I'm not sure about the reasons of not joining a gym but in my experience the people who can't discipline themselves to set foot in a gym won't do much better at home.
Meaning most of the times people buy these wonderfull at home workout machines but after a few weeks it starts to collect dust so just beware of mental traps.
As for food, I'm not disagreeing with the comments above but a lot of old formula's are being questioned, especially with the 6 meals a day thing.
Weightlifting prisoners being a good example, basically their nutrition sucks and is not the best quality and to top it off it's mostly carbs and yet the ones that work out can look very good so it is not a sure thing yet.
Cardio is actually one of the least effective methods of losing fat, it really depends on when you put what into your body.
Carbs only in the morning or after a workout, with proteins and vegetables filling the gaps during the day.
Check out your hormone levels as well, they are highly underrated but probably one of the most important factors, like testosterone boosts muscle development and fat burning while cortisol does the exact opposite.
Cortisol is released when you drink coffee for example or work out excessively over 75 min
or just when you are stressed out.
So if you are stressed out most of the times either trough bad habits or your job you will likely not get any real results even if everything else is on par.
That's where supplements like vitamin c come in handy because it decreases the amount of cortisol with 30%.
Omega 3 capsules and vitamin D increases the bodys ability to burn fat and increases testosterone.
Most important thing is that you follow your own road and find out for yourself what works best for your body.
As a cyclist, I want to know how a person can ride even a short 25 mile ride each day and only carb after the ride? I'm not saying hi carb. When I used to lift weights I cared a little and consumed lots of protein and my diet didn't "suck". Point is, lo carb or hi carb, you have to eat what is right for your activity. Don't starve yourself!