Should You Take a Multi-Vitamin?

One question that my personal training clients often ask me is whether they should be including a multi-vitamin into the mix. If you’re following a good diet protocol, do you really need to be adding this? Or are you better off forgoing the multi-vitamin?

Let’s look at a few factors to consider.

Are You Eating Plenty Of Carbohydrate Rich Foods?
The very first thing that you’ll need to consider is whether you’re eating a sufficient level of carbohydrate rich foods. Remember that while many people will need to cut carbohydrates in order to promote faster fat loss, these very same carbs are the primary foods that supply us with a great amount of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants.

If you are on a low-carb diet, it may be reason to choose to use a multi-vitamin.

Is Your Diet Always On?
Next, you need to ask yourself whether your diet is always on track. If you often find yourself having off days where you fall off the wagon, that too can be a reason to use a multi-vitamin. If this is a frequent occurrence, it’s definitely not going to be an ideal situation and you should be using a multi-vitamin for back up support.

Are You Supplementing With Any Other Individual Vitamins?
Finally, you’ll also want to consider whether you’re supplementing with any other products in addition to the multi-vitamin. Some people will choose to take specific vitamins or minerals due to specific health concerns they have. If this is the case with you, you’ll also want to consider whether you need to double up with the multi-vitamin.

Remember that you can get too much of a good thing, so you do need to watch out that you aren’t overdoing it with your multi-vitamin.

All in all, getting your hands on a multi-vitamin likely is going to be a good idea for most people unless you are someone who is extremely diligent with your diet and taking in plenty of calories. Eating perfectly all the time is an unlikely scenario. And even if it weren’t the way our food is grown/manufactured these days, the nutrient quality is very much diminished. I take one, myself, and I recommend it too all of my clients. If you do go this route, I recommend finding a brand that is made from vegetable caps as opposed to synthetic. I like to think of it as my little “healthy” insurance policy.