Vitamin B12 injections are becoming increasingly popular as a weight loss supplement. The product promises consumers that it will improve energy levels, boost metabolism and help burn fat. Vitamin B12 supplements and injections can be found in nutritional supplement stores and online and weight loss clinics are offering them as part of their weight loss plans. At $60-$70 for an injection kit, these businesses stand a lot to gain to help you lose.
But do they work? Here’s the skinny on B12 injections…
Vitamin B12 is an essential water-soluble B complex vitamin and is important for metabolism, maintenance of the central nervous system, and helps in the formation of red blood cells. Vitamin B12 is found in fish, shellfish, meat, eggs, and dairy products. Our body can store several years’ worth of vitamin B12 in the liver, so it’s very rare to have a deficiency of this vitamin. Vitamin B12 deficiency usually results either from an inability to absorb B12 from the intestinal tract or from not taking in enough B12 via the diet, such as in the case of those who do not consume meat products like vegetarians or vegans. Vitamin B12 are available as dietary supplements or can be medically prescribed for those who are deficient or are at risk for B12 deficiency.
One of the symptoms of vitamin B12 deficiency is fatigue. So unless you have a vitamin B12 deficiency, a B12 supplement is not likely to provide you with an energy boost or an increase in metabolism.
Supplement companies and weight loss clinics sell this product with a disclaimer that vitamin B12 injections work best if used along with diet and exercise. This is where they get you. In reality, if weight loss and an energy boost does occur while using the B12 injections, it is most likely due to the increase in exercise and healthy eating, not because of the B12 supplement itself.
Supplementing your diet with vitamin B12 when you’re not deficient isn’t likely to cause harm. Because vitamin B12 is water-soluble, any excess injected into the body will simply be excreted.
The take home message is that there is no evidence that supports the claim that vitamin B12 injections promote weight loss. If this product actually worked, everyone would be using it, we’d all be at a healthy weight, and the obesity epidemic would no longer exist.
I would put the use of vitamin B12 injections for weight loss in the same category as many other weight loss supplements that promise weight loss without the work: if it looks too good to be true, it probably is.
Until next time, be well!
The Skinny 