Q: Hey Chris How you doing? Ok I got a question for you, I need a better understanding of fish oil and how much you take a day. I am gathering you went to the BioSignature seminar from your videos where nutrition is touched upon. Poliquin says “Anyone who wants to put on muscle and lose fat should be on 30-45 grams of fish oil per day” or take about 3 tablespoons, how much do you take and recommend? And whats all the fuss about cod liver oil and should one cycle cod liver oil and various different fish oils? If one should cycle oils how long should somone be one one type or one brand before changing to another? Thanks
Nick
A: Great question Nick. You hear so many different things today about supplements, protocols, and nutrition in general, that confusion is practically inevitable.
Here’s 13 things that fish oil does:
- Cell membrane health
- turns on the lipolytic genes (fat burning genes)
- turns off the lipogenic genes (fat storing genes)
- diminish C-reactive proteins (a risk factor for inflammatory diseases)
- utilization of fat stores
- Preferential utilization for energy production
- Reduced inflammation
- Pain management (from reduced inflammation)
- regulates blood supply to the brain
- increase serotonin levels
- improve your cardio-vascular risk profile
- decrease blood pressure
- a great stress fighter
I’ve heard (and not just from Poliquin) that you can go onto pubmed.com and put any disease known to man with fish oil and there will be research suggesting that it would help (not cure).
I study a lot of great strength coaches in my industry (I’m reading a book that Chad Waterbury just wrote, “Huge In A Hurry”, as we speak). And in my opinion, Charles Poliquin is the Albert Einstein in it. So when he says something, it holds a lot of weight with me. However, some of the things he talks about I’ve had a hard time applying, and question it’s application.
Taking 30-45 grams of fish oil is one of them.
Maybe it would work great. But the athletes that I deal with question taking 4 pills of fish oil with their three main meals. That’s a lot of pills to them, and they get a little freaked if I tell them to take to many. Plus, a lot of my athletes aren’t rich. Poliquin trained pro athletes and they could afford to take a lot more supplements. Try telling someone that’s an amateur athlete that isn’t making a mill or a regular Joe or Jane, especially with everyone scared to death about the economy.
I have my athletes start with 12 grams of fish oil divided amongst their three main meals. This is the minimal amount I prescribe. Anymore, and you have to take Vitamin E (and it should be Gamma dominant) because the fish oil can oxidize. I hardly ever prescribe more because of compliance issues.
I also have them take:
- Magnesium Glycinate: 600 mg before bed. Poliquin recommends 1 gram, but I’ve found that I get the same results with 600. Any less, and the sleep quality isn’t improved (magnesium glycinate helps relax the body by reducing catecholamines, which improves sleep quality). It also helps my athletes not pull hamstrings and cramp up during training.
- Chelated Multi-vitamin: Nobody is getting all the necessary nutrients from food anymore. Since we started putting ammonium nitrate down on the soil so we don’t have to rotate crops, we’ve depleted the minerals and vitamins in the soil. Initially, when I talk to many grapplers (who I mainly train), they either don’t take a multi, or they take something like Centrum or Animal Pak. Both suck. The issues with multi’s is absorption and the right amounts of the vitamins/minerals. So I get them on a good one.
- Zinc (chelated form): Zinc is responsible for over 300 enzymatic reactions in the body. And if there’s a deficiency, testosterone will be low. Everyone I’ve ever given a zinc challenge test to has failed miserably. Which means they have a big deficiency. If your testosterone levels are low, good luck getting stronger. Especially in upper or lower body pushing (triceps, pressing, squats, etc). I’ve found it doesn’t affect pulls as much (I’m not sure why yet).
Any other supplement is based off of their BioSignature readings. For instance,
- Dirty Liver: Kudzu
- Adrenal problems: rotate different adaptogens (holy basil, cordyceps, ashwagandha,etc)
- Estrogen detoxification: Phoshpatydlcholine, fiber, DIM (just a few)
I also try and think what would work for multiple problems that’s going to give them the biggest return on their investment.
I have them take a good quality protein shake post training (with carbs if they’re lean, with glutamine if they’re not).
Then it’s just all about their food choices. I normally work on one meal only for up to three weeks. This way they’re replacing old existing habits with new good ones. It’s all about behavior modification and psychology. If you tell them something that would definitely work but they won’t do it, it wasn’t good advice. That’s what I mean by questioning it’s application.
I’ve had amazing success doing this.
Here’s what I do for myself.
I have problems with stress and anxiety (type A personality), so I take things to mitigate that. Ashwagandha at night with magnesium glycinate works great for me. I sleep like a baby, get leaner, and feel stronger.
Holy Basil is like liquid Xanex for me. An atom bomb could land on Chicago and I’d be alright.
I take in a lot of carbs. I’ve found that if the carb doesn’t bloat me, I get leaner, if it does, I shouldn’t eat it. I’ve actually found my subscapularis (which is supposed to be correlated to carb tolerance) get leaner, even though it’s higher than 10 millimeters on a low carb diet (which is supposed to mean I’m not very carb tolerant).
I do experiment with different supplements and protocols (if it makes sense logically), but most of the time, I do the same things that I have my athletes do above because it works, and because of the simplicity.
I’ve heard that cod liver oil is better to take in the winter but I don’t remember the reason, or if one was given. It might be in my notes somewhere, but I wouldn’t lose any sleep over it if I were you. I don’t, and that’s why I won’t be frantically looking through my notes. When I’m out of a bottle of fish oil, I rotate another one in. I have about four I rotate through.
In the past, probably because of my personality, I’ve suffered from paralysis by analysis. Now, if it ain’t broken, I don’t fix it. If somethings not working, I try to de-construct it to make it as simple as possible. Just like Albert Einstein said.
My advice to you.
- Try taking just 12 grams of fish oil divided amongst your main meals (not with your post workout meal though if you want to spike insulin)
- Eat a lot of food from clean sources (beef, chicken, fish, eggs, vegetables, fruits, nuts). Stay away from processed and refined foods.
- Drink a lot of water
- Have a protein shake about 30 minutes before training and another one immediately after.
- Make sure you get 8 hours of great sleep.
If that’s not working, eat more food. I doubt more fish oil is required.