Can Magnesium Help You Lose Weight?

Magnesium citrate is an over the counter supplement used for weight loss or as a laxative for medical reasons. Magnesium is known to be a very important mineral found primarily in our bones and used for many essential functions in our bodies. This shows that having a deficiency in magnesium can lead to some serious negative symptoms when it comes to our health and when trying to lose weight.
Although, what is magnesium and how does it work when we use it for our bodies? When we consider using a supplement like magnesium citrate for weight loss, it's important to know all the essential details and information. Here are some important questions answered when considering taking magnesium citrate for weight loss.
What Happens When You Take Magnesium Citrate for Weight Loss?
First of all, we should start with what happens when you take magnesium citrate in the first place. Magnesium citrate is a mineral supplement used to normalize the amount of magnesium in the blood for people with deficiencies. For people with constipation, irritated bowel syndrome, or other digestive conditions, you may use higher doses of magnesium citrate to induce bowel movements. Magnesium is crucial for the normal function of your cells, muscles, bones, and your heart, so you can understand how important it is to keep your levels healthy.
What is Magnesium Citrate good for?

Magnesium helps lose water weight and decrease bloating by inducing bowel movements to keep them regular. By fixing these problems, you can see a natural decrease in water weight and bloating, which can positively affect your body and overall image.
Magnesium citrate for weight loss is also helpful in insulin resistance, which can help in your bodies ability to burn fat more effectively. It also boosts energy production in the body by increasing the production of ATP, which is our bodies primary energy source. This can help boost our metabolism speed and improve our overall energy for exercising and fatigue.
What Benefits Indirectly Effect Weight Loss?
Magnesium is needed in our bodies to run efficiently and function properly, and specific negative symptoms can indirectly affect your weight gain. Taking magnesium citrate for weight loss can help with improving your sleep quality if you find yourself having difficulty getting enough sleep. Sleep is something that affects our weight loss efforts more then we realize and fixing that problem can do wonders for our waistline. Magnesium can also help with decreasing our stress levels, which helps in hormone balancing and getting better sleep at night as well.
How Do I Take and Use Magnesium Citrate?

Magnesium Citrate for weight loss is usually a mineral supplement taken by mouth. You should follow all the instructions given on the specific product being used, and if uncertain about any information, you should ask a health professional. Taking them with a meal is usually best to avoid an upset stomach or nausea based on how naturally sensitive your stomach is.
How Long Does it Take for the Supplement to Work?
If you are using magnesium citrate for laxative purposes, you should use it whenever possible for constipation purposes. It usually takes within 30 minutes to 3 hours for the supplement to induce a bowel movement depending on the dose recommended by a health professional. When using magnesium citrate for weight loss or other health benefits, the longer and more consistent you use it the more it builds up in your system.
The magnesium citrate supplements goal is to normalize your magnesium levels and over a period of time clear out the negative symptoms of magnesium deficiency. When your magnesium levels are normalized, the benefits start to follow afterward.
What are the Side Effects of Magnesium Citrate?
The most common side effects that have been reported from taking magnesium citrate are:
- Stomach issues such as cramping, gas, nausea, or vomiting
- Having a high level of magnesium in your bloodstream
- Imbalance in electrolytes or mineral levels in your body such as sodium, calcium, and phosphate in your blood.
There are no severe side effects documented from taking magnesium citrate, and these vary from person to person depending on your body.
How Much Magnesium Citrate Should I Take?
Magnesium citrate for weight loss can be purchased over the counter in liquid or tablet form, and each has its own recommended use. If you are taking magnesium citrate as a supplement, the amount taken depends on age and sex.
Men between the ages of 19-30 should take 400 milligrams daily, and men over 30 should take 420 milligrams daily. Woman under 50 years old should take 310 milligrams, and woman older than 50 should take 320 milligrams a day.
Can I take Magnesium Citrate for Weight Loss Daily?
Magnesium citrate supplements are recommended to be taken daily to obtain the most benefits. Magnesium citrate for weight loss should be taken daily to provide continuous production of magnesium, so your levels stay normalized, and the negative symptoms can be eliminated. As well as just being able to benefit from what the supplement has to offer, taking it at the same time every day is best.
Should I take Magnesium Citrate at Night or in the Morning?
There is no preferred option for taking magnesium citrate, whether it be in the day or at night as long as you continue to take the supplement at the same time each day. It is best to take the supplement at a time you will most remember it or when it is easily accessible to you. Taking it at night is only required when you are taking magnesium citrate specifically for improving sleep quality.
What Should I do to Make Magnesium Citrate Work Better?
While taking magnesium citrate for weight loss benefits, it will not work as a miracle pill in shedding off pounds. There is no product you can find that will do all the work for you when it comes to losing weight and having a healthier lifestyle. You should be exercising and eating whole, nutritious foods consistently while taking magnesium citrate for weight loss. Keeping your same unhealthy lifestyle while taking the supplements will not help your situation, you have to put in the work.
Magnesium citrate can help normalize your magnesium levels, getting rid of those adverse side effects, while helping with energy production and sleep quality. Although, when it comes to losing weight and becoming more healthy, magnesium citrate can help make the whole process easier while you still have to make those healthy lifestyle choices for yourself.