How much zinc?

[Garrett Smith]

Just an FYI...men lose a significant amount of zinc in every ejaculation. If you'd like to spend less $$ on zinc and/or get your levels higher faster, well...you know what to avoid doing.

[Tony Ferous]

Suddenly im less concerned with my own zinc deficiency, i have a novel way to correct my girlfriends though. ;-)

[Garrett Smith]

Chris,
I'm looking at my zinc sulfate solution and comparing to the PDF you linked...seems like using this liquid to supplement zinc would be slow going. 1 tsp only contains 1.15mg of zinc, so even 6 tsp/day would only be around 7mg of zinc!

I'd say someone should definitely be supplementing some zinc picolinate on top of it if they ever want to get somewhere.

Also, never forget that correcting a deficiency requires different strategy than a maintenance dose. Living paycheck-to-paycheck doesn't leave any $$ to put into savings, much less to pay off accumulated debt! (hopefully the analogy comes across)

[Brian Baggetta]

FWIW, I cross-posted a similar question on EliteFTS, and the author of that article stated that he has taken up to 150 mg of zinc per day since 1999 or 2000. . .

[Garrett Smith]

I'm usually in the 90-150mg range per day of zinc picolinate, have been for the last 3 months.

I finally got around to taking the taste test today. I'm finally in the Level 2!!! (adequate zinc levels) That took a long time.

[Steven Low]

Originally Posted by Garrett Smith

If someone tests low on the zinc taste test, I believe Poliquin takes them up to 150mg for a month, then 100mg for several after that.

The taste test is huge, both for finding your level of supplementation necessary, as well as discovering if certain types of zinc don't work for you.

Yep, Poliquins recommendations are usually pretty good.

The taste test is a good method.

[Brian Baggetta]

OK, so I grabbed Lights Out @ the library on the way home, and it certainly seems to suggest taking 150 mg twice/day. See p. 187 ("150 milligrams of zinc morning and afternoon blocks prolactin . . . [t]ake it with coffee to enhance dopamine, which also blocks prolactin.").

I promise I haven't left out anything relevant in the ellipsis. I suppose you could read it as 150 total, taken between the morning and the afternoon, but seems more like 300 total to me. . .

[Garrett Smith]

Might want to look at their reference (if there is one), or go to PubMed and start searching under zinc + prolactin...

[Darryl Shaw]

Originally Posted by Allen Yeh

11mg seems absurdly low....for reference I looked at the recommendations of Vitamin D and came up with:

http://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/vitamind.asp

200IU? Really? I just don't put much stock into government recomendations of just about anything and certainly not dietary recommendations.

Being 5'9", 192 lbs and for the selection of low active that calculator thinks I need 3000 calories. which are split up like: (weird how I get a huge range for carbs/fats and still come up with 3000 kcals/day)
Carbohydrates - 334 - 482 grams = ~8 - 11.5 cups of raw yam
Protein - 70 grams = 2 small chicken breasts
Fat - 66 - 115 grams = 4.7 - 7.7 tbsp's of coconut oil

Um...that is a heck of a lot of yam

Yeah, that sure is a lot of yam.....

Something the low-carb crowd always seem to forget (or choose to ignore) in the high vs. low carb debate is that it's really hard to overeat if you're eating a diet high in minimally processed starchy carbs.

[Chris Forbis]

Originally Posted by Garrett Smith

Chris,
I'm looking at my zinc sulfate solution and comparing to the PDF you linked...seems like using this liquid to supplement zinc would be slow going. 1 tsp only contains 1.15mg of zinc, so even 6 tsp/day would only be around 7mg of zinc!

I'd say someone should definitely be supplementing some zinc picolinate on top of it if they ever want to get somewhere.

Yeah, I only find the liquid sulfate solution to be useful for testing.

Originally Posted by Brian Baggetta

Chris, how much have you been taking?

I had been following the Lights Out recommendation (150mg with meals taken at home... 10-12 doses a week total). Since I now grimace when taking the zinc sulfate liquid, I plan on moving down to 100mg a dose for a month or two and then retesting. I've been using the Source Naturals Zinc product.