Fish oil supplements

Just a quick one, and thanks matt for the question

The amount of fish oil taken will, as usual, depend entirely on the individual's goals. By the way- when I refer to the amount of fish oil I mean EPA/DHA combined, meaning for the usual 1000mg fish oil tablet that contains 180mg EPA/120mg DHA this equals 300mg fish oil. Higher potency tablets or purified fish oil contains more EPA/DHA per 1000mg. The benefits of fish oil are well documented, and here is a good summery of a lot of study's from Pub Med.

For an overweight person on the average modern diet with metabolic syndrome may need to take upwards of around 10g fish oil per day (that’s around 33 standard tablets). This is purely from anecdotal clinical experience from the likes of Robb Wolf, Loren Cordain and others. This doesn’t mean it has no basis; 1000's of successful patients in place of clinical trials of this sort are a pretty good bet. This would have to be done at least over a few months to make a real difference to metabolism. The half-life or turn-over of N-6 fats in the cell is around 18-24 months, so permanent change in fat ratio, cell structure and metabolism can take a while. Some people may experience slight GI side effects from such large doses and so have to tone that down until they reach a point were symptoms disappear.

For a lean athlete with no signs of insulin resistance or other metabolic problems, a dose of 1-3g daily can be sufficient as a maintenance dose. This can be upped a few grams if suffering an injury or inflammatory condition. Dose also requires N-6 intake to be under tight control, as intake will compete for metabolism and storage in the cells against N-3. If you are not quite following paleo to the letter and your N-6 intake is a little high, you will need to increase fish oil intake to compensate.