Do Vitamins Have Calories? - A Definitive Answer

A healthy, balanced diet is key to achieving optimal performance both inside the gym and out. But the fact of the matter is, no matter how healthy our diet is, we’re not always getting what we need from food.

That’s where a good multivitamin comes into play.

While they’re not designed to replace a healthy diet rich in nutrient-dense foods, they are designed to fill in the gaps where maybe you’re not getting enough.

But here’s the thing. Whether you’re supplementing to lose weight, achieve optimal health, or enhance performance, no one wants to be gaining weight from their supplements (unless that’s the goal), so considering whether your vitamins have calories is key to preventing weight gain and achieving good health.

And as a bonus, if you’re intermittent fasting, you don’t have to worry about them breaking your fast!

Why You Should Be Taking Vitamins

In the last few decades, there’s been a lot of research into the understanding of biochemical processes involved in cellular energy production and how the body works.

But for the human body to operate, there’s a fundamental role for several vitamins and minerals as coenzymes and cofactors in these processes ¹.

We’re talking about things like:

• Energy production
• Nutrient metabolism
• Normal cell growth and development function
• Immune function
• Cognition
• Repair cellular damage

It should go without saying that your body needs vitamins to support physical and mental well-being. While specific vitamins are required in smaller amounts than others, they are nonetheless equally essential, each in their own way.

The macronutrients—proteins, carbohydrates, and fat—provide the bulk of energy in the diet to sustain life, but the micronutrients—vitamins and minerals, are no less important.

While they don’t provide any sort of energy (calories), they are required to maintain biochemical processes that support performance, and it’s widely recognized that a lack of any one micronutrient can impair cellular energy production, leading to the development of a number of chronic diseases.

Do you actually know what happens when you’re deficient in vitamins and minerals? Check this out.

Here’s how it works ¹:

• Stage 1: Depletion of vitamin stores (faster for water-soluble than fat-soluble)
• Stage 2: Non-specific biochemical adaptation
• Stage 3: Secretion of micronutrient-dependent hormones or enzymes decreases
• Stage 4: Reversible impairment of metabolic pathways and cellular functions
• Stage 5: Irreversible tissue damage

So, if you think you’re deficient in certain vitamins and/or minerals, consider investing in the high-quality multivitamin that can ensure your stores are stocked up and prepared at all times. In general, there are a few biggies that can deplete nutrient stores:

1. Age
2. Intense physical activity
3. Diet
4. Stress

Types of Vitamins

In a perfect world, getting the nutrients you need would be simple, but unfortunately for us, it sometimes takes a concerted effort.

On top of all the minerals we require, there are also 13 vitamins the human body needs for optimal performance—9 water-soluble and 4 fat-soluble. The routes of absorption (i.e. water or fat) partly explain why the body may not absorb all of the nutrients we ingest.

The water-soluble vitamins consist of 9 vitamins—vitamin C plus the B complex vitamins (thiamine, riboflavin, niacin, pantothenic acid, pyridoxine, biotin, folate, and cobalamin).

Although adequate intake of all vitamins is key for supporting health, regular intake of the water-soluble vitamins is even more critical to avoid deficiency due to the transient nature of these vitamins ²; they are not easily absorbed, are not stored in the body, and excreted relatively quick in urine.

On the other hand, fat-soluble vitamins are a group of 4 vitamins—A, D, E, and K—soluble in organic solvents and absorbed and transported similarly to that of fats ³.

Because they do not dissolve in water, they cannot be absorbed directly into the bloodstream. Instead, they are absorbed into lacteals in the small intestine via chylomicrons, and then transported through the lymphatic system before finally entering the bloodstream ⁴.

Whether you’re taking them in a multivitamin or as a sole supplement, ensuring you’re taking them at the appropriate time and with (or without) a fat source is key to maximizing absorption and biological activity.

Do Vitamins Have Calories?

If you’re popping back a hefty handful of pills each day, the last thing you want to find out is that your supplements are contributing excess calories on top of what you’re already eating. But before you get ahead of yourself and ditch your stack, the short answer to this question is no, vitamins do not have calories.

Unlike the macronutrients that comprise our diet, micronutrients offer no energy value and therefore don’t have a caloric tag attached to them on their own.

However, the key part of that sentence is on their own.

A single-source vitamin capsule isn’t going to offer any calories, but when you dig into what else manufacturers put into their supplements, that’s where you could run into trouble. Alternatively, if you’re not able to swallow capsules and you’re downing powders and gummies, you can also run into trouble there.

In reality, vitamins and minerals don’t taste that great on their own, so manufacturers add all sorts of flavors and colors in an attempt to make them more palatable if they’re not encapsulated.

While many of these are artificial colors and sweeteners, which don’t have calories, what they do to your body health-wise is a whole different story.

On the other hand, supplements that aren’t vitamins and minerals often contain calories. That includes things like:

• Amino acids
• Protein powders
• Omega-3 oils
• Electrolytes
• Pre-workouts
• Post-workouts

Watch Out For These

So, if you want to avoid calories in your vitamin and mineral supplements, keep an eye out for these nasties.

Summary

With all of that said, there’s a good chance that your vitamin and mineral supplements won’t be adding a significant number of calories to your diet, if any.

And when you can find a clean one like NutriGenesis® Multi, you’re also getting none of the nasty additives that can harm health long-term.