Magnesium Glycinate

Magnesium glycinate is elemental magnesium bound to the amino acid glycine. The NIH Office of Dietary Supplements (ODS) magnesium fact sheet describes magnesium as a cofactor in more than 300 enzyme systems and says an adult body holds about 25 grams of it, with 50 to 60 percent in bone and less than 1 percent in serum. That fact sheet does not mention glycinate.

What is magnesium glycinate?

Magnesium glycinate, also sold as magnesium bisglycinate, is a chelate: the mineral ion paired with glycine. ODS states that supplement labels must declare elemental magnesium, not the weight of the whole compound. A gram of glycinate salt therefore contains less elemental magnesium than a gram of oxide, because glycine is heavy relative to the mineral.

This page cannot attribute any glycinate-specific absorption figure to ODS. ODS never uses that name.

Does ODS name magnesium glycinate?

No. On 18 August 2026 the ODS health-professional fact sheet listed oxide, citrate, and chloride as example supplement forms, and it said small studies found aspartate, citrate, lactate, and chloride more completely absorbed than oxide and sulfate. Glycinate and bisglycinate do not appear on that page.

A types-of-magnesium overview is held and is not published here.

How much magnesium do adults need?

ODS reports Recommended Dietary Allowances for adults from 310 to 420 mg of elemental magnesium a day, depending on age and sex. Those figures cover food plus supplements. The same fact sheet sets a Tolerable Upper Intake Level of 350 mg a day for supplemental magnesium in adults. Food magnesium is outside that upper level because the kidneys excrete surplus magnesium from food in people with normal kidney function.

ODS also notes that the Supplement Facts panel states elemental magnesium.

What does ODS say about magnesium citrate and oxide?

ODS says forms that dissolve well in liquid are absorbed more completely than less soluble forms. It reports that aspartate, citrate, lactate, and chloride were absorbed more completely than oxide and sulfate in small studies. It lists carbonate, chloride, gluconate, and oxide among the forms most often reported to cause diarrhea.

Those sentences compare named salts. They are not a glycinate-versus-citrate trial.

Can you take magnesium glycinate every day?

ODS does not answer that question for glycinate. For magnesium in general, it describes daily RDAs and a supplemental upper level of 350 mg for adults. High supplemental doses can cause diarrhea, nausea, and abdominal cramping. ODS states that the risk of magnesium toxicity rises when kidney function is reduced, because the ability to remove excess magnesium is reduced or lost.

Whether any one person should use a supplement is a question for that person’s clinician. This page does not answer it.

Does magnesium glycinate cause weight gain?

ODS does not discuss body weight as an effect of magnesium glycinate. No weight-change trial of this salt is cited here.

Sources used

See the numbered list at the bottom of this page. Every intake number on this page is from the ODS magnesium fact sheet fetched on 18 August 2026.