You can have too much of a good thing. Particularly when it comes to supplements, more is not always better. Even fish oil, which has proven beneficial for the heart, brain, and entire body, can be harmful if too much is taken. Taking extreme amounts of fish oil can actually harm your health. One of the biggest risks is excessive bleeding. Even modest amounts of fish oil (less than one gram) can thin the blood.
My husband, a preventive cardiologist and fellow cyclist, James O’Keefe, said that “fish oil is not an effective vehicle for weight loss. There are other modalities that will work better and are actually proven to help reduce body fat and build lean muscle mass. ” It’s also important to note that fish oil is not non-caloric. For example, 19 grams of fish oil will contain upwards of 300 calories and will not satiate as food will.
I’d like to recommend some proven ways to help increase muscle mass and reduce body fat (particularly dangerous abdominal fat). First, are you incorporating enough strength and resistance training into your workouts? Competitive cyclists, runners, etc. tend to do hours and hours of cardiovascular exercise each week, but fail to do enough strength training. Not only will strength training help build muscle, which helps burn calories, but it will also aid in injury-prevention.
Two supplements that are research-backed and also promising weight loss aids are whey protein isolate and tea extracts. As with anything, there are safe ranges of these as well. More is not better. We recommend using one serving of whey protein isolate daily. Use this as the protein source for a meal, or even better consume it an hour before or up to an hour following an intense workout. Whey protein isolate has been shown to help build lean muscle mass and to decrease belly fat. You may already be using a protein supplement post-workout, but quality counts here, as do calories. Many whey protein supplements are loaded with calories and sugar.
I recommend CardioTea supplements to all of my weight loss clients. CardioTea contains theaflavins (75 mg/capsule) and catechins (200 mg/capsule) from green and black teas, has very little caffeine, and each capsule contains 112.5 mg of EGCG. You only need one capsule a day. Research continues to show a relationship between consumption of tea and tea extract supplements (particularly catechins and EGCG) and weight loss, particularly around the middle.
My final recommendation is to keep a food journal. Journaling is the best way to keep track of your diet and the only way to recognize the mistakes.
Joan O’Keefe, RD
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[...] about Weight Loss as of June 30, 2009 “Is it possible to take too much fish oil when trying to get in shape and lose weight?” – foreveryoungdiet.com 06/30/2009 You can have too much of a good thing. Particularly when it [...]