Weight Loss Vitamins In Your Diet

When a person thinks about weight loss the first thing that usually comes to mind is dieting. The fact that one will have to deal with the tasteless, raw or low calorie foods in place of the tasty foods they were eating before poses quite a challenge and can be a source of great stress for some people. Losing weight is essential and at the same time can be quite involving and downright hard work. With all these thoughts into what you must remove from your diet, it can be easy to overlook some essential items that you should be supplementing your diet with. One of these essential items, at least where health and weight loss are concerned, are some essential vitamins and minerals.

A number of vitamins, such as Vitamin C, are not only essential for good health, but can improve your weight loss efforts by optimizing your metabolism and curbing hunger.

When I was growing up my mother would lay out our daily vitamins for us each morning with our breakfast. Of course as soon as I stopped eating breakfast with my mother I also stopped taking vitamins and it was only last year that I went back to supplementing my diet with calcium, vitamin D, vitamin Bs, and vitamin C. I am a firm believer that you should try to get most of your vitamins and minerals from your diet. I do not think that taking vitamin and mineral supplements should be a green light for having a nutritionally-deficient diet, however depending upon your family history and body type (e.g. most women in my family have developed osteoporosis) vitamin supplements can help you obtain and maintain optimum health.

Although it might be surprising to hear that there is such a thing as “weight loss vitamins”, it is true that weight can be controlled and efficiently maintained using vitamins. Most food contains some form of vitamins and it is possible to get vitamin supplements from the pharmacy or a convenience store. Without the necessary vitamins in the body, its survival would be compromised. This can also lead to unhealthy living and disease. However, not all vitamins act the same way and not all would contribute to weight loss. The way in which some vitamins aid weight loss is simple. First, if a person is seriously trying to lose weight then food cravings have to be prevented. Food cravings for indulgences such as chocolate, cake or fried food can also be a sign of nutritional deficiency.

A healthy diet plan involves eating small meals early morning and at mid-day instead of having three large meals. To get enough nutrition and curb some of the cravings, spreading the consumption of small potions between three to four times in a day becomes very helpful. Boosting a person’s weight loss by focusing on additional doses of minerals, taking mineral water when feeling hungry and eating the right vitamins is a good idea. One of the best weight loss vitamins that helps to boost weight loss efforts is vitamin B2, also known as Riboflavin. This is essential for better thyroid function and metabolism. The best sources are milk, liver, hard cheese eggs, kidney, green vegetables, marmite, wheat germ and almonds.

Vitamin B3 plays a major role in thyroid production and plays a vital part in stabilizing blood sugar levels. This vitamin can be found in large amounts from brown rice, cheese, dried fruit, barley, wheat flakes, salmon, oats, mackerel, meat, eggs, turkey chicken, tuna, liver and wheat bran. Another essential vitamin is vitamin B5, which is essential in the body for burning fat and energy production. It also assists in normal adrenaline function. Another important B vitamin that helps in weight loss is vitamin B6 that assists in the regulation of thyroid hormone production. This vitamin can be found in foods such as brown rice, avocado, bananas, cabbage, eggs, dried fruit, sardines, poultry, brewer’s wheat germ, beef, mackerel, and oats. Choline, which is part of the vitamin B group, is produced inside the liver. The vitamin helps in fat metabolism and deficiency of this vitamin causes fat to be trapped in the liver.

Another common vitamin that is often overlooked for its weight loss enhancement abilities is vitamin C. Most of us just break out the vitamin C when we have a cold, but it is actually a vitamin that should be a regular addition to your diet. Vitamin C has strong antioxidant properties in the body and helps to oxidize (burn) body fat during periods of physical activity. If you eat a lot of citrus fruit then you will be already getting plenty of vitamin C from your diet, but if you don’t eat these foods very often then taking 500mg of vitamin C a day can be very beneficial. Don’t take more thinking that you’ll be skinny in no time because that is not the way this vitamin works. Vitamin C is water soluble so any more than the amount your body can use, which is about 500mg, will be eliminated when you pee.

Finally, as I mentioned before, due to the incidence of osteoporosis in my family I have been taking calcium supplements combined with vitamin D supplements (vitamin D is essential for your body to be able to use calcium). According to a recently published article in the British Journal of Nutrition, calcium may improve weight loss, but only in people whose diets are already calcium-deficient. It is thought that the brain can detect when the body does not have enough calcium. To try to correct this, the brain signals to the body that more food should be eaten. Thus, it is thought that calcium supplementation in some people may help to curb hunger and decrease appetite. See “Daily Calcium Requirements” for more information about calcium and health.

Weight Loss Center has a wonderful section on their website dedicated to information about all types of vitamins and minerals. For more indepth information about any of these or ones that I may have not discussed, please visit the section here: Vitamins, Minerals & Antioxidants.