Fish Oil and Weight Loss

According to the reports of the American Heart Association, obese people are prone to health complications. They often suffer from high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes and sleep apnea. While exercise and diet are key factors necessary for a functional and healthy body, supplements becomes more popular constituent of the weight loss formula. There are thousands of natural supplements in the market intended for weight loss and fish oil is among them. It is proved that fish oil supplements are beneficial for health and their ingredients are of vital importance for certain body functions. However, the effectiveness of fish oil for weight loss turns out to be less than marketing states.

Fish oil constituents

Fish oil is rich in omega-3 fatty acids, including the most important eicosapentaenoic acid EPA and docosahexaenoic acid DHA. All fish possesses fish oil, cold-water fish such as mackerel, cod and salmon possess the most. Though fish oil can be called fat, it’s not the fat that your body accumulates and leads to extra weight, this fat is necessary for your body functioning even if you follow a low-fat diet.

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Fish oil benefits

According to the Mayo Clinic, EPA and DHA of fish oil help reduce the risk of heart attack, normalize blood pressure and prevent atherosclerotic plaque. Our body takes omega-3 fatty acids from fish oil to prevent blood clotting and to build membranes of brain cells. These fatty acids have an anti-inflammatory effect that helps prevent serious diseases like sprue, inflammatory bowel disease and short bowel syndrome.

Fish oil and weight loss

While researches have shown that omega-3 fatty acids and other constituents of fish oil benefit for a healthy body, the statement “fish oil for weight loss” is only a marketing course. Nothing connects fish oil and weight loss.

According to the study carried out by the Cooper Institute in Dallas, Texas, when people’s diet includes fish oil weight loss is not an obligatory result. In their experiment 128 overweight people take the recommended fish oil dose or a placebo for 24 week period. People not only consume fish oil supplements, but also do cardiovascular and resistance training exercises. The result of the study was astonishing. Individuals consuming fish oil lost an average of 11 lb while those taking a placebo lost 13.2 lb in average. However, people consuming fish oil felt an improvement in the heart health although they didn’t experience any effect of fish oil for weight loss. Thus, fish oil and weight loss are not interconnected.

As the National Institutes of Health reports, if you already keep to a diet and do enough exercise, fish oil won’t provide you help in losing more weight. Fish oil may only help improve your health conditions, lower your blood pressure level, prevent heart disease. The most you can get from fish oil for weight loss is that it will make your muscles stiff and your joints healthier and you will be able to do more physical exercises to lose weight.