# Omega 6 **URL:** \ **Category:** Nutrition Q&A \[Moderated\]\ **Created:** [February 20, 2022, 9:21am UTC](https://forum.barbellmedicine.com/t/omega-6/12089 "2022-02-20T09:21:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 2\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![jjw](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@jjw](https://forum.barbellmedicine.com/u/jjw)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2022, 9:21am UTC](https://forum.barbellmedicine.com/t/omega-6/12089/1 "2022-02-20T09:21:51Z")
When I look at this most sources say that the western diet has more than enough omega 6 in it. That is probably true but trying to be calorie restricted with lower fat in the diet has shown up on my calorie counter as not getting enough Omega 6 with my lower fat diet. My nutritionist had me on about 1800 calories a day and weight was dropping. I probably didn’t need to but when I got back to counting I went to about 1650 since a few years ago when I was about 40 pounds heavier that really worked. The nutritionist used something like a breathalyzer to see maintenance calories and that was consistent with my experience of eating 2000 to 2200 carbs usually maintained weight. Anyway, I thought I would experiment a little to get more omega 6. I found in only about a week hitting RDA omega 6 targets there were some benefits. I have had a eye stye problems and kind of a crust on my eyebrows when I wake up. My optometrist suggested fish oil and I had concentrated on omega 3. Now that I have omega 6 up my eyes are feeling normal when I wake up without the crust and hard pieces coming out when I rub my eyes in the morning. So I don’t think it was just the calorie counter being off. There has seemed to be benefit from it. On the other hand to keep the macros I have had to cut carbs some down to 100 to 130 grams a day to hit protein targets of about 150 to 160 g based on 1g per lb of lean body mass estimated by using the navy method for calculating BF%. There was some adjustment since I would go as high as 200 g of carbs some day with very little fat. I am using straight safflower oil in a protein shake or to make a salad dressing with apple cider vinegar. It isn’t Caesar dressing but it is edible. I also add about 15 g of walnuts a day which gets meets my omega 6 with the rest of the diet. I have thrown in some chia seeds on my days I don’t eat fish to make sure omega 3 is being hit daily rather than just on weekly average by eating fish 2 days a week. Should I be concerned with lowering carbs. I am thinking of just going back to 1800 to 1850 cals since that has worked to lower waist line in the past and would allow for more carbs. 50 y/o next month, 39.75 inch waist down from 49.25 in 2018, 222 lbs or so, 5’6" and male. Lifts seem to be progressing as I lose inches but have stalled a bit in the last couple of weeks. I really think the “stall” is underestimating my RPE leading me to put weight at RPE 9 or maybe 9.5 instead of RPE 8 has caught up with me so linear progression each week has finally caught up to too much RPE. I failed to do all reps on the top DL and Press sets in week 5 of PB2 and this week failed a 5 lb jump on DL in week 7. Also switching to the singles and a back off in week 6 is harder to judge RPE for me. I haven’t had problems with the higher rep lifts. So I think I am not being honest about RPE rather than it is results of a lower carb diet this week to bring omega 6 and omega 3 intake up. Well that and I wasn’t on 50 to 100 g less carbs a day when I failed to make the 5 lb jumps in week 5. ---
**Author:** ![Jordan\_Feigenbaum](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex001/user_avatar/forum.barbellmedicine.com/jordan_feigenbaum/32/1315_2.png) [@Jordan\_Feigenbaum](https://forum.barbellmedicine.com/u/Jordan_Feigenbaum)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2022, 4:51pm UTC](https://forum.barbellmedicine.com/t/omega-6/12089/2 "2022-02-21T16:51:48Z")
It is highly unlikely you were deficient in omega 6 and 10/10 would not recommend people micromanaging omega 6 or 3 levels, as neither seems to matter. I do not think there’s any risk to lowering carbohydrates, but lowering Calorie intake is more important than the amount of carbohydrates you eat.