Does Fish Oil Help You Lose Weight
So does fish oil help you lose weight? The short answer is yes, fish oil can help you lose weight. However, how much weight you will lose is dependent on several factors such as current body weight, gender, activity level, health status and dietary intake. This article will examine these factors and will also explain through what mechanisms fish oil can help you lose weight.
Factors that will determine how much weight you lose while using fish oil:
- Current Body weight: Individuals carrying more fat mass will lose more weight than leaner individuals. This holds true for many weight-loss diets in general. The fatter you are, the more weight you stand to lose when you make dietary changes. For example a 300 pound woman will lose more weight than a 250 pound woman if they are both eating for weight loss.
- Gender: Men typically lose more weight than females. This mostly has to do with men having better hormones for losing fat. Women have higher estrogen levels, which is associated with weight gain. However, both sexes can still lose weight by utilizing a proper dosage of fish oil.
- Activity level: Higher amounts of activity will burn more calories which will in turn burn more fat. Exercise combined with fish oil will help you lose more weight than taking fish oil alone. Consistently taking fish oil and regularly exercising will have a synergistic effect on each other helping you to lose more weight than just popping fish oil.
- Health status: Individuals with diseases such as diabetes, metabolic syndrome or other conditions will generally have less results taking fish oil for weight loss. However, it should be noted that supplementing fish oil can be beneficial to many diseases which will in turn help you lose weight. Please refer to your physician before making dietary changes, especially those with life altering diseases.
- Dietary intake: It only makes sense that those eating less will also lose more weight, even when paired with fish oil. Yes fish oil will help you lose weight, but if you are eating loads and loads of unnecessary calories, fish oil will not change the Law of Thermodynamics which states, all energy cannot be created or destroyed. In practical terms, this means if you are eating too much, you will store fat, no matter if you take fish oil to help you lose weight or not. Eat less, but do not starve yourself, as fat- loss can quickly become stalled if calories are too low.
How does fish oil help you lose weight?
It seems too good to be true, I know. The fact of the matter is that fish oil can help you lose weight! But how? Here are a few mechanisms through which fish oil helps weight loss:
- Fish oil can turn on fat burning genes and turn off fat storing genes.
- Fish oil can reduce stress, which will in help reduce “fat storing hormones” such as cortisol.
- Fish oil can potentially treat several diseases which make weight loss difficult.
- Fish oil can increase serotonin, the “feel good” hormone.
- Fish oil can improve the structural integrity of cells which can improve insulin sensitivity, thus making fat storage less probable after a meal.
Summary:
If you have not started taking fish oil yet, this could be a great time to start. Research is beginning to show more and more fish oil benefits everyday. I suggest purchasing fish oil online, as it can be found cheaper and there is a much wider selection to choose from. What are you waiting for?