Can Coconut Oil Help You Lose Weight?

Coconut oil is a natural fat burner. It may be an oil by nature, but it possesses a very different chemical structure as compared to other vegetable oils and animal fats. How different and how does that help you burn fat and lose weight? Find out now.

As a dietary fat, it's no surprise that people generally treat all oils as fattening. However, oils from palm family can help burn fat and lose weight instead. Coconut oil is one of them.

Much credit goes to the way the saturated fat in the tropical oil behaves.

While most vegetable and animal fats are almost chemically structured as long-chain fatty acids (LCFAs) which are difficult to break down by our body and be used as energy, coconut oil holds a significant amount (about 64%) of medium-chain fatty acids (MCFAs) that our body can readily convert to energy and step up its metabolism.

In other words, it doesn't work like other dietary oils as what people think it will. It works very similarly to carbohydrate except for the fact that during energy conversion, coconut oil doesn't trigger insulin release as opposed to carbohydrate since MCFA does not require insulin as a carrier. MCFAs can permeate the cell membranes and supply energy directly to cells.

On top of that, coconut oil makes you feel full easily so you won't think of eating more food which may cause over-eating and thus consume more calories than you need to. It's a natural appetite suppressant, more effective than slimming pills that are typically designed to help suppress appetite and lose weight.

In fact, all coconut products like coconut water, coconut cream (or coconut milk), coconut meat help promote weight loss. But the oil of coconut carries more concentrated medium-chain fatty acids which can help boost metabolism to a greater degree and longer duration. It can provide thermogenic effect (fat-burning) up to 24 hours.

That's why you hear more about the effectiveness of coconut oil on weight loss than its other products.

However, you have to consume to the point where it will step up your metabolism to help you burn fat and lose weight as a result. The recommended amount of coconut oil for weight loss is at least 3 tablespoons a day. Spread out the amount over the day. Make sure all your meals contain some amount of coconut oil.

However, there's one thing you need to know before you get started. Because coconut oil is a potent detoxifying food, it may cause nauseousness and diarrhea-like symptoms as it tries to expel toxins out of your body if you start taking 2-3 tablespoons in the beginning. So, start with just 1 tablespoon first and let your body get used to the effect of coconut oil for about 5-7 days before you increase the amount to 2 and then to 3 tablespoons.

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