T Nation

Fish Oil Levels

Supplements and Nutrition
#1

Help-- I am new and I am starting the Velocity Diet. I tried to order Flameout, but it is back ordered for 2 weeks. I received all of my other materials and want to start the Velocity Diet tomorrow. So, I went to a health food stor and bout a product labeled total EFA, but the amounts of ingredients are different.

I am uncertain how much I need to equal the chemistry of Flameout. Can anyone answer this?
The levels of ingredients in my bottle are:

Alpha-Linolenic Acid [ALA] (omega-3) 675 mg

Eicosapentaenoic Acid [EPA] (omega-3) 335 mg

Docosahexaenoic Acid [DHA] (omega-3) 230 mg

Gamma-Linolenic Acid [GLA] (omega-6) 270 mg

Linoleic Acid (omega-6) 615 mg

Oleic Acid (omega-9) 510 mg

#2

Don’t worry about matching the DHA/EPA levels, use the same number of grams (remember each Flameout is 1.5g). It’s probably more important to keep your calories correct.

#3

From what I learnt from those Flameout articles was that for a man a fish oil supplement should contain higher amounts of DHA than EPA.

#4

[quote]funkhauser wrote:
From what I learnt from those Flameout articles was that for a man a fish oil supplement should contain higher amounts of DHA than EPA.[/quote]

That’s true, but some DHA from other fish oil is better than none. On the V-Diet it’s probably more important to keep your calories in the right range.

#5

Looks like you bought a fish, borage, flax blend. Perhaps some olive oil in there too.

How many pills is that for? I am sure it is not one. Whatever that serving is it will take 1.36 of them to equal 1 capsule of Flameout. That is equivalent to 4 servings of your EFA to 3 Flameout capsules or 5.45 servings of your EFA to 4 Flameout capsules.

Straight 30% fish oil which is usually 12% DHA and 18% EPA per 1000mg or 1g capsule. A double strength version is available if you want to spend a little more money and swallow less capsules.

For normal fish oil (30%), you would need to take 10 capsules for every 4 Flameout, and 5 capsules of the double strength stuff.

There are some higher DHA options such as NOW’s DHA-250 which has 250mg DHA and 100mg EPA per capsule. A dose equal to 4 Flameout would be roughly 9 capsules (2250mg DHA, 900mg EPA).

note:
For all these analyses the CLA content of Flameout was ignored and total DHA and EPA was compared, not DHA to DHA and EPA to EPA.

#6

Thanks so much for your prompt replies! I am a woman, so i imagine my levels would be different, but i will follow your advice on this. I just started the velocity diet this morning. The shake was tasty, but what do you use as a scoop. Serving size says a scoop, but there wasn’t one in with my order. So, I used a coffee scoop–one I measure coffee with. Is that right?

#7

Did you try digging deeper? Sometimes I have to use a fork to get it out. With my Superfood, I didn’t see the scoop, and with the teaspoon in the pic in the article, I assumed that was a serving. Only when I took a previous creatine scoop and dug in did I hit the same size scoop buried in the powder.

I use a scale that is accurate to one decimal place and check every tin at the beginning to make sure that it is the right amount. If you have a Tablespoon-size measuring scoop (15cc), you can use 4-5 scoops of this to get about the right size serving, but weighing is the most accurate.

As a woman you can just stick to normal fish oil with the slightly higher EPA content. If you want to swallow less caps, there are many double strength products out there (60% vs. 30%). 5-6 servings of your current EFA taken with meals throughout the day should do the trick. This would be 10 normal (30%) fish oil caps or 5 double strength. You would probably save money purchasing the EFAs separately and online (sometimes ridiculously so).

#8

[quote]Peter Orban wrote:
As a woman you can just stick to normal fish oil with the slightly higher EPA content. [/quote]

Women will get the same benefit from a high DHA supplement like Flameout as men, so there’s no reason they “should” take a high EPA product.

#9

[quote]ChrisKing wrote:
Peter Orban wrote:
As a woman you can just stick to normal fish oil with the slightly higher EPA content.

Women will get the same benefit from a high DHA supplement like Flameout as men, so there’s no reason they “should” take a high EPA product.[/quote]

I agree. I used the qualifier can because I have seen some studies that indicate that women may benefit more from EPA than men. Although I should point out that it is far from conclusive evidence. Also women tend to have higher rates of conversion of EPA to DHA. The benefits of DHA and EPA are both immense, my comments were more based on the fact that men need more DHA to get the same effect. Either way, I am a proponent of high dose fish oil intake.

#10

OK, how do you do it? How do you drink this shake with flax seeds? They make me gag!

#11

I feel sluggish, even though I take 2 HOT-ROX in the morning (9am)and 1 capsule in the afternoon (3 pm). I feel sluggish mid day.
I drink a shake with 2 scoops in th morning and 2 for lunch, 1 scoop for a snack and 2 scoops for dinner and 1 scoop before bed. Any ideas?