Does Virgin Coconut Oil Help You Lose Weight?

Recently someone challenged me saying that virgin coconut oil actually does not help lose weight. She further said that it has been well documented that MCT oil does, but not virgin coconut oil.

So, does virgin coconut oil help you lose weight?

Several past studies used MCT oil to test for its effect on weight loss. Virgin coconut oil wasn’t that popular because it only contains about 60% MCTs. And it would be costly to extract MCTs from virgin coconut oil just to do the experiments.

MCTs (medium-chain triglycerides), due to their relatively smaller size, can permeate cells without the need for insulin. Insulin does not only transport glucose into cells, they carry fats (mostly long-chain triglycerides) too.

Because of the ease of penetration into cells, MCTs are able to provide quick energy for the cells. This perks up thousands and thousands of cells and raise their metabolism.

A boost in overall metabolism tends to stimulate the conversion of white fats into brown fats. Brown fats then burn off as heat.

Which is why body fat burns when metabolism increases.

Now, as mentioned earlier, virgin coconut oil contains about 60% MCTs. In theory, since it has such good amount of MCTs, it should help step up metabolism and stimulate fat-burning, right?

Yes, it does.

I’ve been eating tons of virgin coconut oil since 10+ years ago. I’m slim. The fact that it doesn’t turn me into an obese shows that virgin coconut oil at least doesn’t cause weight gain. Other vegetable oils do and easily make you fat.

On top of that, I’ve had people leaving comments on my blog sharing how virgin coconut oil (not MCT oil) has helped them lose weight. That’s evident enough.

Another weight loss benefit of virgin coconut oil is that it can help relieve constipation pretty well. Stools that get stuck in your colon can make you heavier and lower the efficiency of fat-burning.

MCT Oil or Virgin Coconut Oil for Weight Loss?

To conclude, virgin coconut oil does help you lose weight. Of course, if you want relatively faster weight loss, choose MCT oil.

MCT oil carries solely MCTs, unlike virgin coconut oil that only has 60% MCTs. Because of that, you can take MCT oil for constipation too.

However, I prefer virgin coconut oil to MCT oil for a couple of reasons.

Other than effecting weight loss, virgin coconut oil has other health benefits. Thanks to its various other contents (such as lauric, palmitic, capric, caprylic, caproic acids etc) that help strengthen your immunity.

MCT oil only has essentially two medium-chain compounds – caprylic and capric acids. Some brands are starting to add lauric acid in their MCT oil to raise its health value though. But the amount of lauric acid is relatively lesser.

So, health benefits wise, virgin coconut oil is better.

Another reason, virgin coconut oil is simply more palatable to be consumed for weight loss. You can cook your food with it too and your food will emit some delightful coconut fragrance.

MCT oil tastes bland and may give off some pungent smell during cooking which I don’t quite like.

Well, either one can also help you lose weight. The choice is yours.