Fish Oil - 3 Fat Chicks on a Diet Weight Loss Community

Jessica88 · 09-11-2009, 04:45 PM

I was just wondering if anyone has ever tried or heard about taking fish oil to lose weight?

I have read a lot about it online so I started taking it about an hour before I go to exercise everyday and it seems like it is working.

Does anyone else have any experiences with it?

Elladorine · 09-11-2009, 04:48 PM

I was taking omega 3 oils throughout the majority of my weight loss and I definitely feel it has helped. I'm allergic to many types of seafood though, so unfortunately I've had to avoid fish oil. Instead I either take flax oil or add ground flax to my food.

Pita09 · 09-11-2009, 05:05 PM

I take fish oil and haven't noticed it doing anything for me weight. However, my hair and skin look the best it ever has, but that could because I'm generally eating better than ever before.

Jessica88 · 09-11-2009, 05:22 PM

I also heard that it does help your skin look better. I haven't really heard anything about hair yet, but that would be nice

I can't post links yet so if you google "Combining fish-oil supplements with regular aerobic exercise improves body composition and cardiovascular disease risk factors" there is an article on it from the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition there if anyone is interested.

Onederchic · 09-11-2009, 05:48 PM

I just started taking it and biotin around 2-3 weeks ago due to hair issues and I can definitely tell a difference in how shiny and soft my hair is now.

CJZee · 09-11-2009, 06:30 PM

Here is the link of the article you cited.

Thank you! It's very interesting, and yet another reason to eat fatty fish and take fish oil or flaxseed oil. I take fish oil (omega 3 fatty acids) every day, but I wasn't aware of the "losing weight" helpfulness.

I have been reading a lot about how we need to increase omega-3 fatty acids because our diet has too many omega-6 fatty acids, and the ratio between the two is important.

Also, fish (or flaxseed) oils are apparently great for heart health. For example, here is a remarkable quote from Dr. Stephan Guyenet from his WholeHealthSource blog:
The only "fat modification" intervention that consistently reduces total and cardiovascular mortality is omega-3 fat supplementation, ideally in combination with omega-6 restriction. This is supported by the results of the DART trial, the Lyon Diet-Heart trial, the ISIS trial and the the GISSI-prevenzione trial.

babybluess · 09-11-2009, 06:36 PM

I started taking fish oil the end of July for heart health. I started dieting for real the end of May. That gives me end of May, June and first half of july without (2 months) and end of July through Sept with fish oil (2 months). I also take biotin in my B complex vitamins and eat healthy. ....so let me see. I have to say I lost more weight before fish oil. I do currently love my skin, nails and hair.

As a health care professional that reviewed the research for you.... There is no current link between weight loss and fish oil.

Here is a good site for looking up info on drugs and supplements. Here is the link on fish oil.

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/d...t-fishoil.html

shcirerf · 09-11-2009, 06:50 PM

Fish oil is definitely good for the skin and hair. We sell a lot of a fish oil treat at the veterinary hospital for dogs with itchy skin and yukky hair. Stuff works great.

babybluess · 09-11-2009, 07:37 PM

I read the article provided by CJZee. It had some very good parts to it and some thing I did not like. ...but all research is like that. I'm pretty picky but over all the article was a good source. One thing they did that I like was use a DEXA scan to measure body fat. It is the gold standard for getting tissue make up for the body.

So this is what the article claims.
"Results: Both fish oil and exercise independently reduced body fat
(P is less than 0.05)." I wasn't able to cut and past the less than symbol so I wrote it for those that are checking my accuracy.

The truth: Only those that took fish oil and exercised had a reduction in percent body fat.
Those with fish oil alone stayed the same.
Those that were in the sunflower oil actually gained in percent body fat and those that exercied and took sunflower oil stayed the same. For those looking at the article see Table 1 under Body Fat%.

So what was actually statistically significant???? OK...this is what they say in the results

"Oil and exercise interactions were also evident
for fat mass (exercise x time, P less than 0.05; oil x time, P less than 0.05;
Figure 6), which indicated that both FO supplementation and
regular aerobic exercise reduced fat mass."

Ok....so looking at the figure. Here is what they are saying is the big change in body fat The change in mass as measured by DEXA.

For fish oil only people..... they lost 200g lean mass and 200g fat mass.

200g is about 1/2 lb. So if both lean and fat mass increased what decreased I ask???? And why didn't they say they saw a loss in lean mass also? I guess it doesn't make for hot headlines when they say you lose lean mass.

People that were in the Fish oil and exercise group..... Lean mass increased by 300g and fat mass decreased about 1500g. Which you would expect with exercise.

They did not have an exercise only control group

It took me about an hour to go through and break down that article. But knowing the truth is important. There is no magic pill. We know that it takes hard work and good friend for support like we have here.

blkbarbie25 · 09-11-2009, 07:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pita09

I take fish oil and haven't noticed it doing anything for me weight. However, my hair and skin look the best it ever has, but that could because I'm generally eating better than ever before.

What she said ^

caryesings · 09-11-2009, 08:08 PM

I seem to be the walking anti-advertisement for supplement weight loss claims. Remember when green tea was the latest weight loss solution? Well I've been drinking at least a quart of green tea a day for at least 10 years just because I prefer the taste and laughed my 250+ a** off when "they" started claiming drinking green tea would blast off the fat. Now I'm getting the same chuckle about fish oil. Have been on fish oil supplements for at least 5 years, for heart health. Didn't lose an ounce during that time (until I embarked on this specific WOE that is).

Jadebatdog · 09-11-2009, 08:12 PM

One thing to warn you guys about, my Dad was taking fish oil until his doctor told him that he had a bunch of risk factors for high cholesterol so he was told to stop taking it. He's not overweight or anything either, I can't remember what the risk factors are but you might want to ask your doctor about it.

CJZee · 09-11-2009, 08:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by babybluess

It took me about an hour to go through and break down that article. But knowing the truth is important. There is no magic pill. We know that it takes hard work and good friend for support like we have here.

Hi babybluess -- thank you so much for going through this research and translating it. I've got to tell you that I'm very upset with many of these researchers whose abstracts and conclusions do NOT fit the actual content of the study! It is amazing to me as a lay person that they actually *lie* often by omission in summarizing their own study! How does that help anyone???

If you can't trust the people who actually did the study to recap it accurately, whom can you trust?

toastedsmoke · 09-14-2009, 03:37 AM

I've taken cod liver oil pretty much everyday since I was 5 years old (with a brief hiatus in my teens), and I was chubby. However, last week I didn't take my vitamins at all and lost 0.2 lbs and this week I was back on track with them and I lost more. So really, I don't know. It's good for you though so it's probably not a bad idea to take it irrespective.

Beverlyjoy · 09-14-2009, 06:11 AM

I've taken fish oil daily for a couple of years - as others have mentioned...it's wonderful for hair and skin. However, I haven't noticed that it effected my weight loss one way or the other.