as some of you may remember, i was a subject in a nutrition study this past winter (http://www.crc.washington.edu/dietstudy/). its objective is to tease out the differences on leptin, ghrelin, and adiponectin levels in subjects randomized to diets high in monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats. in other words, it is trying to see what effect on "hunger hormones" diets rich in fish oil vs. sunflower oil might have.
anyway, to cut to the chase, i did the study: i ate their food and nothing else for 16 weeks. (i was allowed one drink and one meal outside of the study per week during the middle portion.) i took ~7 grams a day of "fish oil capsules"* in addition to having the oil imbued into all the food/butter/etc. that was part of the diet.
outside of the diet i lived my life as i normally do, riding the road bike 4 mi each way to class, skiing, sailing, etc. and, guess what, eating a diet designed by dieticians actually helped me get into better shape. who would have thought it possible?
* - wrt "fish oil", i ended up finding out that i was randomized to the oleic acid (aka a special kind of sunflower oil) diet after the fact, as was necessitated by this being a blinded study. since i saw good results during the study period i decided to keep up with the "fish oil" regimen. since there is abundant evidence that omega-3 fatty acids are good for the heart, kidney, brain, vasculature, just about any organ system you name, i decided to take real fish oil instead: since the study has ended i've been taking 6-8 g/day of fish oil capsules. each 1g capsule has 180mg EPA and 120mg DHA.
now onto the results. background info to interpret these data: i've been measured at the doctor's office from 1.72 to 1.735 (heh) meters in height, and i wrestled at this height in the 135 lb weight class back in high school (that is, BMI of 20 and change). so i haven't always been overweight or obese, only in more recent years -- i'm 24, starting my 4th year out from college graduation. all bloodwork was done fasting.
the results
total body mass at start of study: 91.6 kg, ~ BMI 30.6
total body mass at end of study, 16 weeks later: 83.2 kg, ~ BMI 27.8
t-score from dexa scan of bone mineral density at start of study: +1.7
t-score from dexa scan of bone mineral density at end of study: +2.1
total fat mass at start of study: 27.0 kg, 30.7% of total mass
total fat mass at end of study: 20.8 kg, 26.1% of total mass
lean body mass at start of study: 61.0 kg, 66.6% of total mass
lean body mass at end of study: 58.8 kg, 70.7% of total mass
resting metabolic rate at start of study via indirect calorimetry: 1748 kcal/day
resting metabolic rate at end of study: 1799 kcal/day
total cholesterol at start of study: 186 (optimal is under 200, numbers in mg/dl)
total cholesterol at end of study: 144
LDL cholesterol at start of study: 128 (optimal is under 100, "near optimal"/the old guideline for normal is 100-129)
LDL cholesterol at end of study: 96
HDL cholesterol at start of study: 43 (should be over 40 for men, higher is better)
HDL cholesterol at end of study: 34
triglycerides at start of study: 73 (optimal is under 150)
triglycerides at end of study: 71
glucose at start of study: 101 (normal is under 100, diabetes is defined as 126 or higher)
glucose at end of study: 95
my interpretation of the results
1) i lost weight, and a non-negligible amount: 8.4 kg is 18.5 lbs.
2) this weight that was lost was mostly fat: 74% of the weight lost was fat, to be precise, and i actually gained bone density.
3) my bones are dense, as would be expected for a healthy male my age who eats reasonably and engages in high impact activities (skiing, racquetball, sailing). a t-score of +2.1 indicates that my bone density is 2.1 standard deviations above the mean, normalized for my age, gender, and ethnicity.
4) my body fat percentage was quite high, and remains high even after this weight loss. (http://www.med.umich.edu/1libr/sma/sma_bodyfat_sma.htm suggests that 10-20% is normal for men.) this suggests that there is more work to be done on me yet
.
5) my lipid panel results were good to start with and got better, except for the drop in HDL. do note that i was not in the fish oil group but rather in the oleic/sunflower group. fish oil raises HDL by 5-10%, so taking the 6-8 g of fish oil that i've been on since the study ended should help. (ref: Harris WS. Fish oils and plasma lipid, etc. Journal of Lipid Research, Vol 30, 785-807)
6) my fasting glucose was borderline high: it was 101. normal is below 100, borderline or "pre-diabetes" is 101-125, and diabetes is 126 or above. it didn't come down a huge amount through the 16 weeks of the study although is now nominally normal, which either suggests that i remain borderline or that i'm naturally at the high end of the normal distribution. i should watch out for this in the future.
7) in summary, i was borderline obese but healthy (in terms of lipids, etc.) before the study, and now am merely overweight while remaining healthy. i had hoped for lower body fat %s both before and after, and indeed might get them through measures that are more inaccurate such as caliper measurement -- yes, this comment is directed at you, manimal -- but the DEXA scans that i received are the gold standard and they do not lie.
cheers to anyone who has read through this whole thing. i may or may not update it in the future with more lab results as they filter in, depending on whether i forget about its existence or not.
me, more than just the numbers above, heh:
anyway, to cut to the chase, i did the study: i ate their food and nothing else for 16 weeks. (i was allowed one drink and one meal outside of the study per week during the middle portion.) i took ~7 grams a day of "fish oil capsules"* in addition to having the oil imbued into all the food/butter/etc. that was part of the diet.
outside of the diet i lived my life as i normally do, riding the road bike 4 mi each way to class, skiing, sailing, etc. and, guess what, eating a diet designed by dieticians actually helped me get into better shape. who would have thought it possible?
* - wrt "fish oil", i ended up finding out that i was randomized to the oleic acid (aka a special kind of sunflower oil) diet after the fact, as was necessitated by this being a blinded study. since i saw good results during the study period i decided to keep up with the "fish oil" regimen. since there is abundant evidence that omega-3 fatty acids are good for the heart, kidney, brain, vasculature, just about any organ system you name, i decided to take real fish oil instead: since the study has ended i've been taking 6-8 g/day of fish oil capsules. each 1g capsule has 180mg EPA and 120mg DHA.
now onto the results. background info to interpret these data: i've been measured at the doctor's office from 1.72 to 1.735 (heh) meters in height, and i wrestled at this height in the 135 lb weight class back in high school (that is, BMI of 20 and change). so i haven't always been overweight or obese, only in more recent years -- i'm 24, starting my 4th year out from college graduation. all bloodwork was done fasting.
the results
total body mass at start of study: 91.6 kg, ~ BMI 30.6
total body mass at end of study, 16 weeks later: 83.2 kg, ~ BMI 27.8
t-score from dexa scan of bone mineral density at start of study: +1.7
t-score from dexa scan of bone mineral density at end of study: +2.1
total fat mass at start of study: 27.0 kg, 30.7% of total mass
total fat mass at end of study: 20.8 kg, 26.1% of total mass
lean body mass at start of study: 61.0 kg, 66.6% of total mass
lean body mass at end of study: 58.8 kg, 70.7% of total mass
resting metabolic rate at start of study via indirect calorimetry: 1748 kcal/day
resting metabolic rate at end of study: 1799 kcal/day
total cholesterol at start of study: 186 (optimal is under 200, numbers in mg/dl)
total cholesterol at end of study: 144
LDL cholesterol at start of study: 128 (optimal is under 100, "near optimal"/the old guideline for normal is 100-129)
LDL cholesterol at end of study: 96
HDL cholesterol at start of study: 43 (should be over 40 for men, higher is better)
HDL cholesterol at end of study: 34
triglycerides at start of study: 73 (optimal is under 150)
triglycerides at end of study: 71
glucose at start of study: 101 (normal is under 100, diabetes is defined as 126 or higher)
glucose at end of study: 95
my interpretation of the results
1) i lost weight, and a non-negligible amount: 8.4 kg is 18.5 lbs.
2) this weight that was lost was mostly fat: 74% of the weight lost was fat, to be precise, and i actually gained bone density.
3) my bones are dense, as would be expected for a healthy male my age who eats reasonably and engages in high impact activities (skiing, racquetball, sailing). a t-score of +2.1 indicates that my bone density is 2.1 standard deviations above the mean, normalized for my age, gender, and ethnicity.
4) my body fat percentage was quite high, and remains high even after this weight loss. (http://www.med.umich.edu/1libr/sma/sma_bodyfat_sma.htm suggests that 10-20% is normal for men.) this suggests that there is more work to be done on me yet
.5) my lipid panel results were good to start with and got better, except for the drop in HDL. do note that i was not in the fish oil group but rather in the oleic/sunflower group. fish oil raises HDL by 5-10%, so taking the 6-8 g of fish oil that i've been on since the study ended should help. (ref: Harris WS. Fish oils and plasma lipid, etc. Journal of Lipid Research, Vol 30, 785-807)
6) my fasting glucose was borderline high: it was 101. normal is below 100, borderline or "pre-diabetes" is 101-125, and diabetes is 126 or above. it didn't come down a huge amount through the 16 weeks of the study although is now nominally normal, which either suggests that i remain borderline or that i'm naturally at the high end of the normal distribution. i should watch out for this in the future.
7) in summary, i was borderline obese but healthy (in terms of lipids, etc.) before the study, and now am merely overweight while remaining healthy. i had hoped for lower body fat %s both before and after, and indeed might get them through measures that are more inaccurate such as caliper measurement -- yes, this comment is directed at you, manimal
-- but the DEXA scans that i received are the gold standard and they do not lie.cheers to anyone who has read through this whole thing. i may or may not update it in the future with more lab results as they filter in, depending on whether i forget about its existence or not.
me, more than just the numbers above, heh:
Good info Toshi, very interesting. I hate fish unfortunately but I'll investigate the fish oil capsules.
