Will MCT Oil REALLY Help You Lose Weight & Reach KETOSIS Faster? 🥥

Hello Health Champions. You've probably heard that  ketones are great when you're on keto and how it's  

the best thing since sliced bread for helping  you boost ketones and burn fat, but how does it  

do that? When you understand completely what MCT  oil is and what it does then you will also know  

why and when to use it then you can reach your  goals not waste money and get healthy all at the  

same time. Coming right up. Hey I'm Dr. Ekberg I'm  a holistic doctor and a former Olympic decathlete  

and if you want to truly master health by  understanding how the body really works  

make sure you subscribe hit that bell and  turn on all the notifications so you never  

miss a life-saving video. MCT stands for medium  chain triglycerides and here's what that is.  

The medium means it's sort of average not too long  not too short. Chain refers to a chain of carbons  

in sequence and triglyceride just means that  there's three of these chains three fatty acids  

linked up to a glycerol backbone. And this is  how virtually all the fat in your body as well  

as all the fat that you consume that's how it's  configured. That's just the way fat is packaged  

in nature and medium length usually refers to  six to twelve carbons in length so this would  

be six this would be eight this would be ten  and if there's six of these if there's three  

of six carbon chains linked up then they're called  Caproic acid eight carbons is called Caprylic  

and ten is called Capric and these are the main  ones that we're concerned with in this talk.  

A lot of people also will include Lauric acid  which is when there's 12 carbons but we're going  

to talk about even though that's often included  in the definition from medium chain triglyceride  

that is not what we're looking for because that  has some different properties that keeps it from  

giving us what we need when we're using MCT also  we'll come back to that in some detail. Why are  

we talking about MCT oil at all well let's back up  just a little bit most people want to lose weight  

they want to lose fat and they have too much  fat because they have an imbalance between fat  

storing and fat burning and the reason they have  that is that they have too much insulin. Insulin  

is a fat storing hormone and when we eat in such  a way that we have high insulin levels we cannot  

burn fat at the same time. And you probably  know by now that carbohydrates is the thing  

that raises insulin the most but they do one more  thing. They create dependence and a lot of people  

will say that carbs are the preferred fuel because  they're burned first and that's not really how it  

works because carbs raise blood sugar and blood  sugar is dangerous the body has to deal with it  

first and when we burn through the carbs but  then we fill up more carbs before we're ever  

getting to the fat then we just keep burning more  and more carbs we become carbohydrate dependent.  

We shape our metabolism we up regulate all the  pathways related to carbs and we down regulate  

all the pathways related to fat burning So in a  sense the body forgets about how to burn fat. So  

now you hear about this great idea to become fat  adapted to go keto and low carb so you cut out all  

the carbs and your body thinks it just got  robbed of all the fuels. So it only knew  

how to use carbohydrates for energy and you  just took them all away so there is no fuel  

and you have no energy you get fatigue you get  brain fog you get nausea all of these things that  

collectively we call keto flu and your body is  slowly adapting it is looking for another fuel but  

it takes time to develop ketones to get into fat  burning and make ketones for your brain so in the  

meantime you just feel terrible let's talk about  the different ways to get ketones into your system  

and the first one is to go low carb go keto and  or to fast so when you're fasting you're obviously  

very low carb because you're not eating anything  at all the problem like we said is that it's slow  

the second way is to buy exogenous ketones  you can buy these in powder form or in pill  

and they work fantastically well they're the  fastest way because as soon as you eat them  

your body absorbs them they're in your bloodstream  and you have ketone the problem though is that  

they're kind of expensive and the next thing is  that they don't teach your body to make ketones  

because you're just putting them in the way  they are in their finished form so there is no  

incentive for your body to make its own so  you never really up regulate that function  

in your body the third way is to take MCT  oil medium chain triglycerides and they are  

almost as fast as taking the exogenous  ketones but better they are cheap and they  

still give your body an incentive because your  body still has to convert the MCT into ketones  

so you will up regulate that function you  will assist your body in that function.  

What are the benefits of MCT? The first one  is going to be improved brain function because  

your brain needs energy and if you're insulin  resistant or if your glucose drops now your brain  

is starving and ketone is a fantastic alternative  fuel so boost the ketones and you boost your brain  

energy. You also boost the overall energy of  the body and because you do this without adding  

any carbs or insulin you also lower your blood  sugar and you feel less hunger it also can help  

with replenishing energy so you reduce lactic  acid after exercise so you can recover faster it  

improves cardiovascular function because the two  organs that most readily use ketones for fuel  

are brain and heart. It also has some  anti-microbial properties anti-fungal properties  

but this is primarily the Lauric acid and  that doesn't convert to energy as well but  

I just want to show you that there are different  benefits to different components and most of all  

what we're going to talk about is MCT makes an  easier transition into a state of ketosis. There  

are three very interesting mechanisms that  are unique to medium chain triglycerides.  

So when you first eat something it gets into your  gut into your digestive tract and if what you eat  

is a long chain triglyceride a regular fat then  it doesn't get into the bloodstream right away it  

gets into the lymph system first and this is where  a lot of your immune system lives so the immune  

system gets to sample the food first to check  that it's safe you have these white blood cells  

that make sure everything's okay before it passes  it into the blood but MCT's are much much smaller  

MCT's and glucose are very very simple  molecules and because of that they're deemed  

safe by the body and they're allowed to bypass the  lymph system and they get absorbed directly into  

the bloodstream. From there it goes via the blood  into the liver because the liver gets first crack  

at everything it gets repackaged sent out into  circulation so that we can make energy from  

this now what this means is that MCT's are  about as fast as carbohydrates as glucose.  

You can make energy within minutes whereas  the regular fat the long chain triglycerides  

are going to be delayed by several hours. Two to  three to four hours depending on what else you  

ate. And here's a very critical distinction  even though MCT's are sometimes including  

carbon chains up to 12 this bypass only works for  chains there are 10 carbons or less so the one  

that we mentioned before the Lauric acid which has  12 carbons it's good for certain things but it is  

too large to bypass the lymph and therefore the  lauric acid is not good for making energy quickly  

and therefore we want products that don't have  lauric acid in it for that purpose. The second  

mechanism is similar but now we're talking on the  cellular level this is where we have mitochondria  

they're inside the cells they look sort of like  this and they make almost all of your energy so  

it's not that you eat food that gives you energy  it doesn't become energy until the glucose or the  

fat makes it into the mitochondria if you eat  a long chain triglyceride a regular dietary fat  

then it can't get in to the mitochondria without  jumping on a bus and that bus is called the  

carnitine shuttle carnitine is a substance  that's necessary to guide the long chains  

into the mitochondria. However the medium chain  again they're tiny they're smaller particles and  

they're allowed they can pass straight past that  mitochondrial membrane. Because there is no need  

for carnitine now we can produce energy even  faster. But there is more to the story because  

the carnitine is made up from nutrients you need  protein you need amino acids you need certain  

other nutrients like vitamin c and if these  are in short supply you may not be able to make  

enough of the carnitine so now that whole system  becomes a bottleneck so it's not just about  

speed but if you don't have enough then you may  not be able to get it in at all at that time. The  

third mechanism has to do with how MCT's on the  one hand looks like they're both fat and a carb  

and on the other hand they're neither. So MCT's  are very quickly absorbed they turn into energy  

in minutes just like a carbohydrate but they have  no impact on blood sugar except maybe lower it a  

little bit and they require no insulin. On  the other hand triglycerides are certainly  

a fat but while other fats will stimulate the  gallbladder to release bile for emulsifying fats  

the MCT's are already so fluid that there is  no need for bile and the benefit of this then  

is that even if you don't have a gallbladder even  if you have really poor digestion or in some cases  

where you have a full-blown malabsorption  situation where you can hardly absorb anything,  

MCT's are a way of getting energy into the person  without having to just pump them full of sugar  

or carbs. How do coconut oil and MCT compare then  because MCT's are made from coconut oil and very  

often we hear that coconut oil is mostly MCT's.  Well it's yes and no what you're looking for  

is called Caprylic acid with 8 carbons. Capric  acid with 10 carbons these are the short ones that  

will bypass the digestive processes and become  energy very quickly and coconut oil has about  

eight percent of one and about seven percent of  the other so all in all there's about 15 percent  

of these good MCT's in there these quick MCT's but  most of the fat in coconut oil is the lauric acid  

which again it's not a bad food but it doesn't  serve the purposes of quick energy there's a full  

45 percent and this is why you often hear that  coconut oil has 60% MCT's but it depends on your  

definition if you're really looking for the quick  stuff then the lauric acid doesn't cut it and  

coconut oil only has 15 percent of the stuff we're  really looking for. Then there's some other fats  

which are either shorter or longer than 8 or 12  that make up the balance. Now MCT oil is made from  

coconut oil so the ratios between the proportions  are going to stay about the same but they extract  

only these two basically so a good quality MCT oil  is typically going to have 55% Caprylic and 44%  

Capric sometimes they extract only one or  the other so that they have a hundred percent  

of either but there's really no point in  doing that just from an energy standpoint  

and then because they can't clean out the  Lauric entirely there's usually going to be  

a few percent a good quality will have less than  one percent but it's not critical if it has one  

or two or three it doesn't really matter. But you  want to avoid poor quality oils when they don't  

extract all that much so a lesser quality might  have 43%, 27% but a full 30% of the Lauric acid so  

MCT's are cheap enough today that the one that I  use I found at Costco which is super super cheap  

these days and it had these ratios so there's no  reason really to buy anything that's of a lesser  

quality so the one that I used gets 99 of these  quick ones whereas the lesser brand might get only  

70. so again just make sure you get in the high  90% range so you get value for your money. Now  

for the million dollar question. Should you take  it? And you're wondering what am I talking about  

you've mentioned all these benefits well on the  one hand we just say go for it but then on another  

side of this we might say hey not so fast. Do we  really need this? So we want to think of this as  

a tool as a hack not necessarily as food it will  definitely allow for a smoother fat adaptation  

so if you're just getting into keto if you've been  eating a bunch of carbs and now you're trying this  

low carb lifestyle before you're adapted it can be  uncomfortable and this can make it much much more  

comfortable and also if during the holidays you  slipped up and you had more carbs than you thought  

you should then you might be out of keto and  this is a great way to help you back into keto.  

For some people they might be in keto but  they never get any decent levels of ketosis  

they might read 0.2 - 0.3 and they just want some  better numbers and they notice that they do feel  

different they feel better when they have some  higher numbers then you can use a little bit just  

to boost the levels because they'll definitely do  that. Another way to use it is to prolong fasting  

that if you want to do one meal a day you want to  do intermittent fasting something like that then  

it will give you that extra energy and allow you  to go a few more hours. Now if you're fat adapted  

then the MCT's really don't have an advantage  over a normal fat like butter or coconut oil  

because it's not the speed of the energy that  you're looking for. And like we mentioned the  

people with malabsorption if they have trouble  absorbing anything quickly except sugar then this  

is a way for them to get more energy. What about  the not so fast portion? Well here's what I really  

want to help us understand that this is not food  your primary purpose with staying healthy with  

developing a diet should be to feed the body  things that you eat should have minerals and  

vitamins and essential fatty acids and essential  amino acids they should feed your body they should  

provide building blocks things that you can use  for energy and rebuilding and metabolic processes  

all right. The MCT's don't have any of that  except fuel so in that sense it's like a sugar  

that it's empty calories of course it doesn't  trigger insulin so it's not nearly as bad as  

sugar but we don't want to think of it as a food.  Also there's not really a need to take MCT oils  

if you're already fat adapted if your body knows  how to burn fat if it knows how to make ketones  

then you don't need a tool or a hack because your  body is already doing it. We want to understand  

the purpose of keto is to lower the carbs until  your body learns to burn fat and then the fat you  

want to burn is off the body you're not burning  more fat because you're adding fat in the diet  

you want to keep the fat moderate right so in keto  we go low carb moderate protein and enough fat to  

fill you up it's not that more fat burns more fat  okay you want to burn the fat off the body so if  

you take too much MCT's then you're just going to  burn that instead of the fat of the body. And also  

even though the MCT's bypass all these digestive  mechanisms it still has a tendency to cause some  

stomach upset or maybe even diarrhea in people  when you're not used to it so what you want to do  

is you start very low you start with a half a  teaspoon or one teaspoon and make sure your body  

gets used to it and then you can work your way  up but unless you have a malabsorption situation  

I don't see a reason to use a whole lot okay it's  just a little bit to push you over the edge to act  

sort of like a catalyst to get some ketones going.  If you enjoy this video that one right there will  

give you a lot of good information thank you  so much for watching. I'll see you next time.