krill oil for weight loss- Science-backed Facts!

krill oil for weight loss

There are numerous studies that have been done on Krill oil that have proved and shown that it’s the MOST effective omega 3 supplement on the market right now.

It has so many health benefits and contains rare but powerful active ingredients that you won’t find in other omega-3 supplements.

There are many comprehensive studies and trials that have proven its positive effects against weight loss and other health-related ailments.

Krill oil vs other supplements for weight loss

There are thousands of supplements and diets on the market that claim to be a weight loss miracle, that will help us to shed the pounds and give us the body of our dreams in just a few days or weeks.

I don’t know about you but I’m sick and tired of these people who just want us to live in this big lie that weight loss is just like magic, where things just happen in a flash.

We all know this is not right but somehow and for some reason, we fall into that trap almost every single time and believe this nonsense.

Krill oil is one of these supplements that has been advertised to help with weight loss and burn tons of calories and also help us to maintain a healthy weight loss.

To really understand the true meaning behind ”KRILL OIL FOR WEIGHT LOSS”, there are two questions we need to cover to be able to decide whether krill oil is really effective as a weight loss supplement or not?

  1. What are the real reasons that preventing us from losing weight and maintaining a healthy weight?
  2. What is the connection between krill oil and weight loss?

Krill oil and long-term weight loss plan

To be able to lose weight and set yourself a long-term weight loss plan is to really know what makes your weight loss plans don’t work.

There are so many different reasons for failing a weight loss plan and not maintaining a healthy weight.

For every one of us, there is a good reason where we find ourselves stuck and unable to lose weight, where weight loss becomes an impossible task and suddenly finding ourselves gaining more weight than before.

Kids, family, work you name it, there are an endless  amount of reasons making it very challenging for us to lose weight and keep it off.

The most common reasons for finding it difficult to lose weight are:

  1. Chronic inflammation. Leptin is a hormone that regulates body fat by controlling appetite and metabolism. When there’s a chronic inflammation, the brain doesn’t receive leptin suppressing message and leads to uncontrollable appetite and disturbed metabolism and weight gain.
  2. Antidepressants. antidepressants have been proven to disturb a healthy weight loss regime and cause rapid weight gain.weight loss
  3. Stress. When we are very stressed out we tend to eat uncontrollably. stress hormone cortisol gets secreted when our body under stress and that leads us to reach out for high-calorie comfort foods.
  4. High cholesterol. High cholesterol can lead to many life-threatening conditions and like obesity.
  5. Hight blood pressure medication has been proven to halt or disturb a weight loss regime.
  6. Diabetes medication.
  7. Hypothyroidism. When the thyroid gland doesn’t produce enough thyroid hormones, our metabolism slows down and that’s when we start feeling weak, tired, cold and gaining weight.

As you can see that there is undeniably strong connection between the above conditions and weight loss.

Managing or even better curing these illnesses can have a very positive impact on weight gain and a very successful weight loss.

What’s the connection between krill oil and weight loss?

To really understand the effectiveness of krill oil for weight loss, we have to understand what’s krill oil and what makes it effective for weight loss.

Krill oil, what is it and what does it really do, exactly?

Krill oil is made from krill antarctic, Euphausia Superba. Krill oil has a complex phospholipid composition and contains long-chained unsaturated fatty acids.

Krill oil contains two types of EPA and DHA  omega-3 fatty acids:

  • Triglycerides Fatty acids, which are similar to fish oil fatty acidsKRILL OIL
  • Phospholipid-derived fatty acids

Phospholipid-derived fatty acids are readily bioavailable and don’t need digestive enzymes to break them down.

The human cell membrane is made from phospholipids, which means the phospholipid-derived fatty acids of krill oil are able to enter the cell very easily and readily absorbed and therefore, that makes krill oil superior in its bioavailability to other omega-3 fatty acids like fish oil.

The bioavailability of krill oil also means that krill oil is a fast-acting supplement, which means you will see faster results with krill oil than with other drugs or supplements.

The other components of krill oil are:

  • Astaxanthin
  • Choline

What’s Astaxanthin? Immune system powerhouse

Astaxanthin is an anti-inflammatory and antioxidant that is found primarily in marine organisms like krill, shrimp, salmon, and microalgae.

It has been claimed that Astaxanthin can help with so many health disorders like:

  • Heart problems
  • Rheumatoid arthritis
  • Aging
  • Carpal tunnel syndrome
  • Cataracts
  • Alzheimer’s disease
  • Parkinson’s disease
  • Blood glucose

There are numerous studies ( we will talk about them later in more detail) have been done on Astaxanthin to examine its effectiveness against conditions that are connected to weight loss.

What’s choline? stress buster

Choline is a compound that has cognitive properties and essential for liver function. The choline that is in krill oil is present in a form of phosphatidylcholine.

Krill oil contains around 69 choline-containing phospholipids, according to an experiment that was carried out to detect that amount choline in krill oil. They found out that the Phosphotidylcholine concentration was ~34g/100g oil.

This shows that choline has an important part to play in making krill oil as potent and effective as it has been shown to be.

The health benefits of krill oil

Krill oil has been proven beyond any doubt to be very effective against chronic inflammation, stress, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes.

Let’s have a look at some of these conditions and see if krill oil has any connection between these conditions and weight loss.

1- Krill oil and 30% reduction in chronic inflammation

Like I have mentioned before that chronic inflammation plays a vital part in weight loss and weight gain because of its direct effect on body fat, appetite, and metabolism.

Chronic inflammation is also associated with many life-threatening diseases:KRILL OIL HEALTH BENEFITS

  • Cancer
  • Heart disease
  • diabetes
  • Rheumatoid arthritis
  • Obesity
  • Stroke

And the leading factors for having chronic inflammation are:

  • Obesity
  • saturated fat intake
  • Harmful sugars consumption

As you can see that all or most of the diseases and conditions are closely connected to weight gain.

You might ask how does krill oil has anything to do with chronic inflammation?

There are numerous double-blind trials have been carried out on krill oil that has proven its effectiveness against chronic inflammation and arthritis.

A study was conducted (Ontario, Canada) to evaluate krill oil effectiveness on chronic inflammation and arthritic symptoms.

After 30 days of taking 500mg of krill oil, the subjects noticed a significant reduction in symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis(20-29% reduction), and also significantly reducing C-reactive protein concentrations (~30% reduction). C-reactive protein is found in the blood, it increases when there’s inflammation, and decreases when there’s less or no inflammation.

The study concluded that taking krill oil on a daily basis can significantly inhibit inflammation and reduce arthritic symptoms.

This shows that krill oil can be very effective and can have a long-lasting positive effect on chronic inflammation and weight loss.

The other thing to remember is that krill oil is much safer than over the counter pain killers.

Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) have been found to cause internal bleeding when used for longer than 3 months.

2- Krill oil, significant reduction in cholesterol and stress

High cholesterol has a direct connection to many diseases and disorders and especially heart disease and obesity.

Cholesterol has a complex structure and is made from three main components that play an important role in controlling cholesterol levels in the blood.

To understand how cholesterol affects our health, we need to know the roles of the three major components of cholesterol:

  1. Low-Density Lipoprotein (LDL): LDL is called the bad cholesterol, which means having high LDL is directly connected to heart disease. High LDL causes a plaque build up in the arteries and that increases the risk of heart disease.
  2. High-Density Lipoprotein (HDL): HDL is the good cholesterol that is responsible for carrying cholesterol to the liver for removing the harmful cholesterol from the body. High HDL is associated with plaque-free arteries and lower risk of heart disease.
  3. Triglycerides: Triglycerides are the fat in our blood. The number of triglycerides in our blood depends on how much fat we eat. Triglycerides are also linked to plaque build up in out arteries and increased risk of heart disease.

Cholesterol can be simply controlled and managed by eating a healthy diet that is rich in omega-3 and regular exercise. Losing weight and maintaining a healthy weight is vital for lowering bad cholesterol and the risk of heart disease.

The Internal Medicine Department at McGILL university, Quebec, Canada, conducted a study to evaluate the effects of krill oil on total cholesterol, LDL, HDL, and triglycerides.

This study found out that taking 1-3g of krill oil for 30 days managed to significantly reduce total cholesterol, triglycerides, and low-density lipoproteins, and increase high-density lipoproteins.

Seoul national university, Seoul, South Korea, the study found out that Astaxanthin an antioxidant that is found in krill oil was also determined to have positive effects on oxidative stress and cholesterol in overweight subjects.

There were 34.5% increase in the antioxidant count in the blood, and 32.7% reduction in lipid peroxidation (damages cell membrane and can cause cancer), around 10% reduction in LDL cholesterol (bad cholesterol), and also 30% increase in superoxide dismutase, which is a powerful anti-inflammatory.

It’s important to remember that Statins, the cholesterol-lowering  drug have been shown to increase weight and blood glucose levels.

It’s pretty evident by now that the omega-3 and the antioxidant in krill oil are very safe, potent, and very effective in helping us lose weight in a healthy and manageable way.

Omega-3 and omega-6 ratio and weight loss

The fact is that there are so many people deficient in omega-3 fatty acids and that because of:

1) our body can’t synthesize omega-3 fatty acidsbalance

2)most of us lead unhealthy and imbalanced  lifestyle making it almost impossible for our body to balance the omega-3:6 ratio.

3)most of the foods we eat are rich in omega-6, and that also imbalances the omega 3:6 ratio.

Omega-3 as we already know has anti-inflammatory properties. Omega-6, on the other hand, has pro-inflammatory properties.

According to the center of genetics in Washington, in a typical western diet, the 3:6 omega fatty acids ratio is around 15:1, which can lead to many diseases like heart disease, inflammation, cancer, and autoimmune diseases.

Lowering the omega-3:6 ratio, in other words, consuming more omega-3 (krill oil)has been shown to lower the risk of many chronic diseases like cardiovascular disease, rheumatoid arthritis, breast and colorectal cancers, and asthma

If krill oil omega-3 is effective against these conditions, and we know these conditions have a strong connection to weight loss, then krill oil can be very effective in managing and maintaining a healthy weight loss.

Krill oil drug interactions

There are many different drugs that can interact with krill oil

Drug interactions:drug interaction

  • Blood-thining drugs: omega-3 in krill oil can increase the effects of blood-thining medications. Medications like warfarin and aspirin. It’s important to consult your doctor before taking any type of omega-3 supplement.
  • Cholesterol-lowering drugs: taking omega-3 with cholesterol-lowering drugs like statins (lipor) has been shown to be effective in lowering cholesterol. But again, it’s best done after consulting with a physician.
  • Blood sugar lowering drugs: omega-3 supplement may increase blood sugar levels, caution is advised if you are planning to take omega-3 and blood sugar medications together.
  • Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs): taking NSIADs  like ibuprofen for a long period of time  may cause ulcers. Omega-3 may help to reduce the risk of ulcers.
  • Topical steroids: taking omega-3 supplements with corticosteroids creams may improve symptoms of psoriasis.
  • It’s recommended to not take  krill oil if you are allergic to seafood and if you are scheduled for surgery in two weeks time, fish and krill oil may increase the risk of bleeding.

 Conclusion

There’s undeniably strong connection between krill oil and:

  1. Chronic inflammation
  2. Stress
  3. High cholesterol
  4. heart disease
  5. weight loss

Krill oil can definitely be a great addition to anyone’s weight loss regime, and as we can see already is that is also a great addition for overall health and it’s very safe with no side effects.

spread the word

naem

Bachelor's degree in Pharmaceutical science and extensive experience working in the health and dietary supplement industries

Click Here to Leave a Comment Below

Leave a Comment: