, incline and military presses, and rows. Leg exercises include squats, leg extensions, leg presses, and lunges. Abdominal exercises are mainly crunches, leg lifts, and planks. Oblique and intercoastal exercises are mainly twists. If you youtube these exercises, it will normally have an instructional video. bodybuilding.com also has some good instructional videos, and many different exercises for each muscle group so looking there might be a good idea.
ps
Always stretch and do a warm up before exercising to reduce chance of injury!

I am a fully overweight guy