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Last week I wrote an article about Vitamin D deficiency and the positive effect of vitamin D on muscle strength and mass. Today I will specifically focus on the effects of vitamin D on fat mass and fat burning. In this article, I will also specifically address recommended dosages for supplementation. Since in the previous article I also provided some general explanations about the various forms of vitamin D, it may be useful to read both for a complete understanding.
Vitamin D and its relation to weight loss
As is often the case, we see various studies on a particular topic yielding different results. Vitamin D, especially vitamin D3, is growing in popularity. Partly due to people who very selectively show only the positive results of studies, such as in weight loss. Unfortunately, the effect of vitamin D on fat mass and body weight does not yield a consistent picture from studies.
Here I will discuss a few.
“Vitamin D makes obese pigs less fat and gives them more muscle”: Purdue University Research
In last week’s article about vitamin D, I wrote among other things that the influence on muscle mass in humans is still not clear due to conflicting results from studies. However, researchers from Purdue University found in their study with obese rats that vitamin D not only increased muscle mass but also decreased body fat [1]. These rats were also given extra calcium along with vitamin D. As I mentioned in last week’s article, however, a significant portion of the population has a vitamin D deficiency [2]. This is not the case for calcium or to a much lesser extent [3,4]. So, the question is to what extent vitamin D, calcium, or specifically the combination of these contributed to the fat-burning effect. Due to the difference in daily intake of vitamin D and calcium, the chances of extra vitamin D helping the average Dutch person are greater than taking extra calcium.
Now, this research was about obese pigs (due to both extra carbohydrates and extra fats), but you can imagine that someone who consumes an excess of calories to gain muscle mass (“bulking”) would naturally be happy with even more muscle mass and less extra fat as a result.
“Vitamin D3 helps overweight women lose 3 kg in 12 weeks”: University of Tehran Research
In a study from Iran, middle-aged women with moderate overweight (BMI of 30) lost nearly 3 kilograms in 12 weeks through daily intake of 25 micrograms (1/1000 of a milligram) of vitamin D3 [5]. While the group of women who received a placebo in the same period lost almost half a kilogram of body fat on average and gained half a kilogram of muscle mass, the women who took vitamin D lost 2.7 kg of fat mass and gained nearly 2 kg of muscle mass.
“More vitamin D in the blood leads to more weight loss”: University of Minnesota Research
Because obesity is a significant concern in the Western world, many studies on possible aids to weight loss have logically been conducted among overweight people.
In contrast to the obese rats, participants in a study from the University of Minnesota were put on a diet with 750 kcal less than their daily consumption for 11 weeks [6]. It was expected that they would lose weight. The question was whether people with more vitamin D in their blood would lose more weight. This turned out to be the case. For every increase of 1 ng/ml in calcidiol (the form in which vitamin D is measured in the blood), the weight losers lost an additional 0.2 kg.
So, they observed a clear relationship between a decrease in weight and an increase in vitamin D concentration in the blood. However, the researchers point out that it is unclear whether the participants lose more weight due to increased vitamin D levels or vice versa: whether weight loss leads to an increase in vitamin D.
“With vitamin D, more weight loss or more vitamin D due to weight loss?”: University of California Research
The same problem was faced by researchers at the University of California [7]. They looked at data from a trial involving 383 overweight and obese people. These people followed a diet with 750 kcal less than their daily consumption and were given either a placebo or a vitamin D supplement. Among the participants who took vitamin D, the level of calcidiol in the blood increased more than among those who took a placebo. For every kilogram of body weight that the participants lost, the level of calcidiol in the blood increased by an additional 1.2 ng/ml.
Again, the researchers could not determine whether vitamin D aids weight loss or weight loss aids an increase in vitamin D. In other words: it is still not clear whether vitamin D increases fat burning.
Conclusion
So, if you are still reading my story at this point, you may be wondering:
Does vitamin D help burn fat? The answer is: we don’t know yet. In one study, it was suggested that vitamin D plays a role in burning fat. But in others, it seemed that the increase in vitamin D was caused by weight loss rather than vice versa. Unfortunately, there are no other conclusions to draw. So, whether you take vitamin D to lose weight or not, at least you won’t get fat from it. And for those who
are interested in supplementation: you can find vitamin D3 capsules everywhere. But taking them is not without risk. So, ask your doctor or pharmacist first if you need them and, if so, how many capsules a day you should take. Good luck!
References:
- Ching, S., Kashyap, S. R., & DeFronzo, R. A. (2011). Antiinflammatory effects of vitamin D in adipocytes. The Journal of steroid biochemistry and molecular biology, 125(3-5), 267-269.
- Muscogiuri, G., Mitri, J., Mathieu, C., Badenhoop, K., Tamer, G., Orio, F., … & Colao, A. (2017). Mechanisms in endocrinology: Vitamin D as a potential contributor in endocrine health and disease. European Journal of Endocrinology, 177(4), R145-R161.
- Wacker, M., & Holick, M. F. (2013). Sunlight and vitamin D: a global perspective for health. Dermato-endocrinology, 5(1), 51-108.
- Rapuri, P. B., & Gallagher, J. C. (2010). Hayes genealogy: Descendants of Jonathan Hayes of Wells, Maine. The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, 95(6), 2630-2636.
- Kayaniyil, S., Vieth, R., Retnakaran, R., Knight, J. A., Qi, Y., Gerstein, H. C., … & Hanley, D. A. (2012). Association of vitamin D with insulin resistance and β-cell dysfunction in subjects at risk for type 2 diabetes. Diabetes care, 35(3), 661-668.
- Mason, C., Xiao, L., Imayama, I., Duggan, C. R., Foster-Schubert, K. E., Kong, A., … & McTiernan, A. (2011). Effects of weight loss on serum vitamin D in postmenopausal women. The American journal of clinical nutrition, 94(1), 95-103.
- Wamberg, L., Christiansen, T., Paulsen, S. K., Fisker, S., Rask, P., Rejnmark, L., … & Pedersen, S. B. (2013). Expression of vitamin D-metabolizing enzymes in human adipose tissue—the effect of obesity and diet-induced weight loss. International journal of obesity, 37(5), 651-657.
