I'm basically looking to shed the extra pounds, gain some mass, but most of all to get cut.
To burn some fat you HAVE to do cardio exercises.
Strength and muscle size work DOESN'T burn fat directly, because fat can't be released fast enough to create necessary energy. Your first source of energy is always ATP, then carbohydrates, then and only then after about 20 to 30 minutes of CONTINUOUS work fat starts to be released and converted to carbohydrates.
It burns fat indirectly though, because bigger muscles = higher base metabolism = you are not getting fat even if you eat many calories.
So get on some "orbitrek" style machine that makes you use your whole body for the fat burning and spend on it at least an hour a day and pop some L-Carnitine (it helps releasing fat for energy creation) and some thermogenic pills too if you are healthy enough (they will make you burn more calories per hour).
For muscle size do free weights while keeping a good movement form.
My typical workout for size and strength:
Day 1 Squats and overhead bar presses.
Day 2 Rest.
Day 3 Flat bench press and lying barbell extensions and/or close grip bench press and/or tricep pulldowns.
Day 4 Rest.
Day 5 Deadlifts, wide grip pulldowns, standing bicep curls or preacher bicep curls.
Day 6 Rest.
Day 7 Rest.
Notice that i am combining primary and secondary muscles (back and bicep for example) in 1 workout to have a longer and more complete rest and regeneration (nothing worse than overtraining - working the muscle again before it was fully regenerated after the previous workout).
The regeneration is the most important part of building your muscles.
When you are working out your muscles are actually destroyed a little bit, all growth happens when you are resting and your body pumps amino acids into your muscle tissue.
Invest in some high quality protein powder and start counting carbs, protein, fat.
Without counting it is really hard to know if you are eating enough building blocks to repair and strengthen your muscles for the next workout.
