If you’re experiencing the effects of long nights at the office, library, or the gym, then you’re probably considering using an energy supplement. This isn’t a bad idea; high quality energy supplements can be extraordinarily useful if you need to stay sharp, awake, and focused for a few hours at a time but you don’t want to just load up on caffeine!
But sometimes, professional-quality energy supplements aren’t necessary.
An alternative option is using vitamins for energy.
That’s right: vitamins.
It might not sound particularly convincing, but common vitamins have a direct and significant effect on energy levels. In fact, we’d go as far as to say that key vitamins affect energy metabolism and fatigue more so than any other nutrient, including calories!
In this article, we’ll go through the best vitamins for energy. We will explain which vitamins reduce fatigue, boost energy metabolism, and enhance performance. At the end, we’ll tell you which supplement we recommend for maximizing energy levels, depending on your specific needs.
Vitamins for energy
There are lots of nutrients involved in regulating your body’s energy levels. Different vitamins are responsible for different parts of the energy metabolism process.
These are the most important vitamins for energy metabolism:
- Vitamin B12
- Vitamin B6
- Vitamin B5
- Vitamin B1
- Vitamin C
- Vitamin D
We’ll now take you through each of these amazing energy-boosting vitamins one by one, explaining what they do, how they promote energy levels, and where you can get them. Please post your questions in the comments section at the end.
Vitamin B12
Vitamin B12 is probably the best vitamin for boosting energy and guaranteeing healthy energy levels over the long-term. B12 is essential for many important bodily function, including the formation of DNA, the maintenance of nerve endings, and the proliferation of red blood cells. B12 deficiency causes anemia, which is where you don’t have enough red blood cells to carry adequate amounts of oxygen around the body. While a full-blown B12 deficiency is rare, low B12 has the same effect; you will be unable to make optimal amounts of red blood cells, leaving you feeling lethargic and goffy-brained. Supplementing with Vitamin B12 can quickly fix this problem and stave off lethargy.
Vitamin B6
While B12 is needed to generate red blood cells to keep your cells oxygenated, B6 is needed for energy metabolism itself. Vitamin B6 is partly responsible for metabolizing proteins, fats, and carbohydrates. Without enough B6, you will not be able to release adequate amounts of energy from the calories you eat, which means you will feel tired regardless of your caloric consumption. Vitamin B6 is probably the best vitamin for immediate energy releases; most people who use this vitamin as part of a pre-workout say they can “feel” it working (often in the form of tingling hands).
Vitamin B5
Vitamin B5 is also known as pantothenic acid. Like all B vitamins, B5 has lots of different physiological functions, from maintaining healthy skin and making red blood cells to converting consumed calories into actionable energy. Being deficient in B5 is rare, as it is easily obtained from foods like broccoli, cabbage, potatoes, nuts, beans, and mushrooms. But if you are struggling with fatigue, B5 is a great vitamin for boosting energy levels.
Vitamin B1
Vitamin B1, also known as thiamin, is a common ingredient in energy supplements today. Like B12, B6 and B5, vitamin B1 is needed for the conversion of food into energy. Vitamin B1 is found in lots of foods, especially in bread, pasta, cereals and flour (to which it is added). Thiamin is found in large amounts in meat a- particularly organ meats – but most people should gte the majority of their B1 from breads and cereals. However, heavy drinkers shuld consider taking a B1 supplement on a daily basis, as regular alcohol consumption seems to deplete B1.
Vitamin C
Vitamin C is a phenomenal energy booster, even though almost nobody thinks of it that way. Vitamin C has powerful antioxidant action, protecting your cells from the effects of chronic stress. It also promotes rapid recovery, bolsters the immune system, and increases the uptake of iron in the gut. All of these things contribute directly to your energy levels, making vitamin C one of the best vitamins for energy and overall wellness.
Vitamin D
Vitamin D touches several different parts of health and performance. It is needed for the functioning of the immune system, and it is an integral part of the testosterone synthesis process. Low vitamin D is tightly correlated with low testosterone, and vice versa. Having low testosterone will completely sap your energy levels, not to mention your confidence, strength, and vitality. With most men spending all day indoors, Vitamin D deficiencies are actually quite common. Supplementing with Vitamin D can almost immediately increase energy levels, particularly if low testosterone is the ultimate cause of your low energy.
Using vitamins to increase energy, sharpen focus and decrease tiredness
The vitamins listed above are more than capable of fixing fatigue, boosting energy levels, and promoting overall good health. But using just one of them is probably not going to make much of a difference to your energy on a day-to-day basis. You will not be able to tell which vitamin you are really lacking, and they all have quite small effects in the grand scheme of things.
The best way to use vitamins to increase energy levels is to use a supplement stack which contains several vitamins as well as other natural energy boosters.
This means you will be attacking tiredness on all fronts, which significantly increases your chances of success. What’s more, using multiple vitamins known to boost energy and decrease tiredness at the same time will give you results far greater than you get from the sum of the individual ingredients.
To learn more about the best energy supplements on sale right now, check out our natural energy supplement buying guide: https://www.vaga.org/best-energy-supplements/.
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