Too many people trying to lose weight will focus purely on their macronutrients.

These are carbohydrates and proteins, the primary food groups we can break down all food.

While this might make sense, the unfortunate reality is that it misses out on some crucial details. Specifically, focussing purely on carbs vs. fats and the calories therein mean that you miss the importance of micronutrients.

Vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients such as amino acids, fatty acids, and enzymes all play critical roles in our diet and can make all the difference in losing weight.

Read on to find out why and what you can do about it.

Energy

When you try and fail to lose weight, you might find that you blame the amount of time (or lack of time) you have in a day.

In other words, you don’t have time to exercise, and you don’t have time to prepare the right food.

In reality, though, time is not often what is really to blame.

More likely is that it is energy that is the problem.

If you have low energy, you’ll find that you struggle to bring yourself to exercise at the end of the day or work to stay motivated to make healthy foods rather than just binge on chocolate and sweets.

Think about it: if time is the problem, why not wake up half an hour earlier? Because your energy levels won’t let you.

Eating vitamins is crucial then because it helps you to get your energy levels back.

Eating more vitamin C and B complex vitamins is perhaps the best strategy and can bring instant benefits if you want to feel more awake and alive.

Metabolism

The other reason micronutrients are so essential is that they will help you speed up your metabolism to help you burn more fat and feel more energetic.

Take something like lutein, for example. This nutrient is often thought of mainly for its ability to prevent degenerative eye disease. However, it is less well known that it can also speed up the rate at which you burn fat.

Lutein helps improve the function of the mitochondria, the tiny energy factories found in our cells.

Other nutrients that can do the same thing (though similar or completely different mechanisms) include coenzyme Q10, PQQ, B vitamins, resveratrol, and others.

You may not realize that most supplements you consume to lose weight or perform better in the gym are simply vitamins and minerals.

The best way I recommend to get more of this in your diet is to focus on foods that we would have eaten naturally in the wild.

Foods like meats (especially organ meats), vegetables, and fruits contain everything we need to survive.