Vitamin D for Weight Gain: How it Works

Vitamin D for weight gain is controversial - and you’re probably not getting enough!

Today we’re going to look at what vitamin D is, why it’s important, and why you should be paying more attention. We’ll be talking about how you can use it to improve your weight gain, and how it helps.

Let’s look at why this vitamin is infamous, controversial, and so important…

What is Vitamin D?

Vitamin D refers to a group of 5 nutrients that play a similar role in the body. D1, D2, and D3 are the main forms on the market. D2 and D3 are the most important, and D3 especially is a powerful health-boosting compound.

Among these 5 “vitamin D” compounds, 2 and 3 are the most important and the kind you want from your supplements. You can get a mix of the others in dairy, seafood, and mushrooms in particular.

Why is Vitamin D So Controversial?

The controversies around vitamin D are mostly about how much you really need and what ‘deficient’ means. Your “recommended daily intake” is between 400iu and 750iu (depending on where you live). 

This is a problem because 400iu is enough to prevent rickets, and 750 is enough to stop many deficiency-related diseases. However, this isn’t optimum – most research suggests that optimal health is achieved between 2,500iu and 5,000iu.

If you’re trying to gain high-quality weight, this difference is important.

Vitamin D and Lifestyle

Vitamin D is also controversial because it interacts with a number of lifestyle and mental health risks. It’s not just a food nutrient that helps you gain quality weight, but also sun exposure, lifestyle, anxiety and depression, growth, and the health of the human race as a whole.

It’s hard to be linked to so many important topics and not become controversial. Most people are far below optimal vitamin D and experience worse health, mood, and fitness results because of it!

What Does Vitamin D Do In Your Body?

Vitamin D is an important hormonal and mental health regulator. It has a role in regulating a range of different mechanisms from anxiety to cognition, and even seems to affect your cholesterol levels. It’s important for its range, as well as for how often people are deficient in vitamin D – the single most common deficiency in developed countries.

Vitamin D is also one of the most important vitamins for the brain – and the mind. By preventing deficiency and getting the right intake, you protect your most important organ.

First, it protects against major brain problems, reducing the risk of common degenerative problems as you age. Protection includes Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s, and sclerotic diseases. On top of the protection, it also reduces the effect of stress and anxiety. It actively reduces the negative physical and psychological effect of stress and environment change.

Vitamin D is an important part of the energy systems in your brain. These are important for brain health and healthy aging. This means reducing cognitive decline as you age, keeping you sharper for longer, and preventing the early death of brain cells. It also seems to be a cognition booster.

Vitamin D Helps the Body Through Hormone Health

Vitamin D for weight gain is a no-brainer. It’s a deficiency you should be busting immediately.

Vitamin D’s role in the hormones is a complicated one. Many studies and reviews are unsure on exactly how important it is. What we know is that preventing deficiency definitely helps with hormonal health, and getting to optimal levels may improve them.

Metabolism is also based on these regulatory systems. There are a few crucially important hormones that interact with your vitamin D intake and its effects:

• Testosterone
• Insulin Growth-Factor 1
• Insulin (and adiponectin)
• Human Growth Hormone (HGH)
• RGF
• Thyroid hormones (t3 and t4)
• And many others.

These alone are involved in your metabolism at every level. Carb metabolism depends on the role of insulin, which makes for a better weight-gain process. Equally, the anabolic hormones (Testosterone, insulin, IGF-1, and HGH) are crucial for building muscle, tendon, and bone tissues. Deficiency in vitamin D sabotages these essential hormonal functions.

This is most important for how you recover. This is the key to every process in weight gain, and is a driving factor in the balance of fat vs muscle gains.

Why Hormones Matter for Bulking Up

Your metabolism props up your appetite, muscle gains, and exercise performance/recovery. These factors drive muscle growth - and thus weight gain.

Metabolic health directly feeds into everything you’re trying to achieve. When you’re not getting enough vitamin D, it’s not going to meet your needs. With proper Vitamin D intake – through deliberate eating, living, and supplementation – you can maximize high-quality, healthy weight gain.

There’s a neural and metabolic aspect to strength, as well as the building of muscle, for example. When your nervous system is healthier, you perform better. This is especially obvious in strength and power, which rely on an efficient nervous system recruiting as much muscle as fast as possible. That’s how getting stronger works.

Vitamin D for Bone Health

As a major factor in minerals in the body, vitamin D controls bone health. It’s a driving force behind building denser, stronger bones after exercise. Calcium and Vitamin D are a key combination that supports better bone health and muscular function.

By improving your vitamin D intake you can drastically improve the long-term health of bones. This also happens specifically in joints, protecting you from the risk of degenerative diseases. Studies on vitamin D show that it’s one of the most effective ways to reduce the risk of falls and fractures in people of all ages, but especially elderly people.

You might not be thinking of your old age right now, but what you do now matters. This is also an underrated aspect of healthy weight gain most people overlook. Vitamin D helps prevent osteoarthritis, osteoporosis, and bone-related injuries.

Avoiding Vitamin D Deficiency

We’re big fans of vitamin D because most people fall into one of 2 categories:

1.     Deficient: getting less than 750iu per day on average
2.     Sub-optimal: above 750iu, but well below the 2,500-5,000iu range for best results/health

The problem is that vitamin D usually comes from 2 sources: the diet and the sun. We’re living on worse diets and less sun than we should, which leaves many of us well below the optimal intake.

By wearing clothes and living in cloudier climates, we experience a reduced internal production of vitamin D. Meanwhile, our diets contain less seafood and high-quality meat, eggs, dairy, and other sources than ever. This combination limits vitamin D intake.

By neglecting vitamin D you leave yourself open to lost muscle gains, health, and wellbeing. Just as one example, the lower mood many people experience in winter is directly related to lower vitamin D levels.

Why Vitamin D is Great for Weight Gain

Vitamin D improves muscle, bone, and hormonal health. These are key players in high-quality weight gain. They drive up muscular development and overall weight gain. Hormonal changes even support appetite and your relationship with food.

Vitamin D improves your mental and physical response to exercise alike, maintains the hormones that support this change, and reduces anxiety.

AppetiteMax and weight gain supplements offer vitamin D as a key ingredient, where it is combined with synergists to get the absolute most out of your weight gain process.

You should be prioritizing it in the form of seafood, particularly, where it comes with plenty of vitamin A and Omega-3 fats. These can also be found in cod liver oil, though the actual processing and preparation make a huge difference.

Vitamin D and Weight Gain: Frequently Asked Questions

Can Vitamin D Help Weight Gain?

Yes – vitamin D helps with appetite, supports hormonal wellbeing, and drives better muscular responses. These make it a great addition to a weight gain diet and exercise routine.

It won’t make you gain weight by itself, but it’s key to unlocking better results with a weight-gain diet.

How Much Vitamin D Should You Take?

You need 400iu to prevent rickets. You need 750iu to avoid clinical deficiency. You need 2,500-5,000iu a day to optimize for health and results.

This is why most elite athletes take a powerful vitamin D supplement to help them top up.

What Type of Vitamin D is Best?

Vitamin D3 is the most powerful and beneficial. Vitamin D2 is also good, while D1 is the least effective. A good vitamin D supplement will contain D2, D3, or a mixture of the two.

Are Vitamin D and D3 the Same?

Vitamin D is the name of the group of 5 types of vitamin-D-like compounds. D3 is just the most effective and beneficial version of the compound, especially for the brain and hormones.

Conclusion

Vitamin D is the most important nutrient you’re not getting enough of. It’s a driving force behind so much of your health that you don’t even know the benefits and results you’re missing out on.

Most people can improve their health and weight gain with vitamin D. It’s even more important if you live in cloudy climes, have darker skin, or are susceptible to weather-related mood changes.

You can get vitamin D from many sources, but a high quality vitamin D supplement makes it easy to top up no matter what you’re eating throughout the day.

AppetiteMax is a great vitamin D supplement for weight gain that shows that it’s possible to squeeze even more out of a vitamin D supplement with good synergists and a smart design approach.