Is using vitamin B6 for weight loss effective? B6 vitamin is a vital macronutrient in fat and glucose metabolism. This vitamin has several proven health benefits. There are also speculations and some proof that it might help with weight loss too.
Since this vitamin was discovered in 1915, many researchers have made endeavors to see how this vitamin is vital for nourishing the human body. Thanks to their research, we now understand the roles of this vitamin better. However, many more research works are ongoing.
Pyridoxine is the popular vitamin-B6 form. This form helps the body to break macros (fats and sugars) down, utilize them, and store them appropriately for your body to use later. These are referred to as metabolic effects.
As such, B6 contributes to your body’s healthy metabolism. This, in turn, greatly impacts weight loss and healthy lifestyles. B6 can help reduce fatigue and tiredness and fatigue, promote blood cell production, and boost oxygen circulation.
Some studies also say that B6 supplements can promote a healthy fat to muscle ratio. If you take these supplements (in appropriate amounts) and maintain a healthy lifestyle, it would help you shed excess weight. The term, “healthy lifestyle”, in this context, mean that you are eating a low-calorie diet and you exercise regularly.
We hope that this article would answer your questions and help clarify the relationship between B6 and weight loss.
Exploring Vitamin B6 for Weight Loss
The first person to discover Vitamin B6 was Elmer McCollum in 1915. That was over 100 years ago. Since that time, research studies have been ongoing to give us a thorough understanding of how B6 benefits our bodies.
Indeed, research has proven that vitamin B6 has many benefits for your body. Experts say that you need this vitamin for macronutrients to function properly in your body. These include carbs and fats, as well as proteins. That means this vitamin must be very important.
A scientific publication a group of experts in Europe states that vitamin B6 has the following functions:
- It contributes to normal body metabolism that yields energy
- It adds to the normal metabolism of homocysteine
- B6 also contributes to psychological functions
- It helps reduce fatigue and tiredness
These were not guessed works; the benefits were proven by scientific research works that established “cause and effect”. This means that they found that B6 indeed has a role in these health functions.
These experts are like the FDA in America. They are the ones who assess food properties in Europe and advise the public on the nutritional value of different foods. So you can be sure that whatever comes from them is good and trustworthy.
Now, we have seen the general benefits of B6. Is there any that correlates with healthy weight loss? Yes, there are. But we must admit that not every B6 health benefits have a role in weight loss.
The specific B6 benefits that impact weight loss are the ones we’re interested in. They are:
- Its role in normal body metabolism to yield energy
- Its role in reducing fatigue and tiredness
We will talk about these in more detail later. But we must also mention that there are some other benefits of B6 for weight loss aside from these two. For instance, scientists tell us that B6 supplements can improve your body’s lean muscle composition.
Vitamin B6, Energy-yielding Metabolism, and Weight Loss
Metabolism refers to how the process by which your body breaks down macros from your food and turns them into fuel or energy for your day-to-day activities. To put it simply, energy-yielding metabolism refers to your body’s natural way of fueling itself.
The enzymatic reactions involved in metabolism require vitamin B6 to be present. Without this vitamin, your body cannot extract energizing sugars from your food. More so, your body also needs B6 to store carbs in the form of glycogen deposits.
We want you to understand this process very well. Your body turns carbs into glucose and uses glucose to generate energy. But your body does not use all of the glucose at once. It stores it as glycogen for later deployment in energy production.
Your body has the storage capacity for enough glycogen to last you for a month. But it primarily uses glycogen as energy reserves in-between your meals.
Now, when your body wants to deploy your glycogen stores for energy production, it must release enzymes to facilitate the process. These enzymes require coenzymes to function appropriately and vitamin B6 is one of those coenzymes.
Aside from carbs, your body also needs B6 to transport, deposit, oxidize and synthesize fats. The biosynthesis of fatty acids also requires vitamin B6. This refers to the process of utilizing fats from your food.
After a meal that contains fat, your body would break down the fats into smaller units called fatty acids. Just like glucose, some of these fatty acids are immediately used to generate energy. However, some might also be stored in the form of triglycerides in fat (or adipose) cells. Sometimes, excess glycogen also converts to fat for storage in these adipose cells with the help of insulin.
Now, the problem is that fat cells are high-capacity cells. This means that they have lots of space. So if you regularly eat a lot more than your body is using for energy, your adipose cells will accumulate more and more fats. That’s how people gain excess weight.
Without enough B6, the problem is that your body would not be metabolizing the carbs and fats as it should. So even if you eat just as much food as you would need, your body would not convert them to energy as fast as it should. That way, your adipose cells will accumulate fats and you will gain excess weight.
That is why without adequate amounts of B6 in your body, weight loss might be quite an uphill task. More so, you would easily gain weight even when you are trying so hard to shed it off. In summary, your body needs vitamin B6 before it can adequately burn fat.
Conclusion
While vitamin B6 is beneficial for weight loss, you should not begin taking B6 supplements except you have talked with your doctor and he/she says that it’s okay. You can get enough Vitamin B6 for weight loss benefits from food sources like pork, fish, chicken, and turkey, as well as from brown rice, bread, eggs, soya beans, and various vegetables.