Nutrition for Fat Loss
When someone isn't getting the results they're after as quickly as they'd like, or if they stall out on progress and want to know why the scale isn't moving, it typically comes down to one of the three scenarios below or a combination of the three.
Too much alcohol. I know, I know. I'm the fun police coming at ya on a Monday :( The problem with alcohol is that even if you stick to your calorie/macro targets after imbibing (which is hard with lowered inhibitions from the alcohol), your body recognizes excess alcohol (read: anything more than a single small glass of wine or spirits) as a toxin and your liver goes to work processing this, meaning it's not spending time metabolizing the food you ate. This is not favorable for fat loss obviously. Of course, I'm not suggesting you abstain completely - you want to enjoy your life - but I typically advise to 1x per week alcohol consumption for those in a fat loss phase, keeping it to moderate consumption, or 2-3 times per month ideally.
Too little protein. A good rule of thumb here is .8-1 gram of protein per pound of body weight. A lot of women I work with are way under this mark. The problem here is that protein is key in a caloric deficit (which you should be in if you are trying to lose fat). It leads to satiety, fuels muscle protein synthesis (this is a good thing - you want this), and if you're prioritizing protein and veggies, it's really hard to "mess up." It can seem daunting at first (especially if you fall way below this range), but easy ways to start: add egg whites to your breakfast scramble, chug some whey protein before your coffee first thing in the AM, add greek yogurt to your diet, ask for double servings of protein at places like Chipotle, eat 6 oz of lean meat at meals instead of the standard serving size of 4 oz. Let it be a gradual process, where you work on adding 20 grams a week until you hit the mark.
Lack of consistency and/or underreporting food intake. Fat loss takes consistency, period. It takes WEEKS to MONTHS sometimes of diligently tracking your food, sometimes without seeing much change on the scale. Frustrating, I know (oh, do I know!), but things like stress, hormones, lack of sleep, years of dieting wreaking havoc on your metabolism can skew the timeline for fat loss. The problem I see is that a lot of people either tend to "eyeball" their portions (rather than measure on a food scale or with measuring cups) or simply guess portion sizes when putting it into MyFitnessPal (or however they track food). Or worse, when they eat something they aren't proud of, they don't log it at all, "pretending it didn't happen." And I'm sure we've all had our share of "F*** it" moments, where we're eating a burger, and decide to say screw it for the rest of the day and binge without logging any food for the day/weekend/week. I totally understand all of this (and have had many moments where I wanted to throw my phone out the window, lol) but fat loss only happens with diligence, discipline and consistency. It doesn't mean perfection - everyone has splurge days, and you SHOULD - but those days should be 2-3 a month, max, with the rest of the days on point.
There you have it. I've thrown a lot at you, but the good news here? If you properly periodize your nutrition, hopefully you won't be in a caloric deficit/fat loss phase for longer than 8-16 weeks at a time, and when you are in a maintenance phase (meaning you are purposely trying to maintain your weight, not losing or gaining) you have more flexibility on the above. As always, it just comes down to figuring out your WHY, and asking yourself, is fat loss REALLY the goal you're after? What will it solve for you being a little smaller? It may not be the right goal for you right now if reading all of the above just stresses you out more. Maybe it's time to focus on prioritizing strength instead, fueling for performance, or trying to simply maintain weight while improving body composition (totally possible to weigh exactly the same and look like you lost 10 pounds if you are training and fueling properly).
Just some #foodforthought! Questions? Ask away!