The resources on vitamin D and obesity are long and deep.  Getting your serum level to that of a sunny country will not magically make your weight fall off.  As we begin to review the obesity issues we listed many causes.  Vitamin D is just one of those.  If you turn off your air conditioning and allow yourself to feel the extremes of temperature during the summer you most likely will not desire as much food.  I have tried this and it works. However, I also enjoy being comfortable.  There are many papers on cows and pigs and how to fatten them by controlling the temperature of their environment.  I do believe that both temperature driving appetite and not being outside during the highest incidence of UVB radiation both lead to increased weight gain.  Think about as the temperature cools in the fall, Americans consume more calories in October than any other month of the year.  I have always written this off to a natural instinct to build food storage for the winter that is driven by temperature, but also may be driven by falling vitamin D levels.  Air conditioning gives you both of these environmental effects.

The storage form of vitamin D, calcidiol, 25(OH)D, stores in all tissue in your body.  As you become more obese the amount of vitamin D per weight decreases because you have not increased your production and\or intake of vitamin D.  The reduction of vitamin D levels because of obesity puts you at significant risk for all diseases.

People, who are trying to lose weight, typically, do not ‘plateau’ if they are vitamin D replete.  Vitamin D directly combats metabolic syndrome so if you have been suffering from this there is hope.  I personally know four people that were type II diabetic that after taking enough vitamin D to get their serum level above 60 ng/ml found that they did not suffer the munches.  They have all lost more than 30 lbs.  Only one fines that it is still necessary to take the diabetic med.  If you have type II diabetes and want to try this then be sure to work with your doctor.

I would suggest that you have your doctor read this paper by Dr. Heaney – Vitamin D requirements in health and disease This paper shows how calcium absorption flattens and blood sugar is blunted at serum 25(OH) D levels above 32 ng/ml.  If you are extremely obese, it may take a significant amount of vitamin D to get you to a healthy level.

Here is a link to Pub Med for the medical research from the Vitamin D Council:  http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/researchObesity.shtml

On the lighter side, you may enjoy this group of graduate students as they perform the dance of Vitamin D and Beta cells.  I really like this because I know this group of future vitamin D researchers gets it!  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QiTFBRPFRh8

Henry LaHore in a recent email, offered this info on vitamin D and obesity:

Studies so far disagree about losing weight by taking vitamin D without low calorie diet, etc.

Obese have decreased bioavalability of vitamin D – 2000 PDF

Clinical Trials of Obesity and Vitamin D

• 37 clinical trials with obesity and vitamin D in the title as of Aug 2010
• 30 with 7,000 IU vitamin D and 30 controls, expected completion Jan 2012
• 1,000, 5,000, and 10,000 IU should have completed April 2010
• Treatment of Obesity With Vitamin D 40.000 IU Per WEEK for 1 Year Completed 2008
• Supplementation With Vitamin D Improves Leptin Resistance 400 IU and 4,000 IU – unsure of status

Clinical Trials for Weight Loss and Vitamin D

• Trial to Assess Response to Oral Vitamin D3 Supplementation in Obese Individuals with 2000 IU to 4000 IU for 8 weeks. should have completed March 2010

Henry Lahore http://www.VitaminDWiki.com has 2000+ Vitamin D files – subscribe to news in some/all categories, get latest vitamin D news from web, etc.

Well there you have more than you would ever want to read about vitamin D and obesity.  Turn off your air conditioning and spend some time outside this summer.  You may find you sweat more than you want but it will make you less hungry.  – Pandemic Survivor