Fat Fighter?
In an Australian study of 43 women and 27 men, those who swallowed fish-oil supplements containing just under two grams of omega-3 essential fatty acids and walked briskly for 45 minutes, three times a week, for 12 weeks lost three percent more fat than those who exercised without taking the supplement. Neither group changed their diet. Researchers speculate that exercise triggers omega-3’s possible metabolism-boosting effect. “The body-composition changes would no doubt have been enhanced if the participants’ calories had also been reduced,” says Alison Hill, a University of Adelaide graduate student who led the study for the Nutritional Physiology Research Group, a joint initiative of Adelaide’s University of South Australia and the University of Adelaide.