Research

Hormonal

Fish oil supplementation reduces salivary cortisol levels, and this reduction is significantly correlated with increased fat-free mass and decreased fat mass.

Fish oil may help lower cortisol, which is linked to fat gain and muscle loss. This study suggests that by lowering cortisol, fish oil might help you build lean mass and lose fat.

ModerateSupportsMEDIUM confidence
There was a significant correlation in the FO group between change in cortisol and change in fat free mass (r = -0.504, p = 0.02) and fat mass (r = 0.661, p = 0.001).
Eric E. Noreen et al. · Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition · 2010

Why this rating

Correlational finding within an RCT; cortisol reduction was a 'tendency' (p=0.11) in the ANOVA but significant in post-hoc tests.

Source

Effects of supplemental fish oil on resting metabolic rate, body composition, and salivary cortisol in healthy adults

Eric E. Noreen et al. · Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition · 2010

DOI 10.1186/1550-2783-7-31

rct · n=44Cited 113×
Read the paper
DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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