How Much Flax/Udos to Use...

How do I tell if I’m using the correct amount of EFA’s? Any suggestions for me? I’m 245lbs and a slow to med. metabolism. I do a 3-4 day split with weights.

Thanks

i was told 1 tablespoon for every 100lbs body weight.

It’s not as simple as saying X grams per day of EFA’s is ideal. There are so many factors to consider. What is your bodyfat %(approximate)? Are you trying to lose weight or gain? What is your total caloric intake? What types of fats do you consume now and what % of your diet comes from fat? Once you figure these things out, post them and Ill tell you how to figure out how much EFA’s you need. The shotgun approach to X amount per pound of bodyweight is not very useful. Sure it’s easy to say “take X tablespoons of flax per day” (and even easier to just do it without calculating the other stuff) but Im convinced that blanket recommendations like this do more to frustrate trainees than anything else. Another suggestion is to read the fat roundtable. It gives specific recommendations as to what % of the diet should be EFA and what sources to get the EFA’s from.

Weight: 190 lbs. Bodyfat 12%. Trying to gain weight. Probably 30 % or so of the diet is fat, almost 5000 calories a day, fats are anything on a see-food diet. Such as red meat, peanut butter, egg yolk, bacon, ice cream, whole milk. One salmon steak a week, and about 3 cans of nice tuna. Could you give the answer also in terms of Omega-6 grams, since I have these capsules from Health From the Sun that are a mix of flax and primrose oil. Thank you, Mr. Berardi.

According to the guru of EFA’s, Udo Eramus you are suppossed to take 1 tablespoon per 45 lbs of body weight.

In looking over your stuff, Red, it is clear that if you want to change your composition of fat to lean mass, you need to change your fat intakes…First, from the fats you are ingesting they are mostly saturated (red meats, egg yolks, ice cream, whole milk…even the peanut butter -unless it is natural pb). You might try eliminating whole milk in favor of skim, eating natural pb, dropping the ice cream in favor of frozen yogurt, and eating salmon or chicken with occasional red meat - perhaps one serving every other day. Then substitute fats from flax and fish for the fats youve eliminated. This will help you drop the cals a bit while also increasing the good fats. Omega 6 are the worst option you could choose (see fat roundtable article). If you are eating 5000cal and 30% is fat, then 1500cal is from fat (or about 180g or so). Perhaps youd want to go with 1tbsp Udo’s choice per 5 meals (that will give you 100g of fat with a good ratio of 3’s to 6’s). Then add some olive oil, peanut butter, and a marginal amount fish oil and beef to get your other 100 grams (a can of salmon has 20g). In the absence of other changes you should see good results…You cant just add good fats to your diet. You have to remove some and replace them with good fats.

And BTW, you could probably grow with less cals. I do about 4000/day and I fluctuate around 190 at about 4-6%. If I went 5000 with all that sat fat, Id probably see a steady fat gain. You may be younger than I am though.