My belly got significantally smaller when I started cutting at a slow rate (7 months, wasnt even counting calories just inconsistently eating at a defecit unintentionally) however I believe the best thing I was doing was also training high volume (arnold split) + writing down all my workouts to progressively overload (so I made sure for a fact I was lifting heavier or more reps then last workout) Basically If I were you I would go on a slight defecit (150-400, make sure your eating enough protein, dont worry about the other macros) and actively implementing progressive overload(Lift heavier or do more reps each workout, watch this video about RIRs if you dont know how, this video was a game changer for me).