Researchers out of the University of Iceland are showing that simply adding fish to a hypocaloric diet can increase weight loss. The inclusion of either lean (cod) or fatty (salmon) fish to be eating 3 times a week at 150 gram potions ( roughly 5 ½ ounces) resulted in a significantly higher weight loss than the control group not eating fish but following the same diet ( 505 carbohydrates, 30% fat, and 20% protein with a 30% caloric deficit).
Although the subjects in the study lost a considerable amount of weight, 40% of that weight was lean muscle tissue. The study didn’t include any exercise, and it is well established that calorie deficit diets will cause a massive loss of lean muscle tissue. Don’t ever diet without an exercise program, especially with a calorie deficit that high. This diet had a 30% caloric deficit and I could never recommend anything over 20%, and that would be from a combination of food and energy expenditure from activity. And finally, low calorie high carbohydrate diets don’t work.
Tips: Add some fish in your diet either by food or by supplements. They are proven to increase your health and help you lose fat. Following a high carbohydrate low calorie diet can be quite a risky in terms of health and fat loss. The success rate on such diets is extremely low. If you knew the dropout rate of these low calorie diets you would be shocked believe me. Never follow a fat loss diet without exercise, and more specifically I’m talking about resistance exercise. Muscles need to be loaded and worked hard to maintain them. In the future I will talk more about fish oil and what you can do to maintain, and even gain, muscle while you’re dieting.
