Vitamin D is anticipated to have many extra-skeletal health benefits. We questioned whether supplementation with the vitamin influenced body weight and composition. A systematic review and meta-analysis was conducted on high-quality, randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that had supplemented vitamin D without imposing any caloric restriction. Eighteen trials reporting either body weight, body mass index (BMI), fat mass (FM), percentage fat mass (%FM) or lean body mass (LBM) met our criteria. Twelve studies provided the required data for the meta-analysis. Vitamin D supplementation did not influence the standardized mean difference (SMD) for body weight, FM, %FM or LBM. A small but non-significant decrease in BMI (SMD = -0.097, 95% confidence interval: [-0.210, 0.016], P = 0.092) was observed. Meta-regression confirmed that neither the absolute vitamin D status achieved nor its change from baseline influenced the SMD of any obesity measure. However, increasing age of the subjects predicted a shift in the SMD for FM towards the placebo treatment, whereas a greater percentage of women in these studies favoured a decrease in FM following vitamin D. Vitamin D supplementation did not decrease measures of adiposity in the absence of caloric restriction. A potential confounding by age and gender was encountered.

Vitamin D status and IS are novel independent predictors of RMR in adults. Future studies could validate a causal role for these factors in human energy metabolism.

There is a pandemic of obesity and associated chronic diseases. Dietary calcium and vitamin D have many extra-skeletal roles in human health. In this review we have summarized the current understanding of their influence on human energy balance by examining the epidemiological, clinical, animal, cellular and molecular evidence. We opine that while calcium and vitamin D are functional nutrients in the battle against obesity, there is a need for prospective human trials to tilt the balance of evidence in favour of these nutrients.

Sizeable between-subject variations in FFG at 25 °C were associated with RMR and RQ. Monitoring FFG may serve as an objective assessment of the TNZ during RMR measurements.

In this study, SSA had a lower RMR, higher RQ and lower IET relative to EUR Australians.