Posted - November 28, 2009

Link Between Weight Loss And Vitamin D

New research suggests that there may be a link between Vitamin D and how quickly you’re able to lose weight.

A new study measured Vitamin D levels in 38 overweight people before they underwent an 11 week diet plan. The diet itself consisted of limiting calories to 750 calories a day less than the participant’s estimated daily needs. The pre-diet testing showed that most of the participants were experiencing some level of Vitamin D deficiency.

While nearly all of the dieters were lacking in Vitamin D, the degree of the insufficiency seemed to predict how much weight loss success they would have over the course of the 11 week test period. The higher Vitamin D levels people had before dieting, the more weight they lost.

For each 1 ng/mL of 25-hydroxycholecalciferol – the precursor form of vitamin D and a commonly used indicator of vitamin D status – people lost nearly a half a pound. For each 1-ng/mL of the active or “hormonal” form of vitamin D, people lost nearly a quarter of a pound.

In addition to losing more weight overall, people with higher Vitamin D levels lost more abdominal fat.

Researchers are not ready to describe the exact relationship between Vitamin D and weight loss, citing more researching is needed, but they do agree that a link of some kind between Vitamin D and weight loss seems likely.