# Vitamin B Complex = weight loss?? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 17, 2009, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vitamin-b-complex-weight-loss/493367 "2009-04-17T01:33:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2009, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vitamin-b-complex-weight-loss/493367/1 "2009-04-17T01:33:22Z")
Along with my calcium supplement, a couple of months ago I started taking a vitamin B complex tablet (mainly to stop my mother’s nagging, she believes vitamins are the answer to every malady). To my surprise, I seem to have a lot more energy! I’m wondering if this supplement actually revved up my metabolism so that I’m more active and therefore losing some weight, or at least keeping from gaining back the weight I lost over the winter. Could this actually be the case? ---
**Author:** ![Interconnected\_Series\_of\_Tubes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/13edae/32.png) [@Interconnected\_Series\_of\_Tubes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Interconnected_Series_of_Tubes)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2009, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vitamin-b-complex-weight-loss/493367/2 "2009-04-17T04:24:59Z")
Well, B-vitamins are a frequent (if not universal) ingredient in energy drinks. Niacin in particular gets added in seemingly huge concentrations. Presumably there’s some causal reasoning behind this decision, although it could simply be a taste and color issue. However I seem to recall reading something about the ability of niacin to somehow upregulate the effect of caffeine. Could be total bunk - I guess we’ll find out! ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2009, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vitamin-b-complex-weight-loss/493367/3 "2009-04-17T05:25:07Z")
It’s possible, if for some reason you actually had a deficiency of one of them. Male or Female? How old? How well do you eat? (not how well you want others to think you eat.) ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2009, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vitamin-b-complex-weight-loss/493367/4 "2009-04-17T06:18:50Z")
A vitamin isn’t energy, this is oversimplifying it, but think of a vitamin as a catalyst or “spark.” Once you have enough more isn’t gonna help. It’s like lighting a stove. Think of your body metabolism as a stove and the vitamin as the match. The match lights the gas and the fire starts. But if you use a little match or a blow torch, it doesn’t matter, 'cause all you need is something sufficent to start that gas spark into a fire. Vitamin B is a water soluable so it’s pretty difficult to consume too much of it. The worst that’d happen is it’s just wasted. I have heard of people getting a “niacin rash,” but that isn’t common. My mother was a big believer in brewers yeast which is rich in B vitamins, I don’t know how she could eat that, but she liked it. And I know some people believe Vitamin B-12 shots give them more energy. ---
**Author:** ![acetylene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@acetylene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/acetylene)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2009, 9:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vitamin-b-complex-weight-loss/493367/5 "2009-04-17T09:20:17Z")
Darn. I take a B complex every day but it sounds like it’s more hype than anything. [Cite](http://www.latimes.com/features/health/la-he-skeptic14-2008jul14,0,3939169.story). Apparently we get enough B vitamins in our diets so a supplement doesn’t do much. [B vitamin deficiency](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B_vitamins#B_vitamin_deficiency)sounds pretty nasty, though, so I’m gonna go ahead and keep taking it. ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2009, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vitamin-b-complex-weight-loss/493367/6 "2009-04-17T12:15:26Z")
High doses of niacin lower cholesterol , it works like a statin. That might help people out if their cholesterol was high. ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2009, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vitamin-b-complex-weight-loss/493367/7 "2009-04-17T12:57:28Z")
I did get the niacin rash, but not every time I took a tablet. I’m female, in my 50’s. Don’t eat much during the day except for maybe a granola bar, piece of fruit - I prefer to eat later in the evening. Sometimes I get cravings for potato chips or ice cream even later at night and if its there, I go for it. … Maybe I AM eating ‘healthier’, and less ‘junk’, without realizing it…Really, though, I do think the vitamin B complex HAS given me more energy. I’d be interested if it really does - vitamin B IS in energy drinks. I have an occasional Red Bull and it seems to work, but maybe its all in my head. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2009, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vitamin-b-complex-weight-loss/493367/8 "2009-04-17T16:27:29Z")
Ah, you could well have had a \*low level \*B12 deficiency, not uncommon amoung women. > **[Vitamin B12 deficiency](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitamin_B12_deficiency)** > > Vitamin B12 deficiency, also known as cobalamin deficiency, is the medical condition in which the blood and tissue have a lower than normal level of vitamin B12. Symptoms can vary from none to severe. Mild deficiency may have few or absent symptoms. In moderate deficiency, feeling tired, anemia, soreness of the tongue, mouth ulcers, breathlessness, feeling faint, rapid heartbeat, low blood pressure, pallor, hair loss, decreased ability to think and severe joint pain and the beginning of Causes a... _“Common early symptoms are tiredness or a decreased mental work capacity, decreased concentration and decreased memory, irritability and depression…Recent research indicates that B12 deficiency is far more widespread than formerly believed. A large study in the US found that 39 percent had low values.”_