Manage Your Weight with Vitamin Dby Lisa Schofield for Live So Well By now you know that vitamin D is an outstanding vitamin for health and well-being, as recent research in the past several years has revealed how it helps regulate healthy immunity, bones, and other vital systems and organs. But it has also been shown to be quite effective in keeping your weight regulated as well. Sufficient amounts of vitamin D in the bloodstream positively influence the functioning of a hormone, leptin, which communicates an "I'm full, no longer hungry; quite satisfied now, thank you" message to the brain. Through time when you eat less, you will lose weight and also enjoy a healthy, normal appetite that allows you to remain in your healthy weight range. A research team led by Shalamar Sibley, MD, MPH, assistant professor of medicine at the University of Minnesota, performed a study on overweight men and women that correlated circulating vitamin D levels at the beginning of a controlled diet and how much weight was lost at the end of the study 11 weeks later. Researchers wanted to determine how vitamin D present in the body could predict weight loss success. The findings were presented in 2009 at The Endocrine Society's 91st Annual Meeting. On average, study volunteers exhibited vitamin D levels considered to be low. However, the researchers found that pre-diet vitamin D levels served as an adequate predictor of weight loss in a linear relationship. For every increase of 1 nanogram per milliliter in blood levels of the vitamin D precursor (25-hydroxycholecalciferol, a widely used indicator of vitamin D status) volunteers ended up losing almost a half pound more on the calorie-restricted diet. Additionally, for each 1 nanogram per milliliter increase, volunteers lost a corresponding approximate one-quarter pound. Additionally, those who exhibited a higher pre-diet vitamin D level also had greater loss of abdominal fat. Supplementing with vitamin D, especially in the winter months, may help keep your levels high. Sun exposure triggers the body to manufacture high amounts, so feel free to don shorts and a short-sleeve shirt, grab your favorite magazine or book, and lounge in your backyard for 10 to 15 minutes before slathering on the sunscreen. |
