Low on Energy? 7 Key Nutrients You Might Be Missing

Tired, lazy days where you just don’t feel like doing much of anything can happen to the best of us every once in a while. But if you’re finding yourself dragging too often — or if it’s getting in the way of your work, personal life, and daily to-dos —  it might be time to take a closer look and see if you need to make some changes to your diet. 

“Food is fuel” is more than just a saying — it’s a fact!

First off, eating food is literally how we give our bodies energy to carry out all the many tasks we ask it to do on a daily basis, from moving our muscles to keeping our heart beating. We fuel these tasks with calories, which are literally units of energy.

But it goes even deeper than that, because the nutrients that those calories are made up of also matter. Every nutrient, from carbohydrates and proteins and fats to vitamins and minerals, plays a specific role in your body, so deficiencies can impact your energy levels for the worst. Think back to another old saying you might remember from middle school biology: “the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell.” The mitochondria helps convert the food you eat into energy, but it needs a ton of vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients to make that happen.

In short, eating a nutritious, well-balanced diet means that you’re more likely to have all the nutrients your body needs to carry out its various important jobs during the day. But if you’re deficient in certain nutrients, the result might be tiredness, sluggishness, and fatigue that you just can’t seem to shake off. And while stimulants like caffeine can sometimes give you a boost, they don’t address underlying issues behind your fatigue, making it more of a “band-aid” fix than a real solution for long-term energy.

So if your energy is always flagging and you can’t seem to put a finger on why, it’s probably a good idea to do a closer evaluation of your diet first and foremost to check for any nutrient deficiencies you might have. 

Iron is one of the most important components to create hemoglobin, a compound found in your red blood cells and which is used to transport oxygen throughout your body. And since oxygen is a necessity for every single cell in your body, an iron deficiency can have major consequences, one of which is fatigue.

For example, people with iron-deficiency anemia, a condition in which your body can’t form enough red blood cells due to low iron levels, often complain of low energy as their system struggles to deliver enough oxygen to all the various cells that need it. What’s worse, you can still feel tired and lethargic with an iron deficiency, even if you aren’t diagnosed with an actual condition like iron deficiency anemia.

Where to find: There are two different kinds of iron that you can get from your food: heme and non-heme. Heme iron sources include animal products like red meat, fish, and poultry. Non-heme iron is found in animal products as well, like meat and dairy, but is also in plant-based foods like leafy green vegetables, nuts, and seeds. 

The B vitamin complex, which is actually made up of eight different water-soluble vitamins, play a variety of roles in your body that are important for releasing cellular energy. For example, Vitamin B12 is another nutrient that contributes to the formation of red blood cells and helps convert food into usable energy, while Vitamin B6 helps create the hemoglobin your red blood cells need to carry oxygen. In fact, the only vitamin in the B-complex that isn’t involved in the process of creating cellular energy is folate (aka Vitamin B9). So it probably doesn’t come as much of a surprise that being deficient in any of the vitamins in this complex can lead to low energy and fatigue as a result.

Where to find: a variety of foods including red meat, poultry, fish, eggs, dairy, leafy greens, legumes, and some fortified products. 

Yes, really! As much as they are villainized in the worlds of diet fads and weight loss, your body really needs at least some carbohydrates, which break down into a simpler form called “glucose” that can be used for quick energy. In fact, your brain might even prefer carbohydrates, since glucose is its main source for fuel. This means that eating too-few carbohydrates are sometimes linked to fatigue and a general lack of energy.

The key here is to make sure you’re getting the right kinds of carbohydrates. Complex carbohydrates take longer for your body to digest than simple sugars, which means that they won’t cause rapid blood sugar spikes that can eventually lead to that infamous “crash” soon after.

Where to find: whole grains, starchy vegetables like sweet potatoes and squash 

The  mineral magnesium is yet another nutrient that’s necessary for energy production on a cellular level which means that one of the more telling symptoms of a magnesium deficiency includes fatigue.

It might even help you sleep better, which is good news if you suspect that your low energy problems stem from poor sleep quality.

Where to find: Look for foods with dietary fiber like whole grains, legumes, beans, nuts, and seeds. Magnesium can also be found in leafy green vegetables, some mineral water, and some fortified foods. 

You might think of Vitamin C, otherwise known as L-ascorbic acid, as the immune-boosting nutrient that you take to protect your health during sick season. But as it turns out, Vitamin C also helps with energy production in the mitochondria (aka the “powerhouse of the cell” that you learned about in your school days)! So if someone is dealing with a Vitamin C deficiency, it can sometimes manifest as fatigue and even affect their mood for the worse.

Where to find: A variety of fruits and vegetables, especially citrus fruits (think oranges, lemons, grapefruit), bell peppers, and cruciferous vegetables like broccoli and brussels sprouts 

The “sunshine vitamin” Vitamin D gets its nickname from your body’s ability to create it when exposed directly to sunlight. But even though it’s possible to get this crucial vitamin from sun exposure alone, it’s still one of the most prevalent nutrient deficiencies worldwide, perhaps due to how few foods naturally contain it. Unfortunately, getting too little Vitamin D has been linked to a wide variety of health issues including fatigue and depression.

The good news: there’s evidence that treating people with a preexisting Vitamin D deficiency with a supplement of the nutrient resulted in significant improvements on self-reported fatigue!

Where to find: Vitamin D is found naturally fatty fish like cod, salmon, and tuna, beef liver, and egg yolks. Because deficiencies are such a widespread problem (and because so few foods naturally contain it), you can also find foods that are fortified with Vitamin D like some breakfast cereals and milk products. 

Finally, the mineral zinc is an important cofactor for your brain cells, which means that having low levels of it have been linked to issues like depression among adults and the elderly. Luckily, there’s evidence that increasing zinc levels via supplementation can lead to significantly reduced reports of fatigue among people with zinc deficiencies, at least according to a 2021 study that evaluated this effect in older adults.

Where to find: shellfish, nuts, seeds, red meat, and whole grains 

Many of these nutrients are found in whole foods that are often considered staples in a healthy diet, like fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and legumes. But under certain circumstances, you might also need to increase your intake with a dietary supplement as well.

While food sources of nutrients are generally considered to be more bioavailable, supplements come with the advantages of controlled dosages and convenience. You might need to use a supplement to meet your nutrient needs if:   

It’s important to note that many of the studies that evaluate the relationship between these nutrients and energy levels find that energy levels are lower in people who are actually deficient. In other words, if you are otherwise healthy and getting enough nourishment from your current diet, there isn’t enough evidence that consuming more of those nutrients would help (and in fact, you can actually overdo some of them, like iron and Vitamin D).

So instead of going into it blind, you may want to take a blood test!

When we’re feeling tired and generally “off,” taking a blood test might not be one of the first things to come to mind … but that’s a mistake. Our blood (and sometimes our saliva) holds a ton of important clues that can indicate what’s going on inside of our bodies. So if you’re dealing with unexplained fatigue, for example, zeroing in on your current vitamin levels can reveal whether or not you’re dealing with a deficiency — and show you a real, actionable plan for overcoming your flagging energy! With at-home blood tests like you get with Base’s 2-month improvement programs for fatigue, you not only get key insights into which nutrients can be improved, but you can also get a customized plan to improve your suboptimal levels, including recommended dosages for supplements. 

Nutrient deficiencies are some of the first places you can check if you just can’t seem to shake your fatigue and low energy levels. But adding in a ton of random supplements won’t necessarily help if you aren’t getting to the bottom of which specific nutrients you need, which is where regular blood testing can help.