Does Vitamin B12 Help You Lose Weight?

Vitamin B12 is an essential nutrient found in a variety of animal-based foods. It plays a vital role in the body’s manufacture of healthy blood and nerve cells and is critical for DNA synthesis, making it especially important that all of us receive an adequate daily amount of it. In recent years, B12 has also been touted as a weight loss aid. But, really, can vitamin B12 help you lose weight? Keep reading to find out.

B12 Supplements and Injections Are Necessary for Many People

When diet alone can not supply the recommended dose of B12 — as is often the case for vegetarians and vegans who don’t consume meat and, therefore, don’t naturally ingest enough vitamin B12, for example — there are oral supplements, nasal sprays and injections containing a synthetic version of B12 that can be used to raise B12 levels in the body and keep a person healthy. There are also prepared foods fortified with B12 that can be consumed as well. Using any one of these options to help maintain sufficient vitamin B12 levels is important when a person experiences a vitamin B12 deficiency since low levels of B12 often result in he or she having megaloblastic and/or pernicious anemia, fatigue, muscle weakness, nerve damage, memory loss, mood disorders and seizures. Vitamin B12 injections, in particular, can be especially helpful because the B12 directly enters the bloodstream and begins to work immediately (when compared to supplements, which must first be digested in the stomach and then distributed throughout the body in order to work).

Weight Loss is Possible Following a Vitamin B12 Injection

It’s possible to experience weight loss after a vitamin B12 dose or injection, but it typically occurs only in those with prior evidence of a B12 deficiency. Here’s why: Vitamin B12 helps the body convert food into glucose, thereby supplying it with the energy it needs to do basic bodily functions. A deficiency of B12, however, often signals the body to slow metabolism so that fat stores can be maintained and energy conserved, with a potential result oftentimes being weight gain. Restoring adequate levels of B12 to a person with a B12 deficiency necessarily jumpstarts metabolism, which can precipitate weight loss as the body returns to normal functioning.

Want to Learn More?

Vitamin B12 plays a critical part in good health, keeping our bodies revved up and able to produce new blood cells, protect nerve cells, deliver vital chemicals and more! When people experience low levels of vitamin B12 in their bodies, the effects can be devastating. B12 injections are a great option for people needing to boost their B12 levels, with the added benefit of possibly triggering weight loss in some people as a result of returning their bodies to normal metabolic functioning. Please contact The Institute of Natural Health to learn about the benefits of all essential vitamins and specifically whether B12 could help you lose weight, too.