Omega 3's

[cj111]

I was looking at my bottle of fish oils last night, when it dawned on me.. whats the recommended amount to take daily? Because I usually took 4 pills a day, 2 , 2x a day. I've never even bothered to read the label, theres only 300mg per pill!! That's 1.2grams of omega 3 a day, which seems pretty freakin low. The canned fish I eat daily has 4Grams per serving, which I'm assuming all anyone would need in their diet if they eat it daily? I was going to order more omega 3's but at this point I'm probably holding off...
How much do other people take in a day? Is there to much omega 3's to have in a day ?

[jimmyinkedup]

I take in 3 grams a day usually in the form of ground flax meal. I do supplement with fish oil sometimes but Im always at 3g/day.

[Tron3219]

I was looking at my bottle of fish oils last night, when it dawned on me.. whats the recommended amount to take daily? Because I usually took 4 pills a day, 2 , 2x a day. I've never even bothered to read the label, theres only 300mg per pill!! That's 1.2grams of omega 3 a day, which seems pretty freakin low. The canned fish I eat daily has 4Grams per serving, which I'm assuming all anyone would need in their diet if they eat it daily? I was going to order more omega 3's but at this point I'm probably holding off...
How much do other people take in a day? Is there to much omega 3's to have in a day ?

Honestly idk the answer to ur question, I've been doing some light reading in fats, haven't dove into it too deep. But I don't think there is a maximum dosage of omega 3's. it would b dependent on ur diet. But I do know that the omega 3 to omega 6 ratio has to be in check or it could lead to health issues.

-TroN-

[cj111]

Ya I consume both, I read you're better off taking them separate? Any truth behind that? I always thought flax was mainly omega 6, wrong again!

[Tron3219]

Ya I consume both, I read you're better off taking them separate? Any truth behind that? I always thought flax was mainly omega 6, wrong again!

I don't think so, again, not sure. But "fat" as labeled on a nutrition info label is quite impossible to interpret. Inside those fats there are omega 3 and 6 along with other types of fatty acids. It's quite complex as far as what the contents of that fat is made of, I hadn't had a chance to really get into it, but it's something that I'm going to research soon. I've just scratched the surface. And to be honest, idk if many ppl on here can give u specifics on fats. But I plan on getting to the bottom of it because I like to play with my diet and I'm contemplating a high fat LOW carb diet. I read an interesting article in fat adaption that mad me curious.

-TroN-

[cj111]

Well if you find any worthwhile reads, I'd like to see it. I mess around with what I eat and I've done high fat/protein and moderate carbs and I can honestly say I feel great and felt great in the gym. Not a big fan of super high prot low carb/fat, feel like shit.
Anyways keep me posted if you find anything, I love learning more about nutrition, seeing as it is determines 70% of your gym progress

[Back In Black]

Somewhere I read a study that claimed over 5g per day could make your blood thinner making clotting difficult. I'm not aware of any other adverse side effects. I stick to 3g per day in the form of specific omega 3 fish oils. Flax et al do contain a relatively high amount of omega 3 but, as stated, also has omega 6. Most of us get more than enough omega 6 from our diets so my preference is a straight omega 3.

[cj111]

Although the Institute of Medicine has not set a recommended daily intake for omega-3 fatty acids, it has established adequate intake amounts of between 1.1 and 1.6 grams per day for adults. One tablespoon of ground flaxseed provides 1.6 grams of omega-3 fatty acids. Tips for including flaxseed in your diet:

Just picked that up while browsing some websites, never realized how good ground flax was for ya until I started reading about it

[951thompson]

I'd rather eat a tin of sardines/mackerel per day then take fish oil sups. What does a can of sardines cost 40p (in England) cheap as chips, probably does you more good and boaosts you protein intake. About 20+ grams protein per can.(For 40p bargain)

[cj111]

Ya I've been eating a can of salmon a day, equivalent to taking about 12 of the omega 3 pills I have in the cupboard.. Once they are gone I probably wont buy anymore

[wannabeme]

Regarding Omega 3's, the only ones with any conclusive clinical research are DHA and EPA. Your Omega-3 supplement should list how much of EACH of these are in a dose. If not, it's mostly non-DHA and non-EPA fish oil and not doing much for you besides adding fat that has little if any known benefit. So to get the best bang for your buck, you have to do some math and figure out how much $ a particular brand per mg of DHA and EPA.

The other complicating issue here is mercury. As well all know, fish are a prime source of mercury in our bodies, which leads to all kinds of problems INCLUDING inhibition of thyroid function, which can lead to all sorts of issues as well (like weight gain, low T, depression, low energy, etc etc etc.) Here is where you kind of get what you pay for. If you use a supplement that has not been independently tested for mercury, and it's cheap, you can bet your getting a decent dose of mercury every day on top of useless fish oil LOW in DHA/EPA.

There are several good choices out there but for what it's worth, I was taking ZoneDiet Omega 3's which came out to about $0.83 per gram of combined DHA/EPA and have extensive independent testing. It's also "ultra pure" so less non-EPA/DHA fat. I was tired of paying so much and decided a little extra fish fat is no biggie so did my homework and, again, there are probably other good options but landed on Carlson Labs Elite Omega-3 Gems. Thanks to Amazon and a bit of a deal I'm now paying $0.24 per gram of combined DHA/EPA, and also verified lack of mercury and other contaminants on an independent web site.

There are different recommendations for doses based on clinical trials and results for different conditions being treated, so do your research here, but I decided that the 1600/800mg of EPA/DHA was unnecessarily high in my interpretation of the research so I have scaled mine back to 800/600 EPA/DHA (also notice here different brands use different ratios - but there isn't any research I know of that only tweaked ratios as a variable - so who knows what the magic number really is). By making this move (different brand, about half the dosage) my Omega 3 supplementation costs are 1/8 what they used to be. However, do not settle for a supplement that does not call out individual amounts of EPA/DHA. If they don't, it could be very lop-sided and that not what research trials use. Typically they use more EPA than DHA, which is what you find in most all quality supplements of O-3.

Final tally, my Omega-3 supps are now $0.34 per day.

[pumping_iron]

I usually go 900mg epa/dha a day. Depending on the dosage per pill i sometimes go 1200 just depends if it's 300mg per pill or 600