Spot the Difference Between MCT Oil and Coconut Oil

MCT 101: the one in which we debunk the myth that coconut oil does the same things as MCT oil.

In your quest to eat foods that maintain their close relationship with nature and improve how you fuel your body and brain, we’re here to help you understand why you might want to choose the refinement of MCT oil rather than coconut oil as part of your wellness odyssey.

It wasn't aeons ago that coconuts exploded into the lives of us folk from cold climes.  For a lot of us, coconuts were things encountered in the Bounty bars of childhood or glued together in Great Auntie Alice’s macaroons.  Or they were a hairy wooden novelty from the fair that needed a hammer and a chisel to crack.  Meanwhile, those familiar with a coconut’s hidden delights celebrated its existence, laughing quietly at the poor uninitiated folk.  Until the turn of the century, the coconut universe of wellness seemed a whole mirage away.  Water with electrolytes and sumptuous, sweet smelling oil that created fragrant cuisine or helped skin stay supple were things we would come to learn.  

And then there was a whisper that coconut oil helped with weight management.  Had we died and gone to Happy Weight Heaven?  Nope, we were barking up the wrong coconut palm tree.  Put simply, you need C8 MCT oil benefits to efficiently produce the ketones to fuel up and potentially slim down!  The latest published science, August 2024, a metaanalysis review of all the science available up to press on MCT oil compared with a diet rich in LMCTs, concluded that LMCTs simply don’t cut it for weight management in overweight and obesity.  BUT MCTs made the cut - they do support greater weight losses in those on weight management programmes.  

In the early 2000s, when Dr. Marie-Pierre St. Onge and her team studied weight loss in overweight men, they discovered that a diet rich in medium chain triglycerides (MCT) meant the men lost a pound more during the study than when the diet was rich in long chain triglycerides (LCT).  Other studies supported her findings and, in 2008, she showed that a diet rich in MCTs led to more weight loss than a diet rich in olive oil.  So began the conflation of ideas about MCT oil benefits and coconut oil.  Unfortunately, St. Onge’s research was hastily read in the perpetual search for a magic bullet to wellness and the truth of her findings became somewhat skewed in newspaper headlines.  The idea that consuming coconut oil resulted in weight loss was born.  That search for the Holy Grail of being a comfortable weight and eating sensuous, satisfying foods meant MCT oil was confused with coconut oil.  Off we all trotted to the supermarket with the words ‘cold-pressed’ and ‘virgin’ on our lips and lists. 

The misunderstanding prevails.  It can feel confusing to understand the difference between the two bounties that coconuts afford us - MCT oil and coconut oil.  Once you know, you’ll have the pleasure of rolling your eyes at ‘wellbeing’ bloggers peddling misinformation based on perpetuating urban myths about coconut oil.  Step away, raise an eyebrow at their ignorance, quietly unsubscribe.  At WillPowders, we do the homework, actually read the scholarly research (not just the conclusions at the end) and you reap the A grade in Acing Wellness.  You’re very welcome!

Now let’s add in another spanner in the works for generic coconut oil: only a certain number of the MCTs in coconut oil are associated with weight control and brain energy.  C8 MCT oil is the real elite performer for ketones that will fuel the brain but it accounts for only 6-8% of the fats in coconut oil.  If you’re trying to sub coconut oil for MCT C8 oil then, it’s a little like looking for a needle in a haystack.  

Take the stage, C8.  We created WillPowders C8 MCT Oil so that the benefits of a diet rich in C8 MCT can be yours.  And, to make adding MCT oils to your diet even easier, we also created MCT Keto Creamer which uses MCT powder and grass fed butter to make a WillPowders Coffee.  When you ask, does MCT break a fast, we can safely say that one of our travel sachets or a teaspoon of the Keto Creamer won’t so it could be plain sailing until your eating window.  These two powerhouses give you the versatility you need to eat a diet rich in MCT oil because you can cream hot drinks and cook up dishes at mealtimes too.  In this way, you can create MCT foods for weightloss - MCT Pesto, for lunch, anyone?  Many just quaff the MCT oil neat from a spoon when they need a quick brain energy boost when they feel ‘hanger’ kicking in!  

Sourced from premium Indonesian coconuts, our MCT oils have been isolated from the mother source via a hexane free process to provide you with the creme dela creme of MCT. Unlike other, cheaper C8 MCT oils which have been chemically processed, our MCT oil is an example of a refined food having more potential health benefits than the less refined source. Whereas we would be wise to spurn sugar in refined form (and maybe cane sugar in any form in favour of a good fat), there’s always an exception to the rule and MCT oil is one example of this as the benefits amplify once they are isolated from the more generic coconut oil.  In this way, you can dispense with the LCTs, should you choose, and cut straight to the good stuff. 

Of course, the caveat is that if we are consuming MCT oil, we aren’t going to feed the brain or body huge amounts of glucose anymore because we are now aware what huge and endless amounts of sugars in our blood torrent means for our health - they’re the red carpet welcoming Type 2 diabetes into our lives and all its horrifying attendant comorbidities, including, ironically, making the brain unable to use glucose as we age.  The brain will always prioritise its energy needs over your body’s energy needs and, under stress, its search for glucose will release chemicals that make you feel low in mood, shaky and hungry.  Even if there is plenty of blood sugar in your bloodstream, you’ll reach for a carb to stop the circus.  The brain thinks longer term, believing the stress will make it burn through current supply quickly and there’ll be a shortage down the line.  Even if you eat the croissant in an attempt to solve the problem, the brain will pump out a chemical to suppress insulin’s ability to deal with the excess blood sugar.  If you understand how quickly C8 MCT oil works as a fuel, you don’t have to panic in terms of making the shaky feelings go away. It’s a spoonful of MCT that makes the hanger go down!

There is no shortage of evidence based on what MCT oil is good for when it comes to our health.  The reading lists are endless but you could begin to dip in here to make sure that what we say is true.  A whistle stop tour includes:

• MCT oil can up-regulate energy expenditure so if you’re wondering how to use MCT for weight loss, this may be one of the tricks up its sleeve
• MCT may increase satiety more than LCT consumption does and this means you won’t feel the need to eat constantly (which carbs will make you do)
• MCT oil has been shown to be a tool in the prevention of obesity through the play between energy expenditure and feelings of satiety which decrease food intake and body fat
• While having good fats in the diet is preferable to high sugars and carbohydrates, MCT oil, rather than LCT fats, demonstrates better reductions in body weight
• Even a single dose of MCT oil with a range from 5g to 48g can increase fat oxidation and/or postprandial energy expenditure which is a fancy pants way of saying the energy it takes to process the food itself from chew to poo
• MCT oil may lead to a greater suppression of appetite if you are on a fat rich diet than LCTs (sorry about that, coconut oil!)
• When MCT is present in a meal, it delays the body’s request for the next meal and that the next meal is likely to be smaller
• MCT and its subsequent speedy processing in the liver might change the way the satiety hormones, such as cholecystokinin and gastric inhibitory polypeptide express themselves and aid those feelings of being satiated with food