While it may sound counterproductive to eat fat to lose fat, coconut oil is an exceedingly healthy exception.
By now, you probably know at least one person who can’t live without having a jar of the stuff in the kitchen at all times, and there’s a very good reason for that. I don’t ever let myself run out of this tropical treasure!
For years, many people were under the impression that all fats were bad, but scientific research has revealed that simply isn’t true. All you need to do is take a look at the rather shocking statistics related to the skyrocketing epidemic of obesity in the U.S., and many other places throughout the world, to see that those astounding numbers began increasing just about the same time fat-free diets became popular.
The big difference between healthy and unhealthy fats
While some people still think the best way to lose fat is to avoid fatty foods, in reality, eating the right kind of fat will actually help melt that fat away. I am not talking about going to the McDonald’s drive-thru and ordering a couple of Big Macs and fries, of course. There’s a big difference between that and healthy fats found in unrefined, organic coconut oil.
So yes, that friend, coworker, neighbor or family member you know who is always touting the benefits of coconut oil is right: everyone should have a jar of organic coconut oil in their kitchen. While it offers a wide range of uses and benefits, one of the very best is to help eliminate stubborn body fat. Some health experts believe about 20 percent of our ability to lose excess fat is related to how much you exercise and other lifestyle factors, while about 80 percent of the is determined by what we eat. Eating more coconut oil and less junk or unhealthy foods can be the difference you need to achieve the body changes you desire.
Coconut oil is filled with MCTs or medium chain triglycerides. MCTs are burned as energy, instead of being turned into extra flab. Extra virgin, organic coconut oil is rich in lauric acid and caprylic acid, compounds that are well-known to be utilized for quick energy. They’re also great for boosting the immune system to prevent you from becoming ill – when you aren’t sick, you’ll naturally be more active too. The more active you are, the more calories you’ll bun and the less flab you’ll have.
The research behind coconut oil tells the truth
Countless research has been conducted on the benefits of coconut oil and its ability to help one lose fat. Research in 2009, published in the British Journal of Nutrition showed that a diet rich in monounsaturated fats was able to help people lose belly fat – even without a reduction in calorie consumption. Other research, also conducted in 2009 and published in the journal Lipids, tested the effects of consuming either two tablespoons of soybean oil or two tablespoons of coconut oil on women over a month. At the end of the period, the experts discovered that the women who took the coconut oil experienced a reduction in belly fat. Those who consumed soybean oil had an increase in belly fat. In addition to belly fat loss, the coconut oil consumers experienced a rise in HDL (the “good” cholesterol), while those who ate soybean oil saw an increase in LDL (or “bad” cholesterol) and a decrease in HDL cholesterol.
Research from Brazil looked at the weight loss connection between women who regularly ate coconut oil and discovered that it reduced abdominal obesity. A 1985 study, published in the Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health demonstrated that just a single injection of capric acid (an essential component in coconut oil) resulted in “initially rapid, then a gradual decrease in food consumption and a parallel loss of body weight” in male rats. The experts discovered the reason behind this too. The capric acid provided a dramatic improvement in thyroid functioning, lowering the resting heart rate and aiding the body in burning fat for energy.
Have you ever visited the South Pacific? If you have, you probably noticed that people there tend to eat lots of coconuts, and coconut oil, but the majority tend to be trim and healthy. This is further proof that even though coconut oil contains fat, it’s the unhealthy polyunsaturated fats that aren’t found in nature that lead to an increase in fat, and those stubborn pounds. Things like cookies, packaged cakes, pastries and the like. Those processed foods are what are truly linked to not only our skyrocketing obesity problem but all sorts of other ailments.
Healthy fats like coconut oil reduce in-between meal hunger pangs
There’s another reason that eating foods that contain healthy fats like coconut oil can help you lose fat. They help keep you feeling full and satisfied longer as compared to other foods. It helps to curb those in-between meal hunger pangs and cravings for foods that aren’t so healthy, which allow you to naturally lose weight because you’re consuming fewer calories.
An important caveat to keep in mind
One thing that you should always keep in mind is that if you take in too many calories without burning them off, you’re not going to lose weight. That means that if you’re consuming a certain amount of calories and add coconut oil on top of what you’re already eating, you’re probably going to gain and not lose weight. Most people probably aren’t counting calories and only budgeting a certain amount of calories/food per day, so in those cases, adding coconut oil to your diet is likely to help reduce your appetite so that you’ll take in fewer calories overall.
What this means is that it’s NOT about adding fat calories to your current diet, but replacing other, less-healthy cooking fats like vegetable oil with coconut oil. You could also switch out things like processed creamer for coconut oil in your coffee. Coconut oil can tolerate high temperatures without being damaged, and it can add a tasty tropical flavor to dishes like vegetable stir-fry, eggs or fried fish.
-Susan Patterson