how important are supplements?

[girthy]

Hi! I ordered a 2 week sample pack fm atkins a few months ago and when I ran out I was using GNC brand supplements that were equivilent..One product seemed to be a diet pill...did this help me lose my initial weight b/c I am not on it anymore...would supplements really help in the weight loss process?

[razzle]

they probably won't speed weight loss, no. If there were a magic pill for that, we'd probably all be taking it and be thin! ;) I've tried lots of those expensive supplement with no results.

What might be important are two things:

1) you might be eating insufficient veggies and fruit and nuts to get all your required nutrients (including those they haven't called 'vitamins' yet). A multi vitamin-mineral can help protect you against this possibility, though eating the food is better.

2) you might have deficiencies from years of poor eating habits. Sugar abuse, drinking coffee, smoking or using other drugs, using artificial foods, eating hydrogenated fats...these can all do damage or keep us from absorbing vitamins. We might start LCing with chronic deficiencies.

So taking just an inexpensive multi and making sure you eat plenty of healthy veggies should keep you losing optimally. You don't need to take Atkins brand or other expensive pills.
If you enter your food into fitday.com, you can check the nutritional figures for each day (or each week or month, if you prefer). I found I was only low on calcium and magensium and on vitamin D (not a big deal, as we synthesize it on our own)--your eating habits may leave you under-consuming others.

HTH