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Clinical Research

Adiposity, lifestyle and vitamin D levels: the quest for answers

International Journal of Obesity volume 44, pages 1628–1629 (2020)Cite this article

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We would like to thank Gao et al. [1] for taking the time to comment on our paper, giving us the opportunity to further discuss the need to better understand the interactions between adiposity and circulating levels of 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) as well as to properly document the impact of lifestyle and vitamin D supplementation on these levels. Post-hoc analyses reported in our paper revealed that adiposity reduction induced by lifestyle changes, without the use of vitamin D supplements, produced increases in circulating levels of 25(OH)D in our sample of men with visceral obesity [2]. A relationship independent from adiposity was observed between increased circulating 25(OH)D levels and decreased leptin concentrations produced by our lifestyle intervention. Our results led us to propose that much more consideration should be given to lifestyle-mediated adiposity reduction as a modality to reduce leptin levels and manage obesity-associated vitamin D deficiency.

We acknowledge—and we are fully aware of—the limitations of our study, which reported post-hoc analyses (mentioned twice in our paper) that were correlative in nature [2]. These analyses which were meant to be hypothesis-generating were published with the hope that they would provide some directions for future research. The central point of our work in this area is that there has been considerable emphasis on vitamin D supplementation as an approach to reduce cardiometabolic risk with much less attention given to lifestyle and to the importance of losing body fat, especially abdominal visceral adipose tissue, as a modality to increase 25(OH)D levels.

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References

  1. Gao X, Wang H, Bidulescu A. Lifestyle interventions along with vitamin D supplements on reducing leptinemia in obese man. A letter to the Editor. Int J Obes. 2020.

  2. Gangloff A, Bergeron J, Lemieux I, Tremblay A, Poirier P, Alméras N, et al. Relationships between circulating 25(OH) vitamin D, leptin levels and visceral adipose tissue volume: results from a 1-year lifestyle intervention program in men with visceral obesity. Int J Obes (Lond). 2020;44:280–8.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre de recherche de l’Institut universitaire de cardiologie et de pneumologie de Québec − Université Laval, Québec, QC, Canada

    Anne Gangloff, Isabelle Lemieux & Jean-Pierre Després

  2. Centre de recherche du CHU de Québec – Université Laval, Québec, QC, Canada

    Anne Gangloff & Jean Bergeron

  3. Department of Kinesiology, Faculty of Medicine, Université Laval, Québec, QC, Canada

    Jean-Pierre Després

Authors
  1. Anne Gangloff
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  2. Jean Bergeron
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  3. Isabelle Lemieux
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  4. Jean-Pierre Després
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Correspondence to Jean-Pierre Després.

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Gangloff, A., Bergeron, J., Lemieux, I. et al. Adiposity, lifestyle and vitamin D levels: the quest for answers. Int J Obes 44, 1628–1629 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41366-020-0600-0

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