Workout of the Day:
Three sets of:
Power Cleans x 1.1.1.1 (rest exactly 10 seconds between each clean)
Rest 30 seconds
30 seconds of Box Jumps x Max Reps
Rest 3 minutes;
and then,
“Jackie”
1000 Meter Row
50 Thrusters (45 lbs.)
30 Pull-Ups
(Our good friend and Invictus East charter member POS holds a 5:30 Jackie time – you’ve got to be moving to beat that.)
How Much Fish Oil Should You Take?
Written by Calvin Sun
Just about everyone is convinced that fish oil is the one supplement that you must add to your nutritional regime. Numerous studies have shown supplementing with fish oil has a variety of health benefits including reducing inflammation, improving blood lipid profiles, improving cognitive function, preventing cardiovascular disease, increasing immune function, and reduced risk of cancers. But how much fish oil should you take in order to reap the benefits?
Robb Wolf, along with many other nutrition gurus, recommends 0.5 grams of omega-3 in the form of eicosapentaenoic acid and docosahexaenoic acid (EPA and DHA) per 10 pounds of body weight for healthy individuals. However, if you are recovering from an injury, overweight, stressed, not sleeping well, and/or eating a poor diet, you’ll probably want to increase that dosage to 0.75 – 1.0 grams per 10 pounds of body weight. Keep in mind that not all fish oil products are created equally. Higher quality fish oil supplements tend to have a higher dose of EPA/DHA per serving than their poorly manufactured counterparts.
Here is Robb’s method for calculating required fish oil per day simplified into three easy steps. You’ll need to reference the nutrition label on the back of your fish oil supplement in order to determine your dose.
Step 1 - Calculate grams of fish oil required per day
[Body weight in pounds / 10] * [Fish Oil Factor] = Required dose of fish oil per day
Step 2 - Sean uses the Kirkland Signature Enteric Coated Fish Oil sold at Costco. It contains 410mg EPA and 274mg DHA per serving (1 softgel).
410mg EPA + 274mg DHA = 684mg EPA/DHA per soft gel
Step 3 - And we’ll just plug the values from steps 1 and 2 into our final equation here…
16.125 grams / [684mg / 1000] * [1]= 23.57. We’ll round up to the nearest whole number for a total of 24 soft gels per day for Sean
Now this may seem like large amount of pills, but keep in mind a few things, Sean is a big guy and the last couple months have left him pretty banged up. I told him to switch to a liquid fish oil in order to allow him to get the adequate amount of omega-3s without feeling like a Colombian drug mule. Carlson makes a great fish oil that contains 800mg EPA and 500mg DHA per teaspoonful. That means Sean would only need about 12 teaspoons or 4 tablespoons of the Carlson liquid product compared to 24 Costco soft gels. Ideally, he would split up the dosage evenly over the course of the day and take the fish oil with meals.
Is all of this too much math for you? Not a problem. The folks over at Whole9 have simplified the entire process by creating a fish oil calculator based on the same method. Click HERE to go to it. Simply plug in your body weight, fish oil factor, EPA, DHA, serving size, and you’ll get your required daily dose. Still not sure how much to take? Feel free to consult one of your coaches and we will be happy to assist you.
I have been taking 5 – 10 grams per day since the beginning of the challenge and have noticed a drop in blood pressure (120/78 vs 110/65) and much less knee joint pain and easier recovery periods. I buy at TJs or Henry’s.
Great advice! I’ve been taking Carlson’s lemon-flavored Cod Liver Oil, but am thinking of switching to Artic Krill oil due concerns about possible mercury levels. Your thoughts on that?
Nice post, it really does get confusing trying to figure out how much to take. Aren’t we supposed to feel like Columbian Drug Mules though? They’re supposed to have great metabolic conditioning.
Hmmm – my fish oil (365 Brand) says 1000mg of fish oil but only 18% EPA (180mg) and 12% DHA (120mg)…. I’m wondering about the remaining 70%….
I prefer capsules over liquid – does anyone buy a brand that has levels that are equivalent to the liquid referenced in the article?
Thanks for the info, Calvin!
There are I believe SARs (specific absorption rates) to consider. Is there data on the SAR? (I think it cannot be digested in giant chunks like over 1g at one time). Since liquid fish oil must be refrigerated, it’s not convenient to tote around the day taking with meals – I can quickly see people guzzling 2 tsp/Tbs at a time to hit Robb’s claimed dosage. For example – Vitamin C SAR is 500mg. Any more than that is passed unused in a certain amount of time.
Interestingly, an Orange is built so that the vC is released in segments over time so it doesn’t flood the body and pass all at once. That’s a trip. Like it was built to be a perfect delivery system.
All the krill I’ve seen have extremely low EPA/DHA mg’s: 49mg, 60 mg, etc.
Look for reduced or ‘no metal’ fish oil its out there.
The body can synth EPA from ALA (Alpha Linoic Acid) however. Although not like taking epa/dha alone.
ALA is highly concentrated in things like Flax and Chia seeds, and some seed oils for cooking. Walnut Oil is a highly concentrated souce if you cook it below its smoke point (400F)
I don’t have the conversion rate (how much ALA = EPA)
Whole seeds like flax and chia are not always broken down in stomach, and may pass unbroken yielding no value.
However, ground flax/chia is fragile, and exposure to heat,light, and air will degrade the potency to the point of rancidity. If you use chia/flax seeds etc, optimally grind them onto what you are about to eat.
michaelchasetx,
One of the arguments against krill (aside from the low EPA/DHA) is that it’s pretty close to base of the food chain, meaning that if we’re really harvesting those there could be some serious implications affecting all of the animals that eat those and so on all the way up to us. And many of the brands purify thier oils to remove any PCBs or mercury, though I can’t tell you to what, if any, is left afterwards.
Nathan,
You’re right about the low conversion of ALA to the other n-3s. What I could find ranged from 10-20% efficiency. Dr. Cordain’s most recent newsletter addressed his concerns with chia in that it contains a good chunk of gut irritants and anti-nutrients, so you’re likely better off just sticking with fish oil Of course, if someone is vegetarian/vegan, this is out of the question so flax/chia may be one of their acceptable options.
This is some great prescriptive guidance that I haven’t seen anywhere else. I really like the fish oil factor chart. FYI, Costco now has a new 100% Wild Salmon Fish oil. Slighlty less concentration of EPA/DHA than the the blue labeled one you mention, however it’s super high quality stuff. More here: http://www.naturalalaskasalmonoil.com/index.cfm/product/3/Salmon_oil.cfm
Thanks for the link, Invictus! We’re happy to hear your members are finding the calculator useful – we sure do, when prescribing dosage for our clients.
Hope to see some of you at our Chula Vista workshop tonight!
Best,
Melissa & Dallas
How about using the “stool sample” method to determine “how much fish oil to take.” Not very scientific unless you have a home lab but pretty practical, wouldn’t you say?
Almost didn’t see the shout out! Thanks and Yeah! Jackie is great, I hope everyone had fun with her today