Research
Energy balance
Fish oil supplementation does not significantly alter resting metabolic rate (RMR) or respiratory exchange ratio (RER) in healthy adults over 6 weeks.
Do not expect fish oil to significantly increase your resting metabolic rate. Its benefits for body composition likely come from other mechanisms, such as lowering cortisol.
ModerateRefutesMEDIUM confidence
No significant differences were observed for body mass... RMR... or respiratory exchange ratio
Why this rating
RCT with small sample size for metabolic testing (n=24).
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
More from this paper
- Supplemental fish oil (4 g/d providing 1,600 mg EPA and 800 mg DHA) for 6 weeks significantly increases fat-free mass and decreases fat mass in healthy adults.Moderate
- Fish oil supplementation reduces salivary cortisol levels, and this reduction is significantly correlated with increased fat-free mass and decreased fat mass.Moderate
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