The findings add to recent evidence linking calcium and dairy foods to slimmer waistlines, including research showing that children and teens who get the recommended amounts of milk, yogurt and cheese tend to be leaner than their peers who shun dairy.

Though calcium is believed important for maintaining healthful levels of body fat, evidence is accumulating that dairy products may be particularly good weapons in the battle of the bulge, according to Dr. Michael B. Zemel of the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. "Dairy contains a wide array of bioactive compounds," said Zemel, who led the new research.

In the study, Zemel and his colleagues had participants followed one of two diets for 12 weeks. One regimen slashed 500 calories from the dieters' normal daily intake and allowed no more than one serving of dairy and 500 milligrams (mg) of calcium per day.

The other diet also cut out 500 calories, but included three daily servings of fat-free yogurt, which brought participants' calcium intake to 1,100 mg -- in line with the recommended intake for adults.

By the end of the study, both groups had lost weight and body fat, Zemel's team found, but those in the yogurt group shed 61 percent more in fat pounds, as well as 81 percent more abdominal fat. They also held on to more lean, muscular body tissue compared with men and women in the low-calcium group.

Some studies have suggested that dairy products, independent of their calcium content, help trim fat from the middle. The reason, according to Zemel, may rest in the fact that dairy foods have certain compounds, including a high concentration of small protein particles called branched-chain amino acids, whose metabolic effects may promote fat loss while preserving muscle.

However, he said, yogurt is no magic recipe for melting fat, and as the weight-loss mantra goes, "calories count."

Still, while the study results are "impressive," the mechanism by which calcium and dairy may promote fat loss remains a matter of speculation. according to an editorial published with the report.

Source: International Journal of Obesity