Dose Me, WillPowders, Dose Me!

How Much MCT Oil to Lose Weight?

MCT 101: the one where we show you our workings out on how much MCT oil you can consume for weight loss.  Short answers: 1) 12 - 20% of your daily weight management intake of food.  2)  Or, more recently, 10-15 ml.  3) Maybe even more, short term.  4) Even one dose, say 5ml, raises energy expenditure.  

Crikey, it already seems bamboozling!  Let WillPowders guide you through why those particular amounts are only a starting point for you and the unfolding science..  And we’ll throw in a discussion on avoiding ‘disaster pants’ because we want to spare your blushes, we love you that much!  

… even a single dose of MCT oil with a range from 5g to 48g, that’s one teaspoon to around 10 teaspoons, or just over 3 tablespoons (probably best split up over the day), can increase fat oxidation for energy and/or postprandial energy expenditure, which is a fancy pants way of saying the energy it takes to process the food itself is high.  But, if you do jump straight in at 48g then fancy pants could soon become disaster pants.  See below, in more ways than one!

However, you'll have already spotted it may require a little trial and error finding the right MCT oil dose for you, the science is still developing, and, even then, be prepared for it to change later.  But remember, some of the beauty of a C8 MCT Oil comes from the versatility to switch things up as need be.  If you suddenly find you’ve lapsed into a foul mood and you have come to recognise that as one of your signs that you need a quick re-fuel, then take an approximate swig from the bottle.  Better that than rummaging for a teaspoon and happening upon a garibaldi instead and shoving that in your mouth before you can say, sod it.  Remember, that MCT oil can be combined with other foods, for example in dressings, or you can whip up a MCT Hummus and have your engines purring with the energy provided in no time. 

You’ve overcome your fear of fats and are ready to have a daily food intake that is rich in good fats.  Even better, mind, rich in MCT fatty acids.  Congratulations - it’s no mean feat to ditch the low fat, high carb ‘Eatwell’ guidance that Public Health has missold us all, the one that had us running for the hills like a screaming banshee away from fat, unless it had come from an oily fish, and even then, it was one portion a week.  Sad face.    

To reassure you further regarding MCT oil as one of your good fat for fuel choices, who doesn’t love a joy list?

• Taking MCT oil or powder is more beneficial on a weight loss journey than olive oil
• Taking MCT oil does not create adverse effects on metabolic risk factors, in fact, it can take you out of metabolic syndrome (see the next four bullets)
• Taking MCT oil does not pose the same risk of creating adipose tissue as LCTs
• Taking MCT oil is likely to bring blood pressure to healthy levels through aiding weight loss
• Taking MCT oil can help reduce insulin resistance
• Taking MCT oil does not raise the risks posed by ‘bad’ cholesterol; it is as heart healthy as olive oil
• MCT oil could help support long term brain and heart health due to the above properties 
• We can be sure MCT is safe because it has undergone rigorous toxicology tests and come out with a very lovely clean whistle, 'The safety of human dietary consumption of MCTs, up to levels of 1g/kg, has been confirmed in several clinical trials'

 Know your body by quieting down and sensing it internally.  How’s it feeling in there?  Unfortunately, in our busy lives, we have to be conscious about making time to do this.  A few deep breaths and closing your eyes to cut out some visual stimulation at your work desk might help.  Just tell your colleagues you’re trying to remember something.  You are - how it feels to be in a body.  It’s easy to get separated.  Check in with how your GI tract is feeling as MCT oil can cause tummy upsets and bloating when you’re getting used to it.  Many don’t experience this.  Let your body adapt in your own time.  There’s no great rush - learning about managing your body quite rightly takes the magical mystery of a lifetime, not the time it takes to take a swig of MCT, as the body’s a rolling programme of delights.  Allow yourself the pleasure of slowly, slowly.  We won’t rush you here at WillPowders!  If your tummy begins to feel bloated or upset, dial it back again and build up slowly.  Sometimes smaller doses like a quarter teaspoon taken more frequently are better to begin with.  If you have the constitution of an ox, you’ll likely be good to go without further ado, but you do you! If your digestion is a little on the slow side, you might even appreciate some, um, lubricant!

Sorry, but we’re not sorry.  At WillPowders, as disruptors of the magic myths surrounding weight loss, we don’t hold with the ‘one (diet) and you’re done’ approach.   We respect you and we’re transparent with the truth.  Earlier, we suggested consuming 12 - 20% of your daily weight management intake of food as MCTs.   This was suggested in a study by Marie-Pierre St. Onge and Aubrey Borsage in 2008 as a dose that produced better results for weight loss compared with the control group who were given an olive oil rich diet.  In that study, the question was whether MCT oil had an adverse metabolic effect.   St. Onge had previously established that diets rich in MCT oil led to better weight loss for people on weight management programmes.  In both studies, the groups on the MCT rich diet lost more weight and it was speculated that this was for a range of reasons linked to MCT oil benefits such as:

• Increased satiation
• The body’s request for its next meal being delayed
• The subsequent meal being smaller
• The greater energy expenditure by the body processing the MCT oil

Now, at WillPowders we always endeavour to read the small print.  When it comes to the 2008 study, the discussion does reveal some real positives, benefits and reassurances about the consumption of MCT oil for weightloss.  But, even for us non-scientists, we have to say there are some pretty glaring caveats that may be glossed over in some circles (*coughs companies out of a quick buck).  St. Onge’s research states that what you consume in MCT needs to be a particular proportion of your daily food intake - just above 1/10th up to 1/5th, if you want MCT to help you lose weight (which here, we do - it’s our original starting point for finding the optimum dose).  Her subjects were overweight.  Some had metabolic syndrome.  The ones who took MCT oil no longer had metabolic syndrome at the end of the study.  The numbers of subjects was not sufficient to distinguish the finer grained effects of MCT oil on gender and race.  The subjects had to self-report whether they ate the study muffin (titter) and the self-reporting revealed the muffins were consumed on nine out of ten occasions. 

You know the score, eating in a different postcode means that calories don’t count, or eating standing up and washing any old food down with a diet cola is the exact thing we need to melt fat away!  All the while knowing it’s a sure and certain way to shag your wellness and not lose weight to boot.  So, we can’t treat St. Onge’s 2008 study as if the subjects didn’t spend 16 weeks on ‘calorific prescription’ which included, wait for it, the study muffin. (Have a tray of them washed and brought to my room immediately!).  The study muffins (!) were either cranberry or blueberry and contained 12g of MCT, if you were in the MCT group.  We weren’t able to find the rest of the recipe for study muffins (we know, it’s a loss to the world) so we can’t share the carbohydrate or calorie count.  But, because the study conducted was calorie restricted to 1500 kcals for women and 1800 kcals for men, this meant the doses of MCT were 18-24g a day respectively.    If you need a ready reckoner, you’re looking at 9 calories a teaspoon.  From there you can work out your proportions if you are counting calories. 

Additionally, those in the study also underwent a weekly group session for 16 weeks during which they were educated on areas such as stress management and healthy recipes as well as tours of the grocery store to support healthy choices.  Full list of the factors that were thought to be relevant to this study’s weight loss support is in Table 1 of their work.  

And this is the crunch.  Utterly brilliant that for weight loss, we can use MCT as a tool that will boost good fats and help us to feel satiated and up our energy expenditure  without having adverse effects on our metabolic health, but we have to remember that this group was also being counselled to make better food choices.  It’s a salutary reminder that the best researcher of the MCT oil dosage for you is you.  If you can eat a pain au chocolat and have no impulse to rinse and repeat an hour or two later, then MCT oil and moderate carbs might still lead to weight loss for you.  For others, a brioche bun might just be the old adage of one is too much and a hundred is not enough, in which case, since the body will always take the sugar first, particularly free sugars like those in cakes and chocolate bars, and you won’t be in ketosis, ketosis being partly why we rely on C8 MCT oil in the first place.   This is why MCT oil is an amazing fasting tool - when you hit that fasting wall and are about to crumble, the MCT oil gets you back on track very quickly.  Its presence in general as one of the fats in the profile of fats in your diet can aid weight loss, even without fasting.