Thread: Six weeks of fish oil: lose a pound of fat and gain a pound of lean body mass

Six weeks of fish oil: lose a pound of fat and gain a pound of lean body mass

If you're not afraid to take more than the manufacturer's recommended dose, you can lose extra fat and gain extra muscle tissue with a harmless supplement like fish oil. According to a study done at Gettysburg College in the US, the effect is not sensational, but worth a try.



Fish oil is interesting in hundreds of ways for strength athletes. [It's also interesting for endurance athletes, but that's a different story.] Fish oil has an anti-oestrogenic effect, boosts the concentration of IGF-1, boosts the anabolic urokinase-type Plasminogen Activator and increases the effect of protein supplements. And, according to many epidemiological studies, animal studies, human experiments and trials, it also enhances the burning of body fat.


The researchers wanted to know whether healthy people lose weight if they take fish oil capsules. So they gave 22 test subjects a placebo containing safflower oil [SO] for six weeks, and another 22 subjects 4 capsules each containing 1 g fish oil [FO] every day. Each capsule contained 600 mg EPA and 200 mg DHA. The subjects took 2 capsules at breakfast, and 2 with their evening meal.



The figure below shows that nothing happened in the SO group. But the FO group gained half a kilogram of lean body mass [so also muscle] and lost about the same amount of fat mass.

According to the most widely accepted theory, omega-3 fatty acids boost the activity of the enzyme carnitine acyltransferase I. As a result, the cells pass fat on more easily to the mitochondria. If the theory holds water, test subjects would then burn more energy. But that, as the tables below show, didn't happen.


The first table shows the results of the SO group, the second the results of the FO group.

What does happen is that the cortisol level goes down in the FO group. Cortisol breaks down muscle tissue and helps fat tissue to grow. The researchers think that it is the reduction of the cortisol level that explains the body recompositioning effect of fish oil.

Source:
J Int Soc Sports Nutr. 2010 Oct 8; 7: 31.