Thursday, April 8, 2010

How much Fish Oil?



Most of us have come to realize the importance of supplementing with fish oil these days, the most common question, however, is just how much fish oil to take. Fish oil supplementing is not a one-size-fits-all solution. Much depends on bodyweight, current diet and health woes, and brand of fish oil and there are a lot of folks that are taking such a low dose of fish oil, they are not getting the full benefits of this supplement.

A good starting point - per Robb Wolf's suggestion - would be to take 1 gram of EPA/DHA per 10 pounds of body weight if you are sick (fighting an illness, poorly fed, under slept, overstressed, or overtrained) and .5 grams of EPA/DHA per 10 pounds of bodyweight if you are healthy.
Take this dosage for the first 4-6 weeks and as health/diet improve, titrate down to the .5 grams dosage.
This seems simple enough, until you begin to shop around for fish oil and realize every brand has a different amount of EPA/DHA!

The folks over at Whole9 have come up with an incredibly easy method to figure out how much of your brand of fish oil you will need given your specific body type and current state of health.

The Robb Wolf/Whole9 Fish Oil Calculator http://whole9life.com/fish-oil/. Just enter all your bodyweight stats, your Fish Oil Factor, and the details from the label on your particular brand of fish oil and the calculator will automatically generate your daily dose of fish oil. The Fish Oil Factor provides some lifestyle factors to consider to help determine how much fish oil to consume. Once your dosage has been calculated, stay on this for 4-6 weeks and, if health/diet changes and improves, tritate down to a lower dose. Most people will eventually settle down to a .5 Fish Oil Factor, unless they are eating a ton of grassfed meat or wild game.

2 comments:

  1. Does this apply to kids, as well? I haven't been able to find good dosing information for children above what the label says. My daughter (age 11) has terribly dry skin and really needs to supplement, but I'm not sure if you can over do it. Any comments are welcome here or email me: candacegq28@hotmail.com Thanks!

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