SynthesisPloS one2015
Does Fish Oil Have an Anti-Obesity Effect in Overweight/Obese Adults? A Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials.
Synthesis in PloS one, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 36 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
36 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 82 citations in OpenAlex.
- Effects of Fish Oil Supplementation on Cardiometabolic Risk Factors in Overweight or Obese Children and Adolescents: A Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials.Frontiers in pediatrics · 2021Pooled it
- Improving Endothelium-Dependent Vasodilation with Dietary Intake of n-3 Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids-Enriched Chicken Meat: A Randomized Controlled Trial.Biomedicines · 2026Article
- Maternal docosahexaenoic acid and eicosapentaenoic acid supplementation: effects and mechanisms on lipid metabolism in the offspring.Frontiers in nutrition · 2026Review
- Article
- Interaction of genetics risk score and fatty acids quality indices on healthy and unhealthy obesity phenotype.BMC medical genomics · 2025Article
- The Anti-Obesity Effect of Fish Oil in Diet-Induced Obese Mice Occurs via Both Decreased Food Intake and the Induction of Heat Production Genes in Brown but Not White Adipose Tissue.International journal of molecular sciences · 2024Article
- Cold-pressed perilla seed oil: Investigating its protective influence on the gut-brain axis in mice with rotenone-induced Parkinson's disease.Food science & nutrition · 2024Article
- Review
- Review
- Enhanced Metabolic Effects of Fish Oil When Combined with Vitamin D in Diet-Induced Obese Male Mice.Biomolecules · 2024Article
- Fish - a scoping review for Nordic Nutrition Recommendations 2023.Food & nutrition research · 2024Article
- Effects of Fish Oil Supplementation on Reducing the Effects of Paternal Obesity and Preventing Fatty Liver in Offspring.Nutrients · 2023Article
- Role of Fish Oil in Preventing Paternal Obesity and Improving Offspring Skeletal Muscle Health.Biomedicines · 2023Article
- The effects of a low carbohydrate diet combined with partial meal replacement on obese individuals.Nutrition & metabolism · 2023Article
- Roles of the Unsaturated Fatty Acid Docosahexaenoic Acid in the Central Nervous System: Molecular and Cellular Insights.International journal of molecular sciences · 2022Review
- Selective Consumption of Fish Oil at End of the Day Increases the Physiological Fatty Acid Compositions of Eicosapentaenoic Acid and Docosahexaenoic Acid in Mice.Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- Sex Differences in Fish Oil and Olanzapine Effects on Gut Microbiota in Diet-Induced Obese Mice.Nutrients · 2022Article
- Aerobic Exercise Associated with Fish Oil Supplementation Decreases C-Reactive Protein and Interleukin-6 in Celiac Disease Patients.Journal of nutrition and metabolism · 2022Article
- Brown Adipose Tissue: New Challenges for Prevention of Childhood Obesity. A Narrative Review.Nutrients · 2021Review
- Polyphenols and ω-3 PUFAs: Beneficial Outcomes to Obesity and Its Related Metabolic Diseases.Frontiers in nutrition · 2021Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
contextAccumulating evidence has suggested favorable effects of fish oil on weight loss in animal experiments; however, findings remain inconsistent in humans. OBJECTS: The meta-analysis was performed to investigate the influence of fish oil on some parameters of body composition in overweight/obese adults.
designHuman randomized, placebo-controlled trials were identified by a systematic search of Embase, PubMed, the Cochrane Library, web of science and reference lists of related reviews and articles. The random-effects model was used to estimate the calculated results.
resultsIn total, 21 studies with 30 study arms were included in this analysis. Calculated results of the meta-analysis demonstrated that fish oil had no effect on reducing body weight (overall SMD = -0.07, 95% CI -0.21 to 0.07, P = 0.31) and BMI (overall SMD = -0.09, 95% CI -0.22 to 0.03, P = 0.14) whether alone or combined with life modification intervention in overweight/obese subjects. However, waist circumference was significantly reduced (SMD = -0.23, 95% CI -0.40 to -0.06, P = 0.008) in those with fish oil supplementation combined with life modification intervention. Waist hip ratio (WHR) was significantly reduced (overall SMD = -0.52 95% CI -0.76 to -0.27, P < 0.0005) in fish oil supplemented individuals with or without combination life modification intervention.
conclusionCurrent evidence cannot support an exact anti-obesity role of n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) in overweight/obese subjects. However, these subjects may benefit from reducing abdominal fat with fish oil supplementation especially when combined with life modification intervention. Further large-scale and long-term clinical trials are needed to gain definite conclusions.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.