Vitamin D improves the level of fat loss when dieting

Checking the level of 25-hydroxycholecalciferol in your blood measures your vitamin D status. According to new research from the University of Minnesota when people went on a calorie restricted diet (they reduced the amount of food they ate to loose weight) for every increase of 1 ng/mL in the level of 25-hydroxycholecalciferol there was a corresponding increase in the amount of weight lost by an additional 0.2 kg. Similarly for each 1-ng/mL increase in the active form of vitamin D (1,25-dihydroxycholecalciferol), subjects lost an additional 0.107 kg. Therefore the higher your level of Vitamin D, the more weight you lost on a diet. According to the researchers “Our results suggest the possibility that the addition of vitamin D to a reduced-calorie diet will lead to better weight loss.” Additionally, the weight lost tended to be from belly fat rather than loss of muscle (muscle loss rather than fat loss is a common problem when dieting). The findings were presented at the Endocrine Society's 91st Annual Meeting in Washington, DC.