Taking Vitamins

Is there some reason vitamins would affect your "diet program"?

Speak to your doctor and have blood work done. If you have I deficiencies, a multivitamin would do nothing for you. If you do have deficiencies, you may need more of a specific vitamin than a multivitamin can give you.

While rare, it is possible to overdose on vitamins which can cause severe health problems, including death. Just because they are OTC doesn't mean they are without risk.

I actually reccomend taking vitamin suppluments, especially if you're losing weight. On a side note, I also really reccomend some sort of fatty acid suppluments (like a high quality fish oil -- Nodic Naturals, Barleen's or something of similar caliber in quality,) if you're trying to lose weight. By definition, weight loss is achieved by maintaining a caloric deficit, which is basically just deliberate malnutrition reworded to make it sound a little more desirable. If you're maintaining enough of a deficit to lose weight, the. It oftentimes becomes hard to get all of the nutrients you need from food. That's when suppluments come in handy. The reason I reccomend the fatty acid suppluments in addition to a multivitamin is because fats tend to be one of areas where people really tend to cut back when losing weight, even though fats are needed for various metabolic and endocrine (hormonal) processes.

I second the post reccomending Garden of Life as a good brand of vitamins. I use a lot of their products (protein powder, probiotics...not just vitamins,) and study have all been wonderful. The company is also really nice to work with and takes care in educating sales associates about their products and giving samples of their products so that associates can build opinions on their products based on personal experience. I've gotten a lot of products from them in this way, and I've never been disappointed.

Strawblackcat wrote: »

I actually reccomend taking vitamin suppluments, especially if you're losing weight. On a side note, I also really reccomend some sort of fatty acid suppluments (like a high quality fish oil -- Nodic Naturals, Barleen's or something of similar caliber in quality,) if you're trying to lose weight. By definition, weight loss is achieved by maintaining a caloric deficit, which is basically just deliberate malnutrition reworded to make it sound a little more desirable. If you're maintaining enough of a deficit to lose weight, the. It oftentimes becomes hard to get all of the nutrients you need from food. That's when suppluments come in handy. The reason I reccomend the fatty acid suppluments in addition to a multivitamin is because fats tend to be one of areas where people really tend to cut back when losing weight, even though fats are needed for various metabolic and endocrine (hormonal) processes.

I second the post reccomending Garden of Life as a good brand of vitamins. I use a lot of their products (protein powder, probiotics...not just vitamins,) and study have all been wonderful. The company is also really nice to work with and takes care in educating sales associates about their products and giving samples of their products so that associates can build opinions on their products based on personal experience. I've gotten a lot of products from them in this way, and I've never been disappointed.

Only a doctor who has blood work on you and knows your medications should be suggesting vitamins. They can actually harm you.

I'm going to also agree with the others who said there's no point in supplementation unless you have a known reason to supplement. If you are already getting appropriate nutrients, supplements can provide OVER nutrition in certain types of vitamins. Some vitamins, particularly those that are fat-soluble, are more dangerous to have too much of, as they get stored in body fat, rather than being excreted through urine. Other vitamins need to be in balance to best work within the body and be appropriately absorbed. Adding a supplement to the mix because you've heard its a good idea or think you need them is ill-advised.

Get a baseline blood panel done - this will give you an idea of how well your current diet is meeting your nutritional/health needs. I had one done when I started out and was suggested to take fish oil to increase my HDL, or "good cholesterol", as it was low compared to my LDL. I also took a high dosage vit. D supplement for 3 months to correct a deficiency (which made getting active a lot easier). I also was told to start taking B12 as my levels were very low. Follow up testing is just as important to see if those interventions are working.
A couple of years later I was baseline tested again as I'd lost about 90 lbs and became a frequent blood donor, and found that my iron stores were becoming depleted, so I'm taking iron supplements for now. I still take B12 and fish oil per doc instructions as these have helped me maintain the right levels due to a diet low in meat/fish.

Point is, you don't know you need them until you get tested. Supplements have been a game-changer for me, but it's all been as-necessary and with professional oversight.