Numerous websites say that many people are indeed deficient in this mineral. If true, the consequences could include a propensity to gain unwanted weight, lowered ability to gain or maintain muscle mass, and bad readings for blood lipids and blood sugar.Is chromium even essential? To answer the question about deficiency frequency, it must be first established that chromium merits classification as an essential nutrient. To get that classification, a substance must be found in the diet, be required for one or more 
essential body functions to work, and if not eaten in adequate amounts, symptoms must develop.
In 2001, a US agency classified chromium as an essential nutrient, but has not revisited the decision since then. The original judgement was based largely on something that happened in a few people given total parenteral nutrition or TPN (all nutrients provided intravenously). Some people on TPN developed high blood sugar and other symptoms. When chromium was added to the TPN solutions, blood sugar came down. However, John Vinson, a professor at University of Alabama, notes that the chromium obtained from the TPN solutions wasn’t particularly low versus what’s in diets (1). Moreover, all TPN chromium got into the bloodstream, but only a small percent of dietary chromium gets absorbed into the blood. So, why did chromium help some people on TPN? It may have been a drug effect in people under intense bodily stress.
Are there any human situations where a chromium deficiency has been found? The short answer is no. It is possible that a moderate deficiency doesn’t produce obvious symptoms but increases the chances of developing health problems. These problems could have multiple causes, but moderate chromium deficiency could contribute.
In support of this possibility, a few studies say that low blood chromium readings can be related to certain health assessments. For example, in one study, people with macular degeneration show lower mean plasma chromium readings than more generic people (2). However, plasma chromium readings are influenced by multiple factors, not just dietary intake. Moreover, even if diet did influence the readings, the relationship of dietary chromium to macular degeneration could be coincidental (ie. diets low in chromium may also be low in other nutrients).
Can rats be used to demonstrate that chromium deficiency can occur? Rats fed different amounts of chromium can show differences in measurements such as blood sugar. However, it now appears that the differences were not because one group was chromium deficient and another was not (1). For example, in one case, high chromium intake produced lower blood sugar than in rats fed less chromium. However, the less chromium wasn’t real low compared to what people typically eat (adjusted for higher body weight in people). Once again. chromium may have just acted again like a drug.
Does this settle the issue that chromium is not essential? In my opinion, it’s safer to say that sufficient evidence does not exist to declare chromium as an essential nutrient.
To get back to the original question, I can’t say that you or anyone else is deficient. That’s because I can’t even say that chromium is an essential nutrient.
Even if chromium is not essential, could supplements serve some purpose? To study this question, a form of chromium has to be given that absorbs well (at least compared to other supplements, none of which absorb at a high percentage). For now, chromium picolinate has become the form of choice. Based on my group’s research, the chromium chloride in some multi-nutrient supplements seems to be a bad choice (3).
Chromium supplementation has been claimed as a weight loss aid as well as an enhancer of the benefits of weight training. However, research done so far hasn’t backed this up. For instance, a statistical analysis has been done on multiple studies on chromium supplementation and weight loss (4). The researchers concluded that weight loss might get enhanced, but qualified the conclusion in two ways. One, the quality of some of the studies was poor, and two, the weight loss enhancement may not be very big. Research on body responses to weight training plus and minus chromium is very limited. A good study from Maren Hegsted’s group (5) wasn’t very encouraging for this use of chromium supplements.
On the positive side, chromium supplements have lowered blood sugar in some, though not all studies. The chromium doses used dwarf what diet can provide. Differences in study results can be partly, but not totally, attributed to some studies using very poorly absorbed chromium forms. Even if chromium can help with blood sugar, this mineral is not recognized as a standalone strategy for blood sugar control. Also, although relatively high dose chromium picolinate has done well in some safety evaluations, all minerals have potentially harmful effects at high doses.
Other possible uses of chromium supplements have received some attention, but need more research. One example comes from studies that include work from my research group (6). Here, a moderately high dose of chromium picolinate lowered plasma readings for triglycerides (TG). TG readings have been considered a risk factor for cardiovascular disease (CVD) and sometimes for pancreatitis (though the CVD relationship has been questioned lately). I hope to do more research to see if chromium picolinate + two other agents can substantially lower TG readings in certain people at risk for pancreatitis.
Conclusion. Right now, no degree of chromium deficiency has ever been demonstrated, but the issue isn’t fully resolved. Chromium may have some drug value, but that also remains unsettled.
1. Vincent JB. New Evidence against Chromium as an Essential Trace Element. Journal of Nutrition 201;147:2212-2219
2. Heesterbeek TJ, Rouhi-Parkouhi M, Church SJ, et al. Association of plasma trace element levels with neovascular age-related macular
degeneration. Experimental Eye Research 2020;201:108324
3. DiSilvestro RA, Dy E. Comparison of acute absorption of commercially available chromium supplements. Journal of Trace Elements in
Medicine and Biology 2007;21:120-124
4. Tsang C, Taghizadeh M, Aghabagheri E, et al. A meta-analysis of the effect of chromium supplementation on anthropometric indices of
subjects with overweight or obesity. Clinical Obesity 2019;9:e12313
5. Hasten DL, Rome EP, Franks BD, Hegsted M. Effects of chromium picolinate on beginning weight training students. International
Journal of Sport Nutrition1992;2:343-350
6. Joseph E, DiSilvestro R, de Blanco EJC. Triglyceride lowering by chromium picolinate in type 2 diabetic people. International
Journal of Nutrition and Metabolism, 2015;7:24-28