Exercise by itself, with no permanent change in diet will help you lose weight. I've done it before (lost 40 lbs) and it certainly works. It will take a month or two before you start seeing results since you initially start gaining muscle before the fat comes off, but it will work.
Now the bad news is that 1) if you slack off on the exercise, and 2) unless your diet changes are something you're willing to live with permanently, you'll start gaining back. I sure did, and then some. What you've laid out sounds like exercise (good) plus a diet (bad). In my case, stopping regular exercise + ending the diet I imposed on myself is exactly why I gained 60 lbs back after losing the first 40.
I've actually taken a similar approach this time around with regard to adding exercise back, but with regard to what I eat, I've slowly been weeding out the unhealthy stuff and replacing it with better choices that I can live with permanently. Eliminating fast food and candy have, in fact, been paramount in my success so far. However I firmly believe now that diet changes aren't something to be done all at once, at least not for most people. Undertaking changes slowly, one at a time, and giving yourself time to get used to them will be much more successful in the long run. If and when you start running into cravings, stop and figure out how to address them before going further (hint: refried beans are wonderful for satiating afternoon sugar cravings (thanks Maeve)). It'll take you longer to lose the weight with this approach, but you'll be better off not starving yourself. At this point, I'm back down approx. 33 lbs from my peak and intend to use the same approach to take off the remaining 30.
Best of luck to you. You certainly don't need a formal plan, but you DEFINITELY need to be able to live with whatever changes you make permanently. Also, like Maeve said, make sure you have some wiggle room. Another thing that helps me is checking my weight every day. The scale will alert you quickly if you're getting back into a bad trend.
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