Dietary Supplements for Exercise Part Two: Fish Oil
Before beginning a post about supplements, I’d like to remind everyone that most supplements are a waste of your money. Supplements are called supplements because they’re...supplemental to a good diet based around whole foods. You don’t need supplements to reach your fitness goals — good food will always be the best use of your money and supplements shouldn’t be a bandaid solution for a poor diet. However, if you have a well rounded diet but struggle with key nutrients, you may benefit from incorporating a select few high quality supplements.
Be an educated (+ skeptical) supplement consumer
The supplement market is very unregulated and profits from selling to under-informed people that are desperate for results. Think MLM schemes like Herbalife (people died!!), fat burner supplements (??), and BCAAs (just eat some protein, ok).
If there isn’t substantial research showing a supplement to be effective, it’s probably better to save your money for good food.
Three rules to follow when choosing a supplement:
Buy from a trusted brand that lists all ingredients
Look out for ingredient lists including “proprietary blends’ - red flag!
Implement things slowly - I prefer to implement things one by one so that I know which effects are tied to which changes - and note any changes in your body as you begin supplementation.
Fish oil: A supplement worth considering
Fish oil is a safe supplement that provides nutrients almost everyone fails to get enough of through food intake alone. While it’s quite possible to take in sufficient amounts through whole foods if you’re careful, most people struggle to do so. The average American gets in just 10% of the daily recommended intake.
How much would it take to consume enough from whole foods?
Omega3 content in common foods
Click through for source
Three to four 3-4oz servings full servings of fatty fish per week would get you to the minimum health recommendation, a full serving every day will get you the the amount needed to see additional exercise related benefits. Here’s a useful reference for the fatty acid content in popular fish.
Personally I don’t eat full servings of fish like salmon, sardines, anchovies or mackerel for four to seven meals per week on a weekly basis. My roommates would not be pleased with that at all! A quality dietary supplement helps me to reach my Omega3 fatty acid intake goals with a more flexible diet.
Getting practical! Recommended dietary intake.
A combined intake of 500 mg to 1.8g of EPA and DHA per day is adequate for basic purposes. Additional health benefits more closely related to exercise such as relieving muscle soreness are seen with intake levels around 3g. This is really the practical maximum you’d need for exercise related benefits, although studies show that up to 5-6g is safe to consume.
When supplementing, consider that you likely already reach some level of intake via whole food sources, so there is likely no need to supplement the full 3g (that’s already quite high as it is).
Supplementing 2g per day is a good target to start with for most of us.
Dietary sources of essential fatty acids
High quality fish oil is often sourced from salmon, herring, mackerel, sardines, and anchovies. That means that eating those fish as whole foods is also a great source of essential fatty acids.
In addition to fatty fish, high quality red meats, eggs, and vegetable oils provide some essential fatty acids. Unfortunately, omega-3 levels are much lower in meat/eggs. Vegetable oils don’t contain EPA and DHA. They contain another fatty acid called alpha-linolenic acid (ALA). The body is able to convert ALA into EPA and DHA, but this process is very inefficient - studies estimate that the conversion rate for ALA-->EPA is around 6%, and ALA-->DHA is around 3.8%. That means you’d have to eat quite a lot of ALA to supply your body with sufficient EPA and DHA. I think you might be able to imagine that force feeding yourself large amounts of vegetable oil might have some unpleasant and undesirable side effects!
Micronutrient note: ALA conversion rates drop even lower when we don’t take in enough B vitamins (B3 and 6), magnesium, and zinc. These vitamins are really important for women’s hormonal balance as well. It might be worthwhile to take a quality multivitamin that contains a good amount of these micronutrients. This is especially important if you’re a strict vegetarian who is not taking fish oil supplements or eating fatty fish.
Benefits of fish oil Supplementation
Quality fish oil provides two essential* Omega3 fatty acids that we struggle to get enough of:
Eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA)
Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA)
Basic health benefits greater EPA/DHA bloodstream concentrations
Lower risk of heart disease
Better mood - including benefits related to stress, depression, and anxiety
Cognitive performance, including focus (including those struggling with ADD)
Brain health
Benefits directly related to exercise performance
Metabolic benefits such as blood glucose regulation and increased muscle protein synthesis
Fish oil and exercise
This is a fitness blog and I’m not a doctor, so I’ll focus on how you’ll benefit in an exercise context. There are some great studies linked above if you’re interested in the benefits beyond exercise.
Circulation
Central to fish oil’s positive impact on exercise performance is its positive effect on circulation. Sufficient Omega3 fatty acid intake helps to improve circulation. Since nutrients are delivered throughout our bodies via the bloodstream, improved circulation results in efficient delivery of nutrients to skeletal muscle mass. This helps your body to both recover from workouts and build muscle mass more efficiently.
Muscle Building + Muscle Protein Synthesis
While efficient nutrient delivery via the bloodstream is a big reason behind why fatty acids have a positive effect on performance, they actually have an even MORE direct effect. Omega3 fatty acids regulate metabolic pathways that affect the rate at which our bodies synthesize protein (build muscle) and the rate at which we break muscle down. Fatty acids speed up muscle protein synthesis (MPS) and slow the breakdown process (MBS).
Maintaining Strength During More Sedentary Periods (like quarantine)
Supplementing with fish oil may be particularly beneficial during quarantine as there is some evidence that it protects against muscle loss. A diet with sufficient calories, higher than usual protein intake, and regular Omega3 and creatine intake will slow muscle loss. Additionally, continuing to do any activity at all, even if the intensity/volume is much lower than before, will help you to maintain muscle mass due to its positive effect on muscle protein synthesis. The linked study shows that, with proper protocol, groups that perform just 1/9 of the work they used to can maintain their current strength for an extended period. This is all useful knowledge to keep in your back pocket and use if you ever become sick or injured.
Reducing Muscle Soreness and Speeding Post-Workout Recovery Rate
Omega3s (EPA and DHA) reduce delayed muscle onset soreness (DOMS). Reducing post workout soreness can help you to train more frequently. One study on eccentric strength training (a style of training that tends to result in higher than average levels of DOMS) specifies, “that 3000 mg·d-1 omega-3 fatty acid supplementation minimizes the severe, delayed-onset muscle soreness”
A note on muscle mass and metabolism
Ok so this isn’t as directly related to fish oil, but we’re talking about how fish oil helps us to maintain muscle mass so check this out. This is another reason to pay attention to habits that help support muscle mass retention, even if you aren’t particularly
Many of us have heard the line “muscle burns more energy than fat” more times than we need to hear any single phrase. One lesser-known effect that muscle mass has on our metabolism is related to its role in how your body processes glucose and regulates blood sugar. Maintaining sufficient muscle mass is shown to have a positive effect on blood sugar regulation. This is because about 30% of post meal glucose is stored in our muscle mass. More muscle mass = increased ability to store glucose as fuel rather than releasing it into the bloodstream. Maintaining skeletal muscle health is crucial to maintaining stable blood glucose levels, which is crucial to your overall metabolic health.
choosing a good fish oil supplement
Look for reesterified triglyceride oil. This is the type of oil found in most high quality fish oil supplements for a number of reasons.
It’s very bioavailable, meaning your body can break down and use the nutrients contained in this type of fish oil efficiently.
This is partly because it has a high EPA and DHA concentration when compared to cheaper fish oil supplements that have high concentrations of ALA (remember, our body isn’t as efficient at using ALA fatty acids)
The reesterified process eliminates a lot of the toxins and contaminants. While not all of these contaminants are necessarily bad for you, they take up space in your fish oil and lower the concentration of EPA and DHA as a result. This means you have to consume more of them to reap the same benefits. Minimizing the sheer volume of oil you need to consume in order to see maximum benefits is ideal - who wants to be swallowing more pills than necessary? Plus you might initially think you’re getting a better value for the cheaper bottle, until you realize how many you have to consume per serving and as a result how quickly you run through your cheaper supplements!
It’s very shelf stable. Reeterified fish oil has a really slow rate of oxidation - it won’t go bad for a while.
The other two common fish oils on the market:
Triglyceride
Natural fish oil, less processed.
This is a good quality oil, but since it’s so minimally processed it tends to have a lot of contaminants, therefore lower levels of overall DHA and EPA (see above).
Ester oils
Cheapest to produce.
The high concentration of ALA (the fatty acid found in cheaper vegetable oils) makes these oils less bioavailable and harder for the body to process.
Ester oils release ester alcohol. As Ii’ve covered in my numerous posts on alcohol consumption, the vast majority of alcohol is sent off to the liver to be processed. This can result in negative side effects for liver health, and also as we know alcohol calories are not nutritious - and in fact they’re poisonous. Save your alcohol consumption for something more fun than cheap fish oil.
Prone to oxidation. This means it goes bad faster than high quality fish oils!
Like i’ve covered, the supplement industry is highly deceptive and poorly regulated. You can assume that this is the type of fish oil in a product if they claim that their product contains fish oil, is high in fatty acids or Omega3s, etc but doesnt actually specify WHICH fatty acids.
Be a smart consumer
Check the concentrations of EPA and DHA in each serving. Remember, we’re looking for 500mg-3g PER DAY, if the dosage per pill is low, you’d have to take a TON (unpleasant, and costly when it comes to both finances calories).
Contaminant levels. Look for a fish oil that’s sourced primarily from small non-predatory fish like anchovy, sardine, and some mackerel. Non-predatory fish are less likely to be ingesting other fish that contain high levels of environmental toxins. It’s also a bit more environmentally friendly than sourcing oil from salmon and other large fatty fish
Don’t take fish oil if...
Omega3 supplementation counters blood clotting. So, talk to your doctor if you’re taking blood-thinning medications.
*An essential nutrient is a nutrient required for normal body functioning that can not be synthesized by the body. Categories of essential nutrient include vitamins, dietary minerals, essential fatty acids and essential amino acids.