taking vitamins discourages fat loss??

Hi everyone,

A doctor told me something, and I'm trying to find out how true it is.

She said that if I'm looking to lose weight, I should stop taking multi-vitamins.  Because if I stop taking them, it will encourage my body to burn excess fats and get the stored vitamins from there. 

Put that way, it sounds reasonable, but I've never heard this before.   Any thoughts?

Thanks!!!

Original Post by dovelette:

Original Post by holbee:

my guess is that it was a natropath?? they have some pretty crazy ideas (lol) like ceritan diets for certian blood types (yuck!)

That's a pretty insulting comment.  I have both friends and family who are naturopaths.  In "real" medical school doctors get a couple hours of nutrition information in their entire training.  It barely even registers.  Naturopaths take numerous courses on food, nutrition, herbs, vitamins etc, and I would never suspect a naturopath of making a statment such as the one made by the OPs doctor.  They believe in treating the patient, not just sticking a band aid on the problem, and this includes carefuly examining the patients diet and lifestyle.  My cousin who is in school now to be a naturopath has finally started taking a range of vitamins for her health, all under the guidence of her naturopath.  MY doctor, when I mentioned i was concerned about bone loss in my family, suggested taking TUMS.  TUMS are calcium carbonate and can cause kidney stones; calcium citrate (with D) is much more easily utalized by our body.

Not all naturopaths suscribe to the eat right for your blood type mentality, although if you read the book there is some interesting scientific data supporting the theory. 

Sorry to hijack the thread but I think the statement about naturopaths was uneducated and I wanted to correct that assumption.  And as much as people say "Go to your doctor," most MD's don't have a solid background in nutrition.  Its just not considered important in med school.

 im rreeally sorry you found that offensive (no sarcasm) it's just from the impression i've been given by people, their theorys are unique and not of normal practise. you are more likely correct, i was just putting the suggestion out there in a way that was a bit too confident :) sorry. personally the certian blood type diet is something my family is fighting to put me on and i hate the idea of it, it's depriving me as a growing teenager. i respect them as normal people don't get me wrong i just am against some of their theories, im probably more correct in saying im against my parent's stupidity; taking me off wheat and dairy :( i should probably say sorry again and kinda thank you for ridding me of my bias towards their profession :)

Wow.... thanks for the thoughts you guys.

For the people that have asked, this doctor is a pediatrician.  She is not my doctor.  I was an adult already at the time.  Seeing her was a one-off thing.  My mom made an appointment without asking me when she was really worried about my weight.  Not sure why she chose this particular doctor.  This was actually probably 3+ years ago now.  I didn't really take the statement seriously, but  it always hung around in the back of my head.  Just never thought to find out more until now.

As for what I'm going to do.  I don't know yet.  I've never been very good at taking my vitamins anyway.  I'm SUPER forgetful, so probably take my vitamins less than half the time even when I mean to have them everyday.  So I suppose it wouldn't be any issue for me to just stop taking them altogether for a couple months and see what happens, like coatesuwyo suggested. 

But I do tend to have more energy for my day when I do remember to take my vitamins.  So maybe they help me put more into my workouts?

So... I don't know.

Thanks for all the input though everybody.  Something to think about.

I just wanted to add something further about vitamins. Recently doubts have been cast over their effectiveness. There have been several news articles last year regarding it.

For example: Vitamins 'may shorten your life'

I personally think that if you have a deficiency, certain vitamins you are not getting through a bad diet, then they can be of some use. But as others have pointed out, we are better of getting them from the food we eat. Our focus should be on healthy eating.

Amen