Can Fish Oil Make You Thin

If you've read the news in the last couple of days then you've probably read all the headlines about a new study that shows that the combination fish oils and exercise can help you lose fat.
To summarize the study, researchers randomly assigned 75 overweight men and women to one of four groups:

Group One took 6 grams of fish oil per day,
Group Two took 6 grams of fish oil per day and exercised 3 days per week;
Group Three took 6 grams of sunflower oil (the placebo), and
Group Four took 6 grams of sunflower oil and exercised 3 days per week.

After 12 weeks, the results showed the subjects in Group Two (The people taking fish oil and exercising) lost body fat.

The subjects in this group lost a little over 3 pounds of fat in 12 weeks. Definitely not extraordinary, but significant nonetheless.

So people who exercised lost some fat. In my opinion this was expected. What was not expected was that the sunflower plus exercise group did not lose any fat.

Now, these people also added exercise to their lifestyle, so you would expect them to also lose fat. So either the combination of fish oil and exercise somehow 'created' this extra fat loss, or, pardon the pun, something is fishy with this study.

On closer inspection of the data I noticed something that may account for these results.
While the fish oil plus exercise group reported that their daily calorie intake pretty much remained the same for the 12 weeks of the study, the sunflower plus exercise group saw their daily caloric intake increase by 327 Kcals per day by week 6 of the trial, and stay elevated by 230 Kcals at week 12.

While the researchers make no mention of this as being significant, it may help explain the lack of fat loss in the sunflower plus exercise group.

At the end of the day, caloric restriction and exercise are the only way to lose fat. The better your exercise program and the better your diet, the more fat you will lose. Plain and simple.
However, don't rule out fish oils. Most fish oil research finds that they can benefit blood lipids and your cholesterol profile.

Bottom line, Fish oils are good for you, just don't get your hopes up about them making you lose weight.

Brad and the Team at grrlAthlete.com


PPS- The other day I was asked the following question about our ShapeShift work-out program:
"I'm almost 5'9" and about 120 lbs, so I'd much rather prefer to put on about 10 lbs of muscle. My food habits are quite good and I've always eaten every couple of hours. My workouts are okay i guess, i just need a change and a proper program. Do you think Shapeshift would be a good idea?"

Here is my answer:

ShapeShift was designed to not only help women burn fat, but to also develop strong, lean muscle.How much fat we burn is generally dictated by our diets, so if you are interested in building muscle I would suggest using the ShapeShift program, but not reducing your calorie intake.

While the ShapeShift program is very effective at helping people lose fat, making this one small change will allow you use ShapeShift to increase your muscle mass.If while using the ShapeShift program you are still having trouble increasing your muscle, I would reduce the amount of intervals you do down to twice a week.I hope this answer helps.

BP

You can get your own copy of ShapeShift by clicking HERE

3 Best BodyWeight Exercises

Here are 3 kick-butt bodyweight exercises you can do on to burn fat, stay energized, and avoid overeating.

Bodyweight exercises help you burn fat shockingly fast, without any fancy equipment.

1) Any Single-Leg Exercise - The pistol (single-leg squat to the floor) is the most advanced1-leg exercise. But you can also do assisted single-leg squats with a band, or onto a bench, or even with a Stability Ball between your back and the wall.

If you aren't ready for single-leg squats, you can use Bulgarian Split Squats, Reverse Lunges, regular split squats, or lying 1-leg hip bridges if you are a beginner.

2) Decline Push-ups - These are harder than normal pushups, thanks to your elevated feet. And in this position, you can still use a close-grip to fatigue your triceps, a "piked-hip position" to build your shoulders, or even the Spiderman leg motion to work on your abs.

3) Bodyweight Inverted Rows - I choose these over chinups and pullups because bodyweight rows let your chest rest, while your back is strengthened. It's the perfect compliment to a pushup.

Do 8-12 repetitions per exercise. Don't rest between exercises. Go through the circuit up to 3 times, resting 1 minute after each circuit.

For a once-per-month challenge, do each exercise to failure in your final round through the circuit.

Get in shape for summer fast with bodyweight workouts,

Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS

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ShapeShift was made to challenge women to get stronger, leaner, and fitter, and it comes with the TT bodyweight workout as a bonus! So you can have the best workout imaginable whether you are in the gym or at home, and you can get some great nutritional pointers.

"After 3wks of that program, I could already see results and I liked how the workouts were fun, intense, and efficient. At 34, I'm leaner and stronger than I've ever been!"

Christine Johnston, Little Rock, AK

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