Your Favorite Hair Growth Vitamin Might also be Making You Gain Weight

When I was starting my healthy hair journey, I learned that adding supplements would be a sure-fire way to promote thicker, faster hair growth.  The most popular hair vitamin that everyone recommends taking is biotin.  

Biotin is accessible and cheap so it's almost a no-brainer.  As biotin gained popularity, manufacturers started to increase their competitive edge by increasing the dosage.  It's not uncommon to find 10,000 mcg biotin pills over the counter.  Because biotin is water-soluble, most people assume that it's better to take a large dose and allow your body to flush out any excess.  

No harm done....right?

We've all heard stories of impressive hair growth just by upping the dosage of this miracle pill.  But then there were rumblings of people who started to experience a few unwanted side effects from overconsumption of biotin.  The most common side effect was unwanted breakouts.  Obviously, breakouts are the very last thing anyone wants to experience.  Unwanted breakouts are one thing, but now I'm hearing there's another possible side effect that might be even worse.

Unfortunately, some biotin users are claiming that supplementing with high doses may have contributed to unsuspecting weight gain.  

I know! I'm shocked too!

After reading about multiple accounts where people have experienced bloating and weight gain, I figured there might be something to this.  From what I gather, biotin itself doesn't actually make you gain weight.  In fact, it's a vitamin that's said to help promote a healthy metabolism.  Meaning, if you take biotin because of a deficiency, you are helping to support your body's metabolic process.  But, most of us aren't necessarily deficient.  We take large doses to help super-charge our hair growth.  In doing so, some people experience an increase in appetite and hunger.  Perhaps this happens because the metabolic system is revved up making us crave more food to keep up.  On top of that, others say they experience an increase in water retention while on high dose biotin.

If you're not aware that this might be a potential side-effect, you might put on a few extra pounds without even realizing it.  

Keep in mind that this is a possible side-effect...meaning it doesn't happen to every single person who's on biotin.  But I wanted to put this out there in case this was happening to you.  Maybe biotin is giving you awesome results, but your appetite has increased. Just being mindful of this potential side effect puts the control back in your hands.  Now you can make a conscious decision not to over exceed your caloric intake.  Or you can scale back the biotin dosage to a level that still provides benefits while not affecting you negatively in other ways.    Unless your hair is actively falling out or extremely damaged, maybe you don't need to take an ultra-high dose.  Maybe you start with a lower dose then work your way to see how your skin and appetite responds.  

I had an old bottle of 10,000mcg biotin laying around so I decided to take it more consistently.  Not long afterward, I started noticing increased breakouts.  At first, I attributed the acne to mask-wearing but since I stopped taking the pills, my acne subsided.  Looking back, I noticed that my appetite increased as well.  During the day, I kept craving snacks in between meals and couldn't figure out why.  Since scaling back on biotin, I noticed that my appetite getting back to normal levels.  

 

So if biotin isn't a viable option for you to grow thicker hair....what's the alternative?

Well, I'm glad you asked. Don't you worry, I've got you covered.  I'm compiling a list of various healthy hair vitamins that work magnificently without ruining your skin or making you gain weight.  Stay tuned for my next post.