losing fat and gaining muscle (cardio AND lifting?) Help!

I would flip-flop and do the lifting first, then the cardio. Get started with a full body routine focusing on compound lifts like Stronglifts 5x5, New Rules of Lifting, or Starting Strength. Set your deficit at TDEE-10% (15% max).

The lifting is most certainly NOT pointless- you don't need to build NEW muscle to get benefits. Most of the gains for months and months of a training routine come from what's called neuromuscular adaptations- which basically means training your CNS to actually use the muscle you have. Every untrained person has TONS of muscle fibers that the CNS has no idea how to fire up and use, so that's what training does. You will have all the benefits of building muscle- getting stronger, looking leaner, denser bones, better insulin response, feeling badass, looking "toned"- even if you don't add a single ounce for a long time.

Don't freak out if the scale doesn't move for a while- the muscle will hold fluid for a while once you start lifting which will mask your fat loss on the scale. Take measurements and pictures in a bathing suit ASAP to help you track your progress.

First you gain definition from losing fat not by building muscle. You get that really defined look when you hit about 15% body fat. Also to much cardio it burns fat and mucle i genrally try to only stay around 30 min of cardio at a time. You could also look into circuit work outs they combine weight training and cardio(try looking into sparticus circuit ). On a diet weight training helps maintain muscle, and the whole cant gain muscle on a deficit is kind of up in the air ive read many different things

If you haven't lifted consistently much you will definitely make gains in strength - you will hear lifters refer to it as newbie gains.

my only comment would be is that i prefer to do my cardio after lifts just cause they take a lot out of me, but to each their own