Not losing weight despite exercise and calorie tracking. Discouraged.

Help: Losing weight while strength training, scale not budging

Hello all,

LONG POST WARNING

I am a 23 year old 5'9-5'10 woman who weighs about 170 pounds. I'm fairly new to strength training (about 8 weeks) but have heard a lot about how great it is for fat loss and overall health. I've really enjoyed it so far - I've been using FitnessBlender's Mass program (shoutout to Daniel and Kelli, they've brought me so far already).

Routine: 5 days (2 lower, 2 upper, 1 core) of 30-45 minutes of strength training and 20-25 minutes of cardio (usually Just Dance aerobic/sweat versions of songs), 2 days of flexibility work (yoga, light Pilates, stretching)

Overall lifestyle: I do a good amount of walking as my apartment is about a 15 minute walk away from my law school. I average about 8-9K steps per day, usually hitting 10-11K on workout days. I love to dance and I generally try to incorporate casual dancing in my day just for fun.

Apple Watch: My active goal is set to 800 calories per day. I hit and surpass that easily on workout days (usually getting about 1000-1100 on those days) and usually get around 400-500 on flexibility days (more sometimes if I have social events on those days). My average resting calories off of the health app are 1800 (consistent) and my active calories average out to 900 per day for a combined TDEE of about 2700. However, I do know that this isn't 100% accurate for several reasons.

1) I have a history of weight loss. Over the past 3 years, I've lost about 70 pounds. However, I did so due to restrictive eating (1200-1300 calories per day) and cycles of extremely low calories and binging due to hunger. I know now that 1200 calories was NEVER appropriate for my height, even with no exercise. However, I'm afraid that my metabolism might be severely messed up from this practice (I only started eating more consistently about 4-5 months ago)

2) Apple watches and other devices aren't perfect. Enough said. Athough I have heard that Apple Watch in particular is more accurate than most and I'm truly hoping this is the case.

Eating Now: I try to eat anywhere from 1600-1800 calories per day. I have days where I eat more than this (going out to parties, clubs, out with friends) but I also tend to burn more those days (see above re loving to dance lol). I don't track macros but I'm considering including way more protein given my affinity for strength work so I'd love suggestions regarding how much given my routine/weight/height, sources, etc.

Goals: So I have a classic apple shape. While my weight is just technically not overweight anymore by BMI standards (which I'm sure aren't perfect but they're what I've got now), I still have a lot of extraneous fat especially on my stomach, arms, neck, and inner thighs. I'm just completely unhappy with the way I look and how I carry my extra mass, despite my weight being okay more or less. I've also got a total pancake butt so I would eventually love to focus on that and gain some mass there. I know I can't outrun/outlift the unfortunate genetics but I do want to focus on losing fat (calculators say I'm around 30% BFP - obese which is so scary to me, especially given how much I struggled to lose weight in the first place) because of my tendency to carry it in the worst places for overall health and appearance. I also love strength training and would love to maintain and build muscle.

My Problem:

My weight hasn't budged from 168-170 for about 8 weeks now. I feel like I'm going insane. Yes, my tracking isn't 100% perfect but I tracked for years and I generally know how to do it. I feel like I'm always at a deficit of about 800-1000 calories. I've read about so many reasons why this could be: newbie gains, shitty calorie counting (I hope this isn't it, I've tried so hard to be accurate), fluid retention, whack metabolism, god knows why. I would really love any and all advice about either why this is occurring or any other suggestions to help achieve my goals. I just feel like no matter how hard I work and how careful I am with my calories and exercise routine nothing is happening. Every day, looking at the scale makes me want to give up especially when I can't trust the mirror given my body fat percentage and the way I carry weight.

Thank you all so much for your attention.

TLDR: 5'10, 170 lbs, eating at a fairly large deficit and working out with no scale progress. Discouraged.

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