I have many friends that in the past wanted to get more fit and healthy and they've always felt the need to do a lot of research or look for some sort of crazy program that they think is necessary to shed off the weight or gain muscle. I always try to just push them in the direction of starting out with the "big four" that this article mentioned: the bench press, the squat, the dead lift, and the clean and press. All you need to do is look for videos online that demonstrate the motion and proper form and try to mimic this with a light weight [1]. As your form gets better, you can naturally add more weight. From there as you gain more experience, you can start working on exercises that isolate different body parts and of course incorporating cardio.
In my humble opinion, it's best to just jump right in, create a routine, and start learning from experience. Refer back to videos online for proper form in trying new exercises, and from first-hand experience you will see what works and what doesn't.