Vitamin D for weight loss?

Posted on Sat, 21 Jul 12

Overweight people commonly have lower vitamin D levels, but whether or not low vitamin D leads to weight gain has not been well studied.  A new report however suggests vitamin D may play a role.

Studying a group of some four and a half thousand older age women researchers found that those with adequate vitamin D levels were less likely to gain weight over a 4.5-year period suggesting,  as the investigators put it, “low vitamin D status may predispose to fat accumulation.”

This finding was echoed in an another report published this year when a group of healthy premenopausal overweight and obese women taking 1000IU of D3 for 12 weeks experienced a significant reduction in fat mass (-2.7 kg vs. 0.4 in the placebo group).

Of course it is possible that people taking vitamin D simply feel better and become more active but if there is a weight loss effect of vitamin D it certainly deserves further investigation. In any case, if your vitamin D levels are low you would benefit from treating vitamin D deficiency.

References:

1. Erin S. LeBlanc, Joanne H. Rizzo, Kathryn L. Pedula, et al. Associations Between 25-Hydroxyvitamin D and Weight Gain in Elderly Women. Journal of Women's Health. Ahead of print. doi:10.1089/jwh.2012.3506.
2. Salehpour A, Shidfar F, Hosseinpanah F, Vafa M, Razaghi M, Hoshiarrad A, Gohari M. Vitamin D3 and the risk of CVD in overweight and obese women: a randomised controlled trial. Br J Nutr. 2012 Feb 9:1-8. [Epub ahead of print]