Get Plenty of This and Accelerate your Fat Loss!

Although there is no magic pill to weight loss, there is one thing that can enhance your fat burning efforts…sometimes significantly.  This is something that all fitness professionals should be suggesting to their clients.  So, what am I talking about?  Essential Fatty Acids or EFA’s.

The benefits of essential fatty acids have been known for a while now but a 2007 study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition shows just how beneficial they can be to fat loss.  The study reports that “The test group which incorporated essential fatty acids into their weight-loss plan lost more body fat than all the other test groups combined.”  That is an incredible finding and shows just how important essential fatty acids are to our waistline and overall health.

The Facts of Essential Fatty Acids
While it is not known exactly why essential fatty acids – termed essential because they cannot be produced by the body and must be consumed through diet – enhance weight loss efforts, but according to Nutritionist Jayson Hunter it could be due to several breakthrough reasons:
1.  DHA has been shown to prevent the conversion of pre-adipocytes(pre-fat cells) to adipocytes (fat cells) and mediate pre-adipocyte death (kill ‘em before they become immortal fat cells).
2.  Fish oil has the ability to increase the clearance of chylomicrons (certain type of fat cell) and fats following a meal. This potentially can have a positive effect on substrate utilization (fat usage).
3.  Fish oil can “artificially” decrease heart rate thus increasing the level of exertion needed to reach desired intensity.  Essentially you burn more overall calories.  This was shown to be true in a recent study completed in Australia looking at the impact of exercise and fish oil on weight loss.  The researchers found that the combination of exercise and fish oil led to an increase in fat loss.
4.  Fish oil upregulates mitochondrial machinery and increases oxidation of fats within fat cells.  This wonderful process means your body burns more fat as energy instead of storing it. Source:  Nutritionist Jayson Hunter, www.askjaysonhunter.com

With the obvious benefits of these essential fatty acids, it would by silly not to incorporate them into your exercise and nutrition routine.  EFA’s have many other health benefits other than fat loss such as the nourishment of skin and hair; reduction of blood pressure, cholesterol, and triglyceride levels; prevention of arthritis and inflammation; and the reduction of the risk of blood clotting.  Furthermore, essential fatty acids help protect the body from cardiovascular disease, candidiasis, eczema, and psoriasis, and they play a critical role in brain development and in the transmission of nerve impulses.

Including EFA’s into your diet is an absolute no-brainer.

You may have heard of EFA’s referred to as Omega-3 and Omega-6 fatty acids.  Omega-3 fatty acids come from fish oils and some plant oils and Omega-6 fatty acids come from plant oils.

The diets of those living in Western societies (such as ours) tend to be rich in Omega-6 fatty acids and lack severely in Omega-3 fatty acids.  These two fatty acids are not interchangeable.  We need more Omega-3’s in our diet.  This can be accomplished by eating more fish, nuts, seeds, certain oils, supplementing with fish oil, etc.

Because we get so much Omega-6 in our diets, there is no real need to supplement it.

Below is a list of Omega-3 sources that you can go get today:

Flaxseed Oil-Can be found in oil or pill form at most nutrition stores
Fish Oil Supplements- Can be found in oil or pill form at most nutrition stores
Fish-Salmon, Blue Fish, Herring, Tuna, Cod, Flounder, mackerel, and shrimp
Oils-Canola oil, walnut oil, soybean oil
Nuts-walnuts, Brazil nuts
Soybeans
Seeds-Pumpkin, Sesame
Avocados

When purchasing an omega 3 fatty acid supplement, remember that these oils are highly sensitive to damage from heat, light and oxygen. Choose a certified organic product that has been refrigerated and is packaged in a dark brown or green glass jar and be sure to store the product in your refrigerator or freezer.

It is also advisable to choose a supplement that contains vitamin E. Vitamin E is a powerful antioxidant, which is added to the oil to prevent the fatty acids from becoming oxidized (or rancid).

Getting your Omega-3′s  in natural food form is always better than supplement form so if you are eating plenty of fish, nuts, seeds, etc, supplements should be unnecessary.  If you are not getting a lot of those foods in your diet (most of us are not), go for the supplements!

No one nutrient alone is a cure-all and EFA’s are no exception.  They are just a smart way to improve your health and maybe trim some body fat in the process.

So, if you have any interest in turbo-charging your fat loss efforts and becoming more healthy in general, then I strongly urge you to include one or more of these EFA sources into your diet.  Your thighs, butt, and heart will thank you!