Supplement Help?

[bjohnson24]

I just started the Atkins diet and I am taking the following vitamins and minerals.

Multi-Vitamin for Low Carb/ Diabetics
99 mg Pottassium
Vitamin B12

I am 24 years old and 6"2' and 230 lbs, I live a relitivley active life but am not working out reguarly right now. I was wondering if this amount of supplements is sufficient and when should I take them. All in the morning, one a day, or I just don't know.

Thanks

[cs_carver]

Isn't enough to give you a good answer. Congratulations on finding your way to this forum; you might want to read a number of the posts. We get questions like this a lot. The only real answer we can give is, "it all depends: on your budget, inclination, genetic risks, environment, interest in learning, basic nutritional knowledge, belief in the RDA as a valuable number or lowest possible baseline."

In other words, read. Dr. Atkins' Vitanutrient Solution is a good start; there are many other books and websites, many of which get referred to on here a lot, that can help.

Good luck.

[kebaldwin]

I just started the Atkins diet and I am taking the following vitamins and minerals.

Multi-Vitamin for Low Carb/ Diabetics
99 mg Pottassium
Vitamin B12

I am 24 years old and 6"2' and 230 lbs, I live a relitivley active life but am not working out reguarly right now. I was wondering if this amount of supplements is sufficient and when should I take them. All in the morning, one a day, or I just don't know.

Thanks

At 24 years old, 6'2" and 230 pounds - I assume that you are in relatively good health. (I was 40+ years old, 6'0", 310 pounds -- and bad health).

So just a good quality multi-vitamin and fish oil should be sufficient.

If you have the money and want to improve things ...

I would recommend a high quality mens multi-vitamin since it will have some things to prevent good testosterone from turning into estrogen. I prefer vitacost.com but if you like GNC or another -- then go with it. Some here do not like GNC. I like LEF.org - but I don't think that they have a men's formula. Hopefully others will recommend their favorite brand names of men's mega multi vitamin.

The mega multi-vitamin will usually require 6 to 8 capsules per day. Take half with breakfast and half with dinner. These usually cost around $40 per month.

For fish oil - try to get "mega" fish oil and take like 2 to 4 grams per day. Some prefer liquid - some prefer capsules. The liquid come in bottles and need to be refrigerated. It should be purified or distilled. If you buy the fish oil in large bottles / containers it will cost about $5 to $10 per month.

If you have any joint problems there are supplements for joints.

If you are losing hair rapidly - I would take extra men's formula for 6 to 12 months until your hair loss stops. Men with rapidly thinning hair are often the same men that get prostate cancer. So there are additional vitamins and supplements you can take to help stop DHT.

If you want to build muscle - then you might want to add more magnesium, zinc, and amino acids. Be careful how much zinc you take between your multi vitamin and additional supplements. You don't want to take more than like 35 to 50 mg per day for long periods of time.

You should already be getting enough protein on this diet that you should not need protein supplements.

Otherwise, more antioxidants are probably your best bet.

For potassium, the RDA is like 3,500 mg per day. In other words like 35 of those tablets per day. Go to your grocery store and buy "salt substitute". It usually is found near the salt. The taste is kind of strong like any spice so start light and work up. It does take a while to get use to it. Use it like salt. You may want to mix with pepper (or some other spice) until you get use to it.

If you are taking a high quality men's multivitamin -- you should not need additional B12.