Can Magnesium Help You Lose Weight Quickly?

Many people who are trying to lose weight have a problem with insulin resistance. Overeating or eating the wrong foods, like sugary or high fat snacks, causes your body to produce an excess amount of insulin. That insulin has to be absorbed by your body and then it will be burned to produce energy. If it's not burned for energy it will turn into fat to be stored.

As part of your body's natural function, cells will produce insulin receptors. These receptors are meant to absorb glucose into your cells. The problem of insulin resistance happens when there are too little receptors in your cells. They can't absorb all the glucose that's in your body. Unless you burn it off, it will turn into fat to be stored and you'll gain weight. In cases where this continues to happen over and over, diabetes may eventually develop.

There is no set in stone reason why cells would fail to produce enough insulin receptors, but there are some theories. One theory blames it on low magnesium levels and excessive insulin. Calcium, magnesium, and the link between them have a big part in this theory.

We all know that calcium is vitally important to your health, bones and joints. However, excess calcium is never a good thing and it can cause health problems. We depend on calcium not only to keep our bones healthy but also to trigger electric brain impulses, as well the heart, nerves and muscles.

Although we need calcium in our bodies, there are some places it just shouldn't be. Calcium can't do its job if it's in a cell, so ideally it should stay out of cells. When things don't happen ideally and calcium manages to get into cells, problems like diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure and obesity can occur.

Magnesium is an important mineral that keeps your cell healthy by stopping the calcium from getting in. Therefore, the theory exists because it's very possible that an insulin receptor shortage is caused by calcium in the cell, which only managed to get in because you don't have enough magnesium to block the calcium.

It's not a guarantee that just because you're overweight it means you have a magnesium deficiency, but it couldn't hurt to examine your diet. Try keeping a food journal and record what you eat throughout the day and take notice of how much magnesium your diet is giving you.

Normally you need about 200 - 400 mg of magnesium each day. You can get this through your foods, supplements like pills, or a combination of both. Your doctor may recommend you increase your dosage if you have problems like diabetes or high cholesterol, but please consult with them first.