Researchers from Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New
Jersey, recruited 44 overweight pre-menopausal women, average
age 38, to take calcium while dieting or while maintaining
weight for six months. The dieters took a normal amount of
calcium—1,000 mg per day—or a high dose of 1,800 mg per day,
while non-dieters took 1,000 mg of calcium per day. Scientists
noted that people typically lose bone density when losing
weight, but that no bone studies exist on overweight pre-
menopausal women who diet. Women in the normal and high calcium
diet groups lost an average of 7.2% of body weight with no
significant decrease in bone mineral density (BMD, a measure of
bone strength) and researchers found no signs in the blood that
the dieters were losing bone. Doctors also found that the
dieters were able to absorb an adequate total amount of calcium
from their diets and supplements and concluded that taking
calcium while losing weight helps maintain healthy bones. In
research funded by the U.S. Department of Defense, doc