How much zinc?

Brian Baggetta · 04-25-2010, 07:07 PM

Question for anyone who has taken zinc long-term -- how much do you take, and have you had any adverse effects?

This article from Elite FTS (mostly wfs) suggests (via Lights Out) 50 mg twice a day with coffee and a meal:
http://articles.elitefts.com/article...ball-training/

But (and not that RDA or other gov't recs are especially helpful in all cases), medpedia's National Academy of Sciences rec is no more than 40 mg/day:

http://wiki.medpedia.com/Zinc (wfs)

In case it effects anyone's answer, I'm 32, and currently on a 3-day-a-week SS-style strength cycle . Soon I will shifting to a more 5-3-1 type program and starting to get into prepping for the outdoor track season (100m, discus, hammer) -- not competitive, just for fun.

I also recently started taking ZMA (maybe 6 weeks ago) and have had excellent results in terms of sleep and general recovery, although it's worth it for the dreams alone IMO. The ZMA dose includes 30 mg of zinc.

Just trying to get a sense of whether others have noticed any particular benefits or drawbacks from supplementing zinc more regularly and at higher dosages.

Greg Davis · 04-26-2010, 02:32 AM

I think you're safe with up to ~60 mg / day if you know you are deficient..

curious about the zinc with coffee mentioned in the article as I wouldn't guess that would be great for absorption.

Chris Forbis · 04-26-2010, 04:21 AM

http://www.funimky.com/downloads/The...ste%20Test.pdf

I've been doing significant zinc supplementation for a while and am just now starting to approach "optimal zinc levels" according to the test.

Allen Yeh · 04-26-2010, 04:24 AM

Wow that sounds like a lot of Zinc when you are taking 50mg twice a day and then you are taking another 30mg at night. I've only ever taken zinc iwth other things like a multi or ZMA. Never tried it solo. I don't recall that mentioned in Lights Out but I'm probably due for another read soon, it was pretty dense and I have a few take aways but I'm sure I missed way more.

If you do happen to give it a go mind updating how it goes here?

Darryl Shaw · 04-26-2010, 04:27 AM

DRI Nutrient Intake Calculator.

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

Jay Ashman · 04-26-2010, 04:47 AM

be wary of calcium and copper issues with too much zinc. Everything I have ever read says no more than 50mg per day..... but then again I would like to see the results of 100mg a day with proper dosing of copper and calcium as to avoid the absorption issues.

Allen Yeh · 04-26-2010, 05:00 AM

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

Brian Baggetta · 04-26-2010, 05:47 AM

Thanks for the input, everyone.

Yes, Allen, 11mg seemed pretty low to me, particularly as I have been taking 3x that amount for awhile now with no ill effects. But adding another 100mg to the 30 I'm taking seems like a lot, and my copy of Lights Out is currently on loan to a friend, so I haven't been able to read the surrounding text.

Chris, how much have you been taking?

Garrett Smith · 04-26-2010, 06:34 AM

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.

Tony Ferous · 04-26-2010, 06:35 AM

I recently bought another bottle of the zinc test liquid, i was deficient according to it, so i started adding 50mg zinc picolinate to breakfast, along with the 30mg from zma in the evening and 7.5 from a multi.
A week later, no change.
Will keep it up for another 2 weeks or so.
Im getting ~333mg Calcium and .3mg copper with lunch. Seems pretty easy to hit 1mg of copper dietarily though, dark chocolate, mushrooms, avocado, walnuts, spinach etc.