ZMA on a not-empty stomach?

Emily Mattes · 10-23-2008, 07:25 PM

What are the effects of taking ZMA on a not-empty stomach? I have a friend who supplements, but he has problems with taking it on an empty stomach. Simply put, he doesn't get home in enough time to have dinner and allow it to empty before he goes to bed. He is usually able to finish dinner around 8:30 at the earliest--but because he gets up around 5:30, he falls asleep around 10:00 or 10:30. This leaves no window for taking the ZMA twenty to thirty minutes before bed. Needless to say, he also often ends up finishing dinner even later.

So if he takes the ZMA thirty minutes or an hour after eating, is it still worth anything? What's the rationale behind letting one's stomach empty?

Joe Hart · 10-23-2008, 09:05 PM

I guess I haven't paid attentionn that much to my ZMA consumption. I have always read that ZMA shouldn't be taken with dairy products. I always take it about 15 minutes before bed and it seems to work out pretty good. One thing that I have noticed about taking just zinc is that if I take it on an empty stomach I get naucious (sp?). I think it is more important to time ZMA consumption before bed than meals. There is a ZMA thread out there and one of the posters actually takes ZMA during the day without weird effects.

Garrett Smith · 10-24-2008, 08:55 AM

I don't know of any reason that ZMA cannot be taken with food, during the day, or anything else.

I mean, it's simply zinc, magnesium, and B6. It is correcting deficiencies.

Unless I saw a study that showed specific effects of a ZMA combo taken on an empty stomach before bed showed better effects than the same combo taken at various times during the day with/without food, I don't see any reason for concern.

Zinc by itself on an empty stomach can often cause nausea, sometimes to the point of vomiting.

Grissim Connery · 10-24-2008, 06:29 PM

i was taking the recommended dosage of zma from my bottle. i had started to feel naucious after a few weeks, but not immediately after taking the zma. it was after eating specific foods and some other stuff. then in one of my classes i found out what the UL for zinc was. i came home and checked out my zma, vitamins, and foods i was eating. apparently i was overdoing the zma. maybe i was in need of boosting it up for a while, but after about a month, i started getting sick. anyways i just took less zma at night. problems went away immediately.

Joe Hart · 10-24-2008, 06:52 PM

There is another way to lower your zinc, but that is not a family freindly discussion.