any of you guys suppliment with MCT's or coconut oil?

taylor5877

Just been reading around, and may be a fat suppliment i'm interested in. I have a fairly low fat intake if I don't "supplement" (I use peanut butter) and I was thinking about adding 1-3 tablespoons of MCT oil/coconut oil to my daily diet.

Just curious about some testimonials. I've read some of the peer reviewed literature and everything sounds pretty legit with it.

Spartan_Maker

Yep: it's better than carb-loading, for obvious reasons. Coconut oil converts to ketones for an immediately available source of energy, and the body has no metabolic pathway to store it as body fat.

kaseysospacey

I use coconut oil for everything....from hair treatments to skin to diaper rashes for my kids to cooking.

hfgilbreath

I use coconut oil in all my cooking. It also can work to keep blood sugar stable to you don't have the sugar spikes when you do eat a little something sweet or if you have to go longer between meals..

hpsnickers1

(not a guy here). I love coconut oil. I use it to cook. I put it my coffee. I drench my veggies in it sometimes - usually with some herbs/spices. These fats get used as energy. It's also the type of fat found in pastured butter so coconut oil isn't the only option

I also use it as a moisturizer.

You can find it refined and unrefined. Unrefined smells like coconut and can give food a coconut flavor. Refined has no smell/taste and can withstand higher heat. Use it to cook your food in!! It's yummy!

KJoy7

I use coconut oil for everything!!! Great stuff!

WickedGarden

I try to eat 1 tablespoon of coconut oil before each meal. I wasn't losing weight for a while but since I started eating the coconut oil, the weight has started to melt off.

So far, so good!

texastango

Just been reading around, and may be a fat suppliment i'm interested in. I have a fairly low fat intake if I don't "supplement" (I use peanut butter) and I was thinking about adding 1-3 tablespoons of MCT oil/coconut oil to my daily diet.

Just curious about some testimonials. I've read some of the peer reviewed literature and everything sounds pretty legit with it.

If you are going to think about doing something like this you should ask a professional:

First things first:
=====================================================================================
Medium-chain Triglycerides (MCT) - There are medical reasons to use MCT in certain conditions -

MCTs contain fatty acids with 6 to 10 carbon atoms. They are quickly emptied from the stomach and rapidly absorbed and transported to mitochondria giving them a theoretical advantage over long-chain triglycerides as a readily available energy souce.

As the intensity of exercise increases, the body shifts its fuel usage from fat to carbohydrate. One of the "adaptations" that the body makes to endurance training is the increased ability to oxidize fat during moderate to high-intensity training. Atheletes have considered many stratagies to increase fat availability oxidation in an effort to spare glycogen and prolong performance - especially in ENDURANCE and ULTRA-endurance sports. The ingestion of supplemental MCT oil is one of them.

Studies on well-trained cyclists FAILED to demonstrate and enhanced performance. MCT DID NOT significantly alter fat oxidation during exercise and did NOT spare muscle glycogen. There seems to be NO ERGOGENIC benefit for endurance athletes.

MCT is cleverly advertised to bodybuilders as "the oil for the well-tuned human machine". However, there have been NO research studies of MCT use in strength athletes and NO PLAUSIBLE THEORY for how such a supplement would enhance performance.

While the data is still being accumulated on this subject there is a POTENTIAL PROBLEM:

MCT was studied in endurance runners (30 g MCT twice a day) and resulted (as suspected) in alteration of blood lipid levels. Total cholesterol, Low-density Lipoprotein (LDL), and triacylglycerol were all increased - Not a good thing. MCT supplementation can also result in mild to severe gastrointestinal stress and diarrhea.

COCONUT OIL: Is a saturated fat. Although there are some reports on improvement in memory, this has the same bad side as the saturated fat group. It raises LDL and in fact may lower HDL creating a double edged sword.

The Harvard School of Public Health (Harvard has done many leading studies on fat metabolism) - that the types of fat we ingest have more to do what our LDL/HDL numbers are than the cholesterol we consume in our diets. Coconut Oil is very heart unfriendly fat and I can not find any literature that responsiblely supports it's use in sports

Therefore, short answer is both of these items at the current time have NO EVIDENCE TO SUPPORT THIER USE in Endurance or Resistance training.

I can give you the articles/studies from the above studies sited. Much of this information comes from the recently released book
Sports Nutrition: A Manual for Professionals, 5th Edition - written by world leading RDs and SNs from the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics and is supported by Sports Nutritionists (that work with professional teams) that I work with.

PinkEnvyx

coconut oil 100% is the most used in my daily life then anything.

I cook with it,
It's my lotion,
conditioner on needed days
Sun tan oil
Scar and stretch mark cream

I love it! OBVIOUSLY

taylor5877

Just been reading around, and may be a fat suppliment i'm interested in. I have a fairly low fat intake if I don't "supplement" (I use peanut butter) and I was thinking about adding 1-3 tablespoons of MCT oil/coconut oil to my daily diet.

Just curious about some testimonials. I've read some of the peer reviewed literature and everything sounds pretty legit with it.

If you are going to think about doing something like this you should ask a professional:

First things first:
=====================================================================================
Medium-chain Triglycerides (MCT) - There are medical reasons to use MCT in certain conditions -

MCTs contain fatty acids with 6 to 10 carbon atoms. They are quickly emptied from the stomach and rapidly absorbed and transported to mitochondria giving them a theoretical advantage over long-chain triglycerides as a readily available energy souce.

As the intensity of exercise increases, the body shifts its fuel usage from fat to carbohydrate. One of the "adaptations" that the body makes to endurance training is the increased ability to oxidize fat during moderate to high-intensity training. Atheletes have considered many stratagies to increase fat availability oxidation in an effort to spare glycogen and prolong performance - especially in ENDURANCE and ULTRA-endurance sports. The ingestion of supplemental MCT oil is one of them.

Studies on well-trained cyclists FAILED to demonstrate and enhanced performance. MCT DID NOT significantly alter fat oxidation during exercise and did NOT spare muscle glycogen. There seems to be NO ERGOGENIC benefit for endurance athletes.

MCT is cleverly advertised to bodybuilders as "the oil for the well-tuned human machine". However, there have been NO research studies of MCT use in strength athletes and NO PLAUSIBLE THEORY for how such a supplement would enhance performance.

While the data is still being accumulated on this subject there is a POTENTIAL PROBLEM:

MCT was studied in endurance runners (30 g MCT twice a day) and resulted (as suspected) in alteration of blood lipid levels. Total cholesterol, Low-density Lipoprotein (LDL), and triacylglycerol were all increased - Not a good thing. MCT supplementation can also result in mild to severe gastrointestinal stress and diarrhea.

COCONUT OIL: Is a saturated fat. Although there are some reports on improvement in memory, this has the same bad side as the saturated fat group. It raises LDL and in fact may lower HDL creating a double edged sword.

The Harvard School of Public Health (Harvard has done many leading studies on fat metabolism) - that the types of fat we ingest have more to do what our LDL/HDL numbers are than the cholesterol we consume in our diets. Coconut Oil is very heart unfriendly fat and I can not find any literature that responsiblely supports it's use in sports

Therefore, short answer is both of these items at the current time have NO EVIDENCE TO SUPPORT THIER USE in Endurance or Resistance training.

I can give you the articles/studies from the above studies sited. Much of this information comes from the recently released book
Sports Nutrition: A Manual for Professionals, 5th Edition - written by world leading RDs and SNs from the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics and is supported by Sports Nutritionists (that work with professional teams) that I work with.

I'm less interested in increasing performance, and more interested in MCT's affect on body fat and lean mass. I am not an ultra- endurance athelete fwiw. I lift 5 days a week and run moderate pace for less than 20 minutes/day.

From a health perspective, MCT increase fat oxidation and energy expenditure as well as reduce food intake and beneficially alter body composition. Results indicate that MCT feeding is ineffective in improving exercise performance and future work should focus on the health benefits and applications of MCT.

Medium-chain triglycerides are advantageous in promoting weight loss although not beneficial to exercise performance. Int J Food Sci Nutr. 2010 Nov;61(7):653-79

High dietary intake of medium-chain fatty acids during pregnancy in rats prevents later-life obesity in their offspring.

Dong YM, Li Y, Ning H, Wang C, Liu JR, Sun CH.

J Nutr Biochem. 2011 Aug;22(8):791-7. Epub 2010 Dec 15.

Asia Pac J Clin Nutr. 2009;18(3):351-8.
A good response to oil with medium- and long-chain fatty acids in body fat and blood lipid profiles of male hypertriglyceridemic subjects.

CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that MCT oil can be incorporated into a weight loss program without fear of adversely affecting metabolic risk factors. Distinction should be made regarding chain length when it comes to discussing the effects of saturated fats on metabolic risk factors.

J Am Coll Nutr. 2008 Oct;27(5):547-52.
Medium chain triglyceride oil consumption as part of a weight loss diet does not lead to an adverse metabolic profile when compared to olive oil.

Collectively, our results suggest a link between moderate consumption of MCT and improved risk factors in moderately overweight humans in a low-cost, free-living setting

Effects of dietary medium-chain triglyceride on weight loss and insulin sensitivity in a group of moderately overweight free-living type 2 diabetic Chinese subjects.
Han JR, Deng B, Sun J, Chen CG, Corkey BE, Kirkland JL, Ma J, Guo W.
SourceDepartment of Medicine, Obesity Research Center, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, MA 02118, USA.

Significant decreases of body weight, the amount of body fat, subcutaneous and visceral fat were noted in the MLCT group as compared with those of the LCT group for 12 weeks (P<0.05). Furthermore, a significant decrease in serum total cholesterol was noted in the MLCT group as compared with that of the LCT group at 8 weeks (P<0.05). However, other serum parameters were not different between the MLCT and LCT groups. The results suggest that the daily intake of MLCT diet could result in a reduction in body weight and in accumulation of body fat, and, moreover, it could reduce serum total cholesterol.

Asia Pac J Clin Nutr. 2003;12(2):151-60.
Effect of dietary medium- and long-chain triacylglycerols (MLCT) on accumulation of body fat in healthy humans.


Nothing is ever cut and dry.

taylor5877

Here's the study/abstract I'd like to find:

Medium Chain Triglyceride Supplements Aids in Fat Loss and Lean Muscle Gain in Meatheads

We investigated the effect of medium chain triglyceride consumption in a population of meatheads. We studied groups of trained, strength training atheletes (male and female, n=infinity) from 20-40 years old with an average BMI of 27 and average body fat % of 12% for males and 20% for females. Subjects consumed a caloric restricted diet consisting of 40% carbohydrate, 30% protein, and 30% fat, with control groups eating 50g/day of their fat calories from a blend of olive oil, canola oil, and sunflower oil while MCT groups consumed a diet with 50g of MCT's/day. At the end of 6 months, weight, body fat %, lipid profile, HDL, LDL, VLDL, total cholesterol, and serum biochemistry was analyzed. While both groups lost weight and decreased body fat %, the MCT group had statistically signifcant decreases in body fat % vs. the control groups. There were no significant differences in lipid profiles, HDL, LDL, VLDL, total cholesterol, or serum biochemistry parameters. These results show that supplimentation with MCT's benefits strength training atheletes wanting to lower body fat %.

Science, 2013.

taylor5877

Please tell me at least one grad student reads my last post and at least acknowledges my subtle attempts at humor.

texastango

Please tell me at least one grad student reads my last post and at least acknowledges my subtle attempts at humor.

I read it and thought it was pretty funny....but someone is going to believe you...lol

And while I realize you were not interested in endurance...but muscle building that's was my point. No studies were done on resistance trainers because the idea was that in endurance atheletes develop an adaptation that allows them to utilize fat longer for endurance performance. Therefore if you feed them MCTs it makes sense that they might be able to utilize them for endurance before tapping into carbs and fatigue.

I would ask theoretically how will a resistance trainer get to that point of needing more fat/MCTs to tap into if they are not doing endurance training and they haven't developed the adaptation. On top of that it wasn't effective in the cases I pointed out.

xarge

Please tell me at least one grad student reads my last post and at least acknowledges my subtle attempts at humor.

Subtle? :laugh:

I want to purchase the full text :drinker:

TheVimFuego

We can bat around all the studies but I have been known to chug some.

Has it helped fat loss? Dunno.

Hasn't hindered it though.

Anyone that dismisses it just because it is a 'saturated fat' (and it is) is, frankly, a buffoon.

And anyone that links the saturated fat to cholesterol levels and then links THAT to heart risks is living in the dark ages nutritionally.

Good on dry skin too ...

taylor5877

And anyone that links the saturated fat to cholesterol levels and then links THAT to heart risks is living in the dark ages nutritionally.

Hush yo mouth boy. That's accepted dogma you're dissing.

I was just really tossing ideas around in my head. What most interested me were the studies on normal folks and results of body composition improvement.

Halleeon

Idk...but I use organic coconut oil in my hair and it is woooonderful. I have thick, curly hair that needs to retain moisture.