You’re embarking on a weight loss journey, are ready to upgrade the quality and balance of your food choices, and you start ramping up your daily movement and structured exercise to stimulate changes in your physique. Which (if any) supplements should you take to support your progress?

As a registered dietitian, I’m a big fan of trying to get as many nutrients as you can from food. But in my experience, it’s pretty difficult (if not impossible) for most people to even come close to meeting their vitamin and mineral needs through food alone. Reviews of the research suggest that micronutrient (vitamin and mineral) inadequacies are widespread to a point where they could be hurting our chances of maintaining optimal health.

Even among healthy people with relatively well-planned diets, it’s not always possible (or likely in my experience) to get adequate amounts of all essential micronutrients to avoid the chronic nutrient shortfalls that can lead to health problems.

Some researchers refer to this conundrum as “hidden hunger” because we can so easily consume enough (or too many) calories before we achieve adequate intake of several vitamins and minerals.

On top of these challenges, there’s the consideration that weight loss efforts almost always require prolonged periods of cutting back on calories, which often means cutting back on nutrient intake.

And there’s evidence that suggests it could take between 2,425 to 5,000 calories per day to supply the Recommended Dietary Allowances (RDA*) for 21 of 27 essential vitamins and minerals, depending on which type of diet you choose.

(*Note: The RDA is the amount of a given nutrient required to prevent deficiency syndromes, not necessarily the amount you need to achieve optimal function.)

If I asked you to eat 5,000 calories per day of the DASH diet to lose weight — selected as the best overall diet by a panel of experts several years in a row — you’d think I was completely off my rocker. But that’s how many calories of the “best diet” it takes to meet the RDA for just 21 essential nutrients.

How do you make sure you’re getting enough nutrients to support your efforts?

Article ShortcutsStart With a High-Quality MultivitaminOmega-3 Fish OilWhey ProteinBonus: Fiber

Start With a High-Quality Multivitamin

Although recent reviews of multivitamin studies have questioned multivitamin supplements’ effectiveness for preventing chronic disease and mortality, they also recognize there is “moderate to strong” evidence that multivitamin use should be considered to improve micronutrient status, enhance cognition, memory, anxiety, stress, or depression.

As one group of researchers argues,

“Inadequate micronutrient intake, sometimes at borderline levels of deficiency, has been linked to stunted growth and neurocognitive deficits, as well as increased risks of various symptoms and conditions. Most nutrients act in all tissues, and all tissues need all nutrients; therefore, inadequate intakes may adversely affect every body system, but with more pronounced effects in some than others.”

So, what could happen if you just take your multivitamin like you may have heard at some point from your mother, doctor, or trainer?

A six-month randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study of obese Chinese women showed the multivitamin group lost the most weight, reduced waist circumference, lost the most fat, retained lean mass, increased resting energy expenditure, improved fat metabolism, decreased blood pressure, lowered fasting glucose, reduced fasting insulin, and lowered total cholesterol and triglycerides more...