Calorie restricted diets reduce the amount of food eaten in order to lose weight but they may be leaving the dieter vitamin or nutrient deficient. Doctors have recommended a daily multi-vitamin and it turns out that it may actually improve your odds for successful weight loss.

Researchers at the University of Minnesota conducted a study with 38 overweight men and women over 11 weeks with the intent to study how Vitamin D affects weight loss. Lead author, Shalamar Sibley, MD, PhD, assistant professor of medicine, said, “Vitamin D deficiency is associated with obesity, but it is not clear if inadequate vitamin D causes obesity or the other way around.”

At the beginning of the study, each volunteer’s blood level of vitamin D was measured. On average, the 38 overweight participants were found to have low vitamin D levels consistent with Dr. Sibley’s expectations. Their fat distribution was also measured using DXA (bone densitometry) scans and they followed a diet eating 750 calories less than they normally would eat.

What surprised the investigators was the relationship between the initial Vitamin D levels and the resulting weight loss that occurred. Those participants who had higher initial levels of Vitamin D lost more weight than those who began with a lower Vitamin D level.

In other words, the baseline or starting level of Vitamin D present before you began dieting, predicted how much weight you would lose. Two forms of Vitamin D were measured: 25-hydroxycholecalciferol, the precursor to Vitamin D and 1,2 dihydroxycholecalciferol the hormonal or active form of Vitamin D. Subjects lost an additional half pound for each increase of 1 ng/ml of the precursor 25-hydroxycholecalciferol and a quarter pound with each 1ng/ml increase in the active form of Vitamin D.

In addition, more abdominal fat was lost by those with higher levels of Vitamin D.

“Our results suggest the possibility that the addition of Vitamin D to a reduced calorie diet will lead to better weight loss”, said Sibley.

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Comments (Scroll to the end to leave a comment)

NENA

02/11/10 12:11

LOL I'm on my way to get me some Vitamin D then.

lunamoona

06/02/10 02:24

Well I am hoping this is true, as my doctor is a great believer in Vitamin D and I do take it for my Rheumatoid Arthritis. I just hope you can't overdose!

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