Lose Weight with Chromium Picolinate?

A study was published this month in Diabetes Technology & Therapeutics, indicating a link between chromium picolinate supplementation, increased satiety, and reduced appetite.

This was a study of 42 overweight adult women that were divided into two groups. One group received 1,000 mg of chromium picolinate daily and the second group received a placebo. The women that received chromium picolinate reduced their calorie intake, but did not report an increase in hunger. Women receiving the placebo did not reduce their calorie intake and reported increased hunger between 4-4 1/2 hours after lunch. This suggests that chromium picolinate may reduce physical hunger during times of caloric restriction. However, neither group lost a significant amount of weight during the 8 week study. The group receiving chromium picolinate lost about 1 pound, while the placebo group gained about 1 pound.

Chromium picolinate has been touted as a weight loss aid in the past, but it has never been approved by the FDA for weight loss. I’m sure many nutrition and weight loss products are going to use this recent research to amp up their marketing efforts to get you to buy!

Chromium is a trace mineral that occurs naturally in small amounts in foods, such as yeast, egg yolks, lean meat, cheese, and whole grain products. Chromium is known to play a role in the metabolism of carbohydrates and enhances blood glucose control. An adequate intake of chromium for men and women is ~25-35 micrograms/day, with the RDA being set at 50-200 micrograms/day. So, 1000 mg (which was used in this study) is a substantial increase.

It will be interesting to see if future research continues to support this latest study findings.

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