I understand how OP feels. I'm sure we've all been there...
But I wish advice given was a bit more specific. I know it's hard to be because "everyone is different", but... I don't know. I've heard it a thousand times before. "Eat right", "calories in, calories out", "take it slow." But I wish it was all defined and laid out in front of you. "Eat this much of this, this, this, and this." and "Exercise this much a week and do these exercises."
But "everyone is different" and a clear-cut formula won't work for each individual. And it doesn't help that the scale doesn't give you a very consistent trend. Very frustrating.
From my own, personal experience... I went from 148(?)-140lbs rather quickly from walking on a mountain daily and, later, following the SBD.
My second attempt, I went from 163-148lbs by eating 1200 calories/day (eating anything I wanted within my budget) with no exercise. It took several months though.
My third attempt, I really started to smarten up and get the hang of it. I went from 157-146lbs. Finally my weight loss was turning into a science. I started with 1650 calories, expecting that to be my maintenance... and it turned out to be. I didn't lose any weight. So I went down to 1550 calories as I thought 1200 calories was too low for me. I was in a 700 calorie a week deficient by my calculations. And you know what? I ended up losing 0.2lbs a week just like I predicted. Eventually, I ended up moving down to 1400 calories and trying to burn off 100 calories a day through exercise... 0.7lbs a week... but even that felt too slow for me. Then... Eventually, I said 'screw it' because counting every stupid single little thing that went into my mouth was aggravating after several months. So I stopped counting, and probably started eating less than 1400 calories. I no longer exercised, but I was losing ~1.3lbs a week. Pretty good! Then..... I slowly stopped. (I was working at this for months, at a very slow pace, and so my net loss for all that time was pretty low...)
Now I'm trying again, starting at 150lbs, quitting counting calories and finally exercising. I think I did best when I wasn't so obsessive about it. That's... how I'm doing it. But I'd rather hear from someone who has actually made it to their goal