Does Zinc Make You Gain Weight?

This question is at least 50 years old: does Zinc make you gain weight?

Most people aren’t getting enough - and it could be severely hamstringing your results and your health. Today we’re going to look at what this mineral is, what it does for you, and how you can turn it around with zinc supplementation.

Let’s get into the important stuff so you can start gaining weight better…

What Is Zinc?

Zinc is an essential mineral. It’s also one of the most common deficiencies all over the world (1).

Deficiency in Zinc is a problem because it stunts growth. As a mineral, your own deficiency in zinc could offer something similar, where it stunts metabolism and tissue formation. It has important roles in hormones and metabolism, specifically.

As a powerful and important coenzyme, Zinc has a wide range of roles in the body – over 100. This makes zinc an essential mineral in a wide range of healthy processes. Failing to get your zinc can affect you in ways you won’t notice, but compromise your health.

Zinc also has close relationships with other minerals – especially the electrolytes. This makes it a key player in weight gain both by itself and in relation to compounds like magnesium.

What Does Zinc Do in Your Body?

Zinc is a crucial part of your body’s method of turning food into energy, and then into mechanical work. Energy storage is also why this compound is so closely related to the B vitamins, to which it is a mild synergist and allows them to do their work.

Zinc is also directly important to your metabolism. When gaining weight, it’s a great way to support health as your metabolism is doing more work and encountering more stress. The supplementation of zinc, especially with synergists, offers important support to these processes.

In this way, it offers a way of getting the most from your food and supporting the function of important processes. This efficiency contributes to the quality of your results, perhaps more than to the quantity.

Zinc: Appetite, Metabolism, and Hormones

Zinc also has an important role in the maintenance and regulation of both appetite and food turnover (how you get hungry again).

It’s involved in the proper appetite and hunger responses, as well as thyroid hormone function. It also has direct effects in the control of savory cravings, which are often a hidden need for zinc and other minerals.

Many compounds also block the uptake of zinc, which can lead to either deficient or suboptimal levels. These are common compounds, too, such as calcium or phytates. Your body’s demand for zinc also increases markedly during exercise, which can lead to deficiency if you continue eating “normal” levels of zinc.

Who Needs Zinc Supplementation?

Typically found in nuts, seeds, wholegrains, and animal foods, you’re also at risk if you’re on a plant-based diet, keto, or any diet that has low wholefood intake. Processed foods are typically low in essential minerals like zinc, putting your health and results at risk.

Those who exercise regularly have higher zinc demands, while many medical conditions may interact with both deficiency and supplementation. Pregnant and breastfeeding women also need more zinc, but should seek a doctor’s guidance on supplementation.

Most people could benefit from focusing on zinc - you may be deficient without realizing it.

Does Zinc Make You Gain Weight?

Zinc is going to help you gain weight, mildly, by improving energy uptake from food sources. It will also improve the energy supply to important areas like the muscles, driving further muscle growth and improving quality.

This combination of quality and quantity makes for a better process of weight gain, improving other secondary benefits like strength gains and performance in a range of exercise and sports. This makes zinc a common and effective supplement among elite athletes and serious bodybuilders.

Zinc and Growth: A Crucial Nutrient?

Growth potential – as stunted in zinc deficiency – is less important here. The main benefits for growth are in children. However, the risk of exercise-related zinc deficiency are concerning in their own right.

Being unable to provide effective metabolic support to muscles in need is a major risk. It can stunt muscular performance and recovery, in particular, limiting your growth potential. This also applies to the indirect benefits and knock-on impacts: reduced strength gains and tendon remodeling, poor quality muscular growth, and recovery – including during sleep.

There’s a reason that optimal, sufficient, and deficient levels exist for this kind of mineral. They reflect the body’s needs and – when you fall short due to exercise or diet – you put those processes at risk. Healthy, high-quality weight loss depends on getting the zinc your body needs for optimal function.

Zinc and Hormone Function

Hormone function also depends on zinc, where it is associated with proper regulation of the “anabolic quartet”:

• Testosterone
• Insulin
• IGF-1
• Human growth hormone (HGH or somatotropin)

The signaling and secretion of these hormones control your muscle growth, as well as the strengthening and development of other areas. By its action on hormonal-metabolic function, zinc is key to the processes of recovery, growth, and development.

Deficiency undermines these important processes, the ones that make weight gain possible in the first place. You may not see enormous, accelerated muscle growth, but zinc ensures that both the health and performance of these systems are well-supported.

Zinc Pills: What Can They Do For You?

Zinc pills are one of the best places to get zinc into your diet. These have been popular with athletes since the original use of ZMA by BALco in the 1970s. The additional intake of zinc – whether from foods or supplementation – is a great way to support diet.

Pills offering zinc are common and healthy. They offer a concentrated boost in a format that doesn’t risk interactions with calcium or phytates, making for a bioavailable and ‘pure’ form of zinc. These are often stacked with other synergists – like vitamin D, B vitamins, or magnesium – as in AppetiteMax and other high-quality weight gain pills.

Zinc is so useful that effective supplementation and choice of synergists makes it a key contender for essential weight gain supplements. Products using zinc offer a more complex and healthy take on the weight gain and appetite stimulant formula, where zinc’s metabolic and appetite effects are both leveraged for better results.

Final Thoughts

Does zinc make you gain weight? Not by itself - but it is one of the best choices for healthy, high-quality muscle and weight change. It’s an amazing mineral for better weight gain results, health, and consistency.

Zinc is an important mineral and it’s estimated that around 20% of people are deficient in Zinc, with at-risk groups such as vegetarians, women, and active people covering a huge part of the population. If you’re reading this article, it’s obvious that you may be at risk when trying to gain weight.

Exercise and diet need to align towards your results. Zinc supplementation from pills is one way that you can improve the quality and quantity of your weight gain, as well as your health while you pursue it.