Can’t loose weight

donnasoulard36

I eat a 1500 cal and active not loosing weight I have a few alcohol drinks a night lost my husband this pass year .. how do I get my metabolism to boot up again?

AnnPT77

Metabolisms don't really shut down, at least not if we're still moving through the world.

Speaking as a widow myself, I know how psychologically dislocating that can potentially be. Kudos to you for working on finding a different path toward a positive life. It's OK if that's a work in progress.

Generally, if a person wants to burn more calories, that means improving health and energy level, so that more movement in life automagically happens, and maybe adding some manageably challenging exercise alongside, gradually increasing the exercise as it becomes easier. You don't say how old you are, but for women, the older we are the more important and useful strength exercise can be. (But it's very useful at any age or for any sex: I hope that goes without saying.)

Eating in an overall generally health-promoting way can help, too, because it fosters improved energy level as well as better health. I'm talking eating mostly meat, fish, veggies, fruits, dairy, whole grains and the like. It's fine to include a few treat foods within calorie goal - things that are less nutrient-dense and more calorie-dense - in reasonable portions and frequencies, though.

I'm not a person who insists everyone completely stop drinking alcohol when losing weight. Alcohol is one of those calorie-dense, nutrient-sparse foods, though. It can further complicate weight loss by reducing our self control (maybe eating more treats), negatively affecting sleep quality, maybe even muddling our calorie-logging accuracy. Realistically, it's not just empty calories, it's actively bad for us physically.

I don't know what you mean by "a few" drinks, but being very frank it might be worth giving some thought to how the amount of alcohol affects the process for you, positively or negatively. I understand the temptation and sense of usefulness of it in certain circumstances, and do consume some myself. If some other thing can help with stuff like stress reduction, distraction, or whatever role alcohol's now filling, that's worth considering.

You don't say how long you've been eating 1500 calories without losing weight, nor do you mention any of the things we'd need to know to have an opinion about that as a calorie goal (age, height, weight, job, exercise type/quantity), nor have you talked about your logging habits.

What I'd say is that it's standard advice around here to stick with a given calorie level and activity routine for 4-6 weeks - whole menstrual cycles if you have those - then look at the average weekly weight change over that whole time period. Shorter time periods are not a reliable gauge, especially not at the beginning, and extra-especially if doing some new or additional activity/exercise.

After that amount of time, if sensibly moderate weight loss isn't happening on average, amd logging has been utterly complete and as accurate as possible, it's time to cut calories a bit further, or add more activity if that's realistic.

I'd encourage yourself to give yourself some grace as you go through this. You've obviously been through a lot recently, and it's never realistic IMO to revolutionize all of our eating and activity at once. Gradual positive changes add up, and can be a more realistic way to look at the process.

Best wishes!