Magnesium for Weight Loss: Does It Really Work?

Recently the idea that magnesium is what most people need for successful weight loss has been circulating around the Internet. There's no doubt that magnesium is an essential nutrient, and there is no doubt that most people don't get enough magnesium from their diets, but can taking a magnesium supplement really help you lose weight?

Magnesium And Metabolic Syndrome

The research that most articles quote in recommending magnesium for weight loss was really a study of the treatment of hypomagnesemia, a chronic condition of low magnesium levels, and metabolic syndrome, a collection of symptoms that usually includes overweight, along with high blood pressure, "prediabetes" or full-blown diabetes, and high triglycerides. Metabolic syndrome also includes insulin resistance, which will be explained below.

Doctors in the Mexican public health system identified 48 individuals who had been diagnosed with metabolic syndrome. They gave half of the volunteers a daily dose of a liquid solution that contained 382 mg of magnesium (the minimum dose for preventing low magnesium levels, but not so much as to cause diarrhea), and half of the volunteers a placebo solution that contained no magnesium.

Four months later, the volunteers in the magnesium group had:

• 2% lower systolic blood pressure (the first number, about 3 mm Hg lower),
• 3% lower diastolic blood pressure (the second number, about 5 mm Hg lower),
• Drastic reductions in triglyceride levels, on average about 47%,
• Slightly lower fasting blood sugar levels, about 12.3 mg/dl (1.3 mmol/L), and
• Greatly reduced insulin resistance, only about half as much insulin resistance as before treatment.

Insulin resistance is very important in weight control. When cells are resistant to the effects of insulin in transporting glucose, the pancreas is forced to make more insulin to keep blood sugar levels normal. Insulin doesn't just transport sugar. It also regulates the enzymes that allow fat cells to release fatty acids for the muscles to burn.

When insulin resistance is high, insulin levels are high, and fat stays locked in fat cells. When insulin resistance is lower, insulin levels are lower, and fat cells can release fatty acids for the muscles to burn as fuel. 

Taking magnesium definitely lowers insulin resistance, but it's not really fair to say that taking magnesium lower weight, at least on the basis of this widely cited article. In this study, the scientists recruited "metabolically obese" normal-weight individuals, who did not need to lose weight. Magnesium supplementation may help prevent weight loss, but can it help people lose weight?

See Also: How To Lose Weight Without Even Trying

An Obvious Way Magnesium Can Help Weight Loss

One way in which taking magnesium can help weight loss is by encouraging regularity. Overweight and obese people tend to be constipated, and magnesium supplements encourage the movement of waste out of the bowel. Milk of Magnesia, after all, is primarily magnesium. Magnesium compounds draw water into the bowel and make elimination easier. A quick weight loss of 2 to even sometimes 10 pounds (1 to 5 kilos) is possible, but magnesium also has longer-term benefits.

Seven More Ways Magnesium Can Help Weight Loss

After you take magnesium for a few days, of course, it no longer has a laxative effect. This relatively fast weight loss effect ends. However, taking as little as 400 mg (never more than 1000 mg) of magnesium supplements per day can trigger a variety of weight loss effects over a period of weeks to months.

1. Magnesium fights inflammation.

Up to 30% of "belly fat" actually isn't fat at all. It's a mass of white blood cells, inflamed tissue, and water. Magnesium reduces inflammation, which dampens the "homing signal" for white blood cells that get caught in the tiny blood vessels between fatty tissues, and slowly reduces the waistline even without fat loss.

2. Magnesium helps muscles burn fat.

Magnesium and vitamin E are essential to the formation of hexokinase, an enzyme the body uses to burn fatty acids. You still have to get exercise, and consume fewer calories than your body burns, to lose weight, but the combination of magnesium and vitamin E can help your body burn more fat.

3. Magnesium helps dieters avoid nervous eating.

Magnesium has a calming effect on the central nervous system. It reduces the pain signals that drive appetite, and slows down the search for extra food.

4. By reducing insulin resistance, magnesium makes it easier for fat cells to release fat.

Fat cells convert extra calories into stable forms that don't release free radicals the way free glucose can. They combine sugar and water to make fat. The pores on the surface of the fat cell, however, are too small to let these fats escape to be burned by the cell. Fat has to be broken down inside the fat cell into fatty acids before the muscles can use it for fuel.

When insulin levels are high, the fat cells act as if more food is on the way, and they don't need to release fat. Magnesium helps insulin work more effectively, so less insulin is needed to store sugar, and fat cells receive fewer of the signals that tell them to keep fat locked inside.

5. Magnesium helps prevent kidney stones in obese people.

Obese and overweight people are at increased risk for kidney stones, and in obese and overweight people, kidney stones are usually made of a compound called calcium oxalate. Supplemental magnesium helps prevent the formation of calcium oxalate crystals in the kidney, and slows down or even completely halts the production of kidney stones. Spinach is an excellent source of magnesium, but it is also a major source of oxalates, so it is best to take a magnesium supplement rather than to eat spinach every day if you are obese.

6. Magnesium supplementation offsets some of the effects of high-fat diet.

High-fat, excess-calorie diets are a sure path to weight gain. If you do your part by eating less, however, magnesium can help you avoid some of the effects of the fats you cannot avoid in your daily diet. When you are able to both reduce calorie intake and exercise, magnesium helps your body burn more fat.

See Also: The Surprising Factor That Drains Your Body's Vitamin D

7. If you are overweight and diabetic, magnesium makes it easier to lose weight.

The reason diabetics find weight loss very difficult is that most medications (especially insulin injections) to lower blood sugar levels result in high blood insulin levels. The more insulin is in the bloodstream, the harder it is for fat cells to release fat for fuel in the rest of the body. Magnesium supplements may not only make it easier to control blood sugar levels with less medication, they may also make it easier to lose weight with calorie restriction and exercise, a major challenge for most diabetics.