My friend thinks he’s so smart. He told me that onions are the only food that can make you cry.
So I threw a coconut at his face.
Okay, okay, enough with the jokes.
Before we get into the different ways coconut oil can help you lose weight, I want to point out that simply adding coconut oil to your diet won’t make you lose weight, and could, in fact, make you gain weight by adding even more calories.
The key to making coconut oil work in your favor and help you lose weight is by replacing your regular cooking oil with coconut oil.
How Coconut Oil Helps With Weight Loss – What The Science Says
• Coconut Oil Has Fewer Calories per Gram Than Other Fats
To understand why coconut is so great for weight loss you first need to know a few things about oils and fats.
Most vegetable oils and animal fats are made up of LCTs (long-chained triglycerides).
Coconut oil, on the other hand, is made up of about 65% MCTs (medium-chain triglycerides).
MCT is absorbed quicker than LCT, which ends up in an increase in energy expenditure. Interestingly, MTCs also have fewer calories per gram than LCTs.
- 1 g of MCT = 8.3 calories
- 1 g of LCT = 9 calories
That’s why people often choose to replace their other oils with coconut oil.
• Increased Fat-Burning and Calorie Expenditure
These studies (1, 2) found that the MCTs in coconut oil increased fat-burning and calorie expenditure in women and obese men, which led to a decrease in fat storage.
Remember, in order to get the benefits from coconut oil you need to replace it for the same amount of calories from other fat sources, not just add coconut oil on top of what you’re already eating.
Researchers suggest that substituting MCTs for LCTs while keeping calories the same may help prevent long-term weight gain. (3)
• May Help Reduce Waist Size
Another study (4) showed that women who were given a daily supplement of coconut oil over the course of 12 weeks had an increase in HDL cholesterol (the good cholesterol) compared to a group who was given soybean oil, which had a decrease in HDL.
What’s even more surprising is that, while both groups showed a similar decrease in BMI, only the coconut oil group showed a decrease in their waist circumference.
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3 Ways to Use Coconut Oil for Weight Loss
1. Add Coconut Oil to Your Coffee Instead of Creamers
If you belong to the group of people who like adding a little bit of sweet and creamy taste to their coffee, try adding coconut oil.
Adding coconut oil instead of milk and creamers to your morning coffee is a great way of adding healthy fats to your diet and reduce your calories.
Plus, as mentioned before, the MCTs found in coconut oil have 8.3 grams of fat per gram as compared to 9 grams of fat per gram from other types of fat.
I don’t know about you, but that sounds like a pretty good deal to me.
Pro-tip: in order to get that creamy looking coffee you need to blend the coconut oil with the coffee in a blender. Simply stirring it will leave you with an oily oil that just sits on the surface of your coffee.
2. Use Coconut Oil Instead of Butter or Vegetable Oil
Replacing vegetable oil with coconut oil will help you reduce your calorie intake a bit and get the fat-burning benefits from coconut oil.
Coconut oil even withstands heat better than olive oil, so it can retain more of its nutrients when cooking at very high temperatures.
So feel free to sauté anything from kale to shrimp in coconut oil.
3. Make Kale Chips
Kale chips are a great low-carb snack that contains fiber, vitamins, and minerals.
It will provide you with more nutrients than regular potato chips and also help you keep your calorie intake low.
Here’s how to make them:
Ingredients
- 1 bag of green kale
- 1 tbsp of melted coconut oil
- Salt to taste
Instructions
- Preheat oven 225 degrees.
- Tear kale leaves into bite-sized pieces and discard the stems.
- In a large bowl, mix the kale leaves and coconut oil with your hands.
- Spread the kale leaves in a single layer on a baking sheet and sprinkle some salt.
- Bake for 15 minutes.
- Turn the kale leaves over and bake for 10 more minutes or until crispy.
I hope you loved this article on how to use coconut oil for weight loss!
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