Calcium Boosts Weight Loss Efforts

Women who were low on calcium (less than 600 mg a day) found that taking 1200 mg a day of calcium¹ helped them control their intake of fat and lose weight.  The calcium supplementation clearly helped women stay on a lower calorie diet.

This is interesting because earlier research shows that calcium helps to reduce carbohydrate cravings via the lessening of the brain-related hunger signal called NPY.  Interestingly, too much NPY may stimulate FSH too much leading to hot flashes at menopause. 

Thus, higher calcium intake helps reduce carbohydrate cravings, may help reduce hot flashes, and is now found to help cut back on fat consumption resulting in weight loss.