Effects of Spirulina Supplementation on Anthropometric Measurements, Lipid Profile, Appetite, Liver Enzymes, Inflammatory and Glycemic Markers on Overweight or Obese Adults

A sample of 40 obese and overweight subjects will be recruited from Nutrition And Diet Therapy Clinic Of Shahid Beheshti Medical University.

This study is a double-blind Randomized Controlled Clinical Trial, that subjects will be randomly allocated to spirulina or placebo group according to the Random permuted blocks within strata method based on BMI. Subjects will consume 2 g spirulina daily (4 tablets of 500mg), whereas the control group are going to receive identical placebo tablets. Subjects are asked to maintain their usual physical activity level during the intervention period and also avoid taking any other supplements or medications without consulting the investigators. Intervention period is designed to be 12 weeks that has been determined sufficient to record changes of study parameters. At the beginning of the study and after 12 weeks of intervention, morning blood samples will be collected after 12 h of fasting. Anthropometric parameters will be also measured at the beginning, week 6 and after 12 weeks of intervention. Subjects will be followed through social network to ensure their compliance with the study. Furthermore, subjects in both spirulina and placebo groups received low calorie diet (-500 or -300 kcal) composed of 55% carbohydrate, 15% protein and 30% fat during the study period.