There is no sustainable way to quickly lose weight in a healthy manner and keep it off permanently. Eating healthily and reducing processed and refined foods will help to ensure that our bodies get all the vital nutrients that they require for optimal wellness. Often it is not recognised that overweight or obese individuals are in fact ‘starving’ in the sense that the food they may be consuming is often low in nutritive value yet high in calorific value. In such instances the body may be encouraging overeating in an attempt to gain some essential nutrition.
Our bodies require a vast array of vitamins, minerals, essential fats and other nutrients in order to work at their best. Eating a diet rich in ‘natural’ foods such as vegetables, fruits, beans, nuts, seeds, unprocessed meat and fish and unprocessed wholegrain carbohydrates will help to provide the body with the vital elements necessary to maintain health. By contrast a diet mainly based around processed foods, sugars, white bread and refined carbohydrates will be high in calories but very low in nutrients, this may cause the body to be in a state of almost constant hunger driving us to eat more in the hope of satisfying our complex nutrient needs.
A recent small study published in the British Journal of Nutrition (1) has found that taking a calcium and vitamin D supplement may help overweight and obese women to lose body fat but only if their calcium intake from food is already habitually low. All the women in the study were asked to follow a lower-calorie diet, half the women were given a calcium plus vitamin D supplement to take in addition and half the women were given an inactive placebo supplement. Among the women taking the calcium and vitamin D supplement who had been getting less than 600mg of calcium per day from food before the study had greater reductions in body weight and body fat, compared to women who got more calcium naturally from their usual diets. Women who got adequate calcium from their diets prior to the study lost no more body fat over the course of the study when taking the supplement compared to women taking the placebo.
Only women with the lowest calcium intake prior to the study, less than 600 mg, seemed to get the weight and fat-loss benefits from the supplement. Supplement users lost 13 pounds, on average, versus 3 pounds in the placebo group.
The reason why the calcium and vitamin D was helpful to women who normally consumed under 600mg calcium daily is not entirely clear. There is some evidence to suggest that the supplement was having an effect on the appetite of these women (1). During a buffet situation it was found that the women who had been taking the supplement ate less fat than they had during a test meal done at the beginning of the research study, the same was not found in the women who were taking the placebo.
One of the researchers said “Our hypothesis is that the brain can detect the lack of calcium and seeks to compensate by spurring food intake, which obviously works against the goals of any weight loss program. Sufficient calcium intake seems to stifle the desire to eat more“. In other words, the current findings seem to suggest that for overweight people with a very low calcium intake, calcium/vitamin D supplements might be very helpful for weight-loss success. While the results from the test meals suggest that extra calcium may help calcium-deficient women curb their appetites while dieting, more research is certainly needed to confirm these preliminary results. The research team had previously found that women who consumed diets poor in calcium had more body fat, bigger waistlines, and higher LDL-cholesterol levels than those who consumed moderate or large amounts of calcium.
The Recommended Nutrient Intake (RNI) for adults aged 19-64 for calcium in the UK is 700mg per day, however in other countries it is recommended that women age 19-50 get 1000mg per day. In the study (1) the women taking the supplement were receiving 1,200mg of calcium per day from the supplement. The results of this research are interesting since overweight is becoming more common in the UK every year. Interestingly the latest National Diet and Nutrition Survey in adults aged 19-64 in the UK (2) found that 26% of women age 19-64 had a daily calcium intake that was less than 600mg. 40% were getting less than 700mg daily and 56% less than 800mg per day.
Calcium can be found in dairy foods, broccoli, cabbage, tofu, nuts and seeds (especially almonds and sesame seeds) and tinned fish where the bones are eaten such as sardines and pilchards. If you feel your diet may be lacking in this vital mineral you may want to consider a supplement. Girls and women under the age of 25 may particularly wish to consider a supplement since peak bone mass is reached before this time (see my posts on osteoporosis for more information on peak bone mass and eating for bone health). Bone strength actually peaks during our 20s. Younger people need to ‘bank’ plenty of bone by the age of 30 as bones tend not to regenerate as quickly after that. For more information on bone health and osteoporosis please wisit the National Osteoporosis Society website.
Readers of my blog will be aware that vitamin D has been frequently discussed and researched recently. This vitamin works hand-in-hand with calcium. Many of us in the UK do not receive enough of this sunlight vitamin and lack appears to be linked to all kinds of health problems. There is also evidence that lack of vitamin D may also be linked to overweight and obesity (e.g. 3,4). For more information on vitamin D and advice on how to achieve optimal levels please read my previous blog posts.
As I started out by saying, achieving adequate amounts of all the essential nutrients is vital for our health and probably our waistlines via an array of complex mechanisms. Eating a nutrient rich, unprocessed diet is important for so many reasons!
(1)Major GC, Alarie FP, Doré J, Tremblay A. 2009. Calcium plus vitamin D supplementation and fat mass loss in female very low-calcium consumers: potential link with a calcium-specific appetite control. Br J Nutr. 101(5):659-63.
(2)National Diet and Nutrition Survey:Adults aged 19 to 64 years
(3)Richard Kremer, et al. Vitamin D Status and Its Relationship to Body Fat Final Height, and Peak Bone Mass in Young Women. J Clin Endocrinol Metab 2009;94:67–73
(4)Foss YJ. Vitamin D deficiency is the cause of common obesity. Medical Hypotheses 2009; 72(3):314-321
Written by Ani Kowal
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