What does 100% of vitamin A equal in mcg?

farmhousedream1987

I’m always exceeding my vitamin A levels on fitness pal before I take my women’s 1 a day multivitamin. My women’s 1 a day multivitamin has 700 mcg at 78% of daily value. My question is what is fitness pals 100%? We’re not supposed to exceed over 10,000 mcg of vitamin A a day so what is the mcg of vitamin A on fitness pal? I need a multivitamin because my body doesn’t absorb iron correctly and I need vitamin D because I had surgery for melanoma and can’t be out in the sun frequently and have deficiency. I have trouble reaching MyFitnessPal nutrients unless I take the multivitamin but then my vitamin A skyrockets

sollyn23l2

farmhousedream1987 wrote: »

I’m always exceeding my vitamin A levels on fitness pal before I take my women’s 1 a day multivitamin. My women’s 1 a day multivitamin has 700 mcg at 78% of daily value. My question is what is fitness pals 100%? We’re not supposed to exceed over 10,000 mcg of vitamin A a day so what is the mcg of vitamin A on fitness pal? I need a multivitamin because my body doesn’t absorb iron correctly and I need vitamin D because I had surgery for melanoma and can’t be out in the sun frequently and have deficiency. I have trouble reaching MyFitnessPal nutrients unless I take the multivitamin but then my vitamin A skyrockets

With the kind of vitamin A they use in multi's (beta carotene) you'll just pee out the excess, no need to worry. In fact, that's what will happen with *most* vitamins (except fat soluble ones, which are stored in fat). That's why my doctor friend calls multivitamins expensive pee.

neanderthin

sollyn23l2 wrote: »

farmhousedream1987 wrote: »

I’m always exceeding my vitamin A levels on fitness pal before I take my women’s 1 a day multivitamin. My women’s 1 a day multivitamin has 700 mcg at 78% of daily value. My question is what is fitness pals 100%? We’re not supposed to exceed over 10,000 mcg of vitamin A a day so what is the mcg of vitamin A on fitness pal? I need a multivitamin because my body doesn’t absorb iron correctly and I need vitamin D because I had surgery for melanoma and can’t be out in the sun frequently and have deficiency. I have trouble reaching MyFitnessPal nutrients unless I take the multivitamin but then my vitamin A skyrockets

With the kind of vitamin A they use in multi's (beta carotene) you'll just pee out the excess, no need to worry. In fact, that's what will happen with *most* vitamins (except fat soluble ones, which are stored in fat). That's why my doctor friend calls multivitamins expensive pee.

Pretty sure beta carotene is a fat soluble compound or at least Vit A is.

sollyn23l2

neanderthin wrote: »

sollyn23l2 wrote: »

farmhousedream1987 wrote: »

I’m always exceeding my vitamin A levels on fitness pal before I take my women’s 1 a day multivitamin. My women’s 1 a day multivitamin has 700 mcg at 78% of daily value. My question is what is fitness pals 100%? We’re not supposed to exceed over 10,000 mcg of vitamin A a day so what is the mcg of vitamin A on fitness pal? I need a multivitamin because my body doesn’t absorb iron correctly and I need vitamin D because I had surgery for melanoma and can’t be out in the sun frequently and have deficiency. I have trouble reaching MyFitnessPal nutrients unless I take the multivitamin but then my vitamin A skyrockets

With the kind of vitamin A they use in multi's (beta carotene) you'll just pee out the excess, no need to worry. In fact, that's what will happen with *most* vitamins (except fat soluble ones, which are stored in fat). That's why my doctor friend calls multivitamins expensive pee.

Pretty sure beta carotene is a fat soluble compound or at least Vit A is.

Vitamin A that comes from meat is processed differently from vitamin A in plants. Look it up if you like. Your body takes beta carotene and converts what it needs into vitamin A.

neanderthin

sollyn23l2 wrote: »

neanderthin wrote: »

sollyn23l2 wrote: »

farmhousedream1987 wrote: »

I’m always exceeding my vitamin A levels on fitness pal before I take my women’s 1 a day multivitamin. My women’s 1 a day multivitamin has 700 mcg at 78% of daily value. My question is what is fitness pals 100%? We’re not supposed to exceed over 10,000 mcg of vitamin A a day so what is the mcg of vitamin A on fitness pal? I need a multivitamin because my body doesn’t absorb iron correctly and I need vitamin D because I had surgery for melanoma and can’t be out in the sun frequently and have deficiency. I have trouble reaching MyFitnessPal nutrients unless I take the multivitamin but then my vitamin A skyrockets

With the kind of vitamin A they use in multi's (beta carotene) you'll just pee out the excess, no need to worry. In fact, that's what will happen with *most* vitamins (except fat soluble ones, which are stored in fat). That's why my doctor friend calls multivitamins expensive pee.

Pretty sure beta carotene is a fat soluble compound or at least Vit A is.

Vitamin A that comes from meat is processed differently from vitamin A in plants. Look it up if you like. Your body takes beta carotene and converts what it needs into vitamin A.

What I said was, beta carotene is fat soluble and not water soluble. Cheers

AnnPT77

farmhousedream1987 wrote: »

I’m always exceeding my vitamin A levels on fitness pal before I take my women’s 1 a day multivitamin. My women’s 1 a day multivitamin has 700 mcg at 78% of daily value. My question is what is fitness pals 100%? We’re not supposed to exceed over 10,000 mcg of vitamin A a day so what is the mcg of vitamin A on fitness pal? I need a multivitamin because my body doesn’t absorb iron correctly and I need vitamin D because I had surgery for melanoma and can’t be out in the sun frequently and have deficiency. I have trouble reaching MyFitnessPal nutrients unless I take the multivitamin but then my vitamin A skyrockets

I'm going to get to trying to answer your actual question, but first I'm going to take an annoying wordy detour to some additional info that might possible help in your scenario. (Sorry, I'm like that. 🤷‍♀️)

So, first, don't assume that MFP has accurate values for all micronutrients. Open the spoiler for an explanation of why, and what you might consider doing about that.

The database is crowd-sourced (entered by regular users like you and me). Some are careless, but more importantly most users can only enter what's on a product label, and those may not be complete when it comes to micronutrients. It's true that micros more likely to be left out rather than overstated, but it varies because sometimes people enter a value for the wrong units (IUs vs. mcg vs. %, where more than one can possibly occur on a label across different products).

If you're short on other micros according to MFP, spot check a typical day or two against a more comprehensive source, such as USDA Food Central.

https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/

Generally, for whole foods (fruits and veggies), there's an entry in the MFP database that's quite accurate, but it may not be the first one that comes up on search. It's useful to check and find those when first using MFP, so your recent/frequent foods lists get populated with good values for foods you eat often. One way to find those entries is to find the food in the USDA Food Central database and find the exact bureaucratic name for the food (for this purpose, look in the SR Legacy section of Food Central). Take that name and search MFP for that. (Example, not "peanuts", but "Peanuts, all types, raw". The default quantity on those is often cups, even when cups are super-dumb, but there'll be other options in the serving-type drop down. If you find one that has very different types of servings - volume, weight, size, etc. - that's usually going to be more complete in micros.)

Another options is simply to do a web search for foods high in whatever micronutrient you think you're short on. That will often be a quick way to realize that you are getting enough of a given micro, but MFP is giving you a lowball number. For myself, I find that if I eat a boatload of varied, colorful veggies and fruits - which is my eating preference by taste anyway - the micros and fiber pretty much fall into place without much conscious thought, or need for supplementing things that aren't somehow an individual problem for me (such as needing to supplement B-12 because I'm vegetarian, or D because I live in the North, say). I aim for 800g+ fruits and veggies daily, FWIW. YMMV.

I can't give you an authoritative answer about what mcg value MFP uses, but my best guess would be that the values are the ones that would be used on food labels in the US, because that seems to be their typical approach. There, best I can tell, the non-binding labeling guidance to manufacturers is that 100% is 100% of something called RAE (Retinol Activity Equivalents), not exactly raw micrograms. Quote and link in the spoiler. The examples in that link suggest that 100% is 900 mcg RAE.

The previous RDI for vitamin A was expressed in International Units (IU), a measurement based
on the biological activity or effect, where one IU of vitamin A activity had been defined as equal
to 0.30 mcg of all-trans-retinol or 0.60 mcg of all-trans-β-carotene (Ref. 4). However, IU does
not reflect the carotene:retinol equivalence ratio (81 FR 33742 at 33913). The new unit of
measure, RAE, considers the vitamin A activity of β-carotene in supplements to be half the
activity of pre-formed retinol, and the vitamin A activity of dietary β-carotene to be one-sixth of
the β-carotene in supplements (Ref. 5). Furthermore, carotenoids, such as β-carotene, added to
food is assumed to have the same bioconversion as those naturally occurring in foods (12:1)
(Ref. 6). For the other dietary provitamin A carotenoids, β-cryptoxanthin and α-carotene, the
RAE is set at 24 based on a vitamin A activity approximately half of that for β-carotene (Ref. 5).

From:https://www.fda.gov/media/129863/download

A bit further down, some calculation examples suggest that the percentage is based on 900 RAE, which is microgram quantified.

Personally, I wouldn't assume that a supplement (even a standard multivitamin) is necessarily beta-carotene. The label should say.

If you want more information about how to think about Vitamin A intake, things like what would be risky, how to think about going over on beta-carotene vs. preformed Vitamin A, etc., the USDA Fact Sheets are useful for this sort of thing.

Consumer version: https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/Vitamina-Consumer/
Professional version: https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/VitaminA-HealthProfessional/

Personally, I usually prefer the professional versions, but I'm kind of a nerd that way.

Very generally, it's hard to overdose on food-sourced Vitamin A and have health risk as a result because of how it's metabolized. But your question has to do with adding more vitamin A from a supplement on top of seemingly-adequate food-source intake, and I have no idea how to look at that.

If you're concerned, consulting a registered dietitian (which I'm not one of) would be a good plan. Short of that, you could look at increasing your micronutrient intake via food instead of the pills (the fact sheets on various nutrients will have helpful info about foods high in those nutrients); or you could stop the multivitamin and find individual supplements for just iron and vitamin D, if those are all you're short on. Those should be readily available. (I usually supplement individual micros if needed rather than taking a multi, for various me-specific reasons.)

I'm not iron-deficient, but my understanding from reading posts by others here is that the type of iron supplement can be important, or different types can have different effects in different people. If I remembered anyone who'd said that, I'd tag them. If you find that your multi keeps your blood test results where your doctor wants them, you're probably fine, but if you're just starting down this route, it might end up mattering what form the iron in your supplement is.

I hope you can find an answer that works for you.

kshama2001

@AnnPT77 that's probably me who talks about the forms of iron.

farmhousedream1987 wrote: »

I’m always exceeding my vitamin A levels on fitness pal before I take my women’s 1 a day multivitamin. My women’s 1 a day multivitamin has 700 mcg at 78% of daily value. My question is what is fitness pals 100%? We’re not supposed to exceed over 10,000 mcg of vitamin A a day so what is the mcg of vitamin A on fitness pal? I need a multivitamin because my body doesn’t absorb iron correctly and I need vitamin D because I had surgery for melanoma and can’t be out in the sun frequently and have deficiency. I have trouble reaching MyFitnessPal nutrients unless I take the multivitamin but then my vitamin A skyrockets

Like Ann, I don't take multis. D is one of the things I take separately. I am no longer anemic, but was for decades. I found the FORM of iron very important to get both my iron levels AND energy levels up. I take iron bisglycinate, which does not cause digestive distress, unlike several forms that were prescribed for me, one of which sent me to Urgent Care with excruciating stomach pain.

I assume you get your iron levels tested at least once per year?

These are both iron bisglycinate. There are several ways to count iron. These are 36 mg and 25 mg. If your iron is in the triple digits, it is counting the other way.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00FYOU6AG
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00013Z0QA/