Fish Oil Key to Fat Loss?

Jade Teta ND CSCS

An article in the May 2007 issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition shows fish oil supplements enhance fat loss when combined with exercise. 75 adults were studied to determine the effect of exercise with or without fish oil supplementation of fat loss, muscle gain, and heart health. Participants were assigned to 4 groups in this study. One group did low intensity walking exercise for 45 minutes three times a week, a second group took 6 grams of fish oil daily and did no exercise, a third group did both the 45 minutes of walking and the 6 grams of fish oil daily, and the last group took a sunflower oil supplement without any exercise.

At the end of the study only the group taking fish oil and exercise saw changes. The fish oil plus exercise group lost almost 3.5 pounds of fat over a 12 week period. There was no change in the exercise only group or the fish oil only group hinting that there is a synergistic action between fish oil and exercise. It is interesting to note that many animal studies and a handful of human studies support the findings that fish oil either alone or in combination with exercise has beneficial effects on body compostion. There was also a slight increase in muscle mass and profound changes in cardiac risk factors in the fish oil and exercise group that were not seen in the other groups.

For those of you wondering how fish oil works, this study did not elaborate, but other studies have shown fish oil acts as a metabolic messenger molecule that interacts with receptors on the nucleus of cells. When it binds these receptors genes responsible for producing fat burning enzymes are switched on. These receptors called PPAR are the same things that many diabetes drugs attempt to regulate to help control blood sugar in diabetics. The amount of fish oil most people need to take to benefit is between three to six grams daily. This is a far higher amount than most people supplementing with fish oils take but is usually easy to obtain with 3 to 6 capsules of a high potency fish oil daily. At Metabolic Effect we have seen fish oil be a potent tool for fat loss in our clients and recommend at least three grams of oils daily.

A couple key points about fish oil. You get what you pay for. You should look for a high potency molecularly distilled fish oil free of contaminants like heavy metals and PCBs. Fish concentrate many of the chemicals found in our oceans and the oils are the primary place they are found. Also, a good fish oil supplement should not smell or taste overly fishy. If it does the oil is most probably a low quality and or has gone bad. Fish oil should be taken with food. If you have “re-tasting”, where the oils are burped up and tasted after consumption, take the oils at night before bed. A high quality fish oil rarely has this effect. Another thing to keep in mind is that other omega 3 oils like flax seed oil have never been shown to have the same affect on health as fish oil. That is because these oils must be made into the end omega 3 oils found in fish and that process is fairly slow in humans. It has been estimated that it would require about 12g of flax seed oil to derive 1 gram of EPA and DHA which are the oils in fish that have the health benefits. This would mean the consumption of between 36 and 72g of flaxseed oil daily to get the 3 to 6 grams of fish oil you would need. That is an amount of oil that would be near impossible to consume without causing digestive complaints.

If you want a simple effective and healthy tool to aid your exercise fat loss goals, fish oil is a good bet.