Here's the skinny, after a thorough google search, I was also unable to find any real informative non-biased articles on the health benefits of coconut oil....so it's probably a case for some good old fashioned common sense.
As we all know, there are four basic types of fat: saturated, trans fats, and unsaturated fats (mono and poly). Saturated fats are usually linked to raising "bad" cholesterol, but not ALL of them. There are three fatty acids in particular that raise cholesterol: Lauric, Myrisic, and Palmitic fatty acids...COCONUT OIL CONTAINS A LARGE QUANTITY of these fatty acids.
Yes, it may be that coconut oil has health benefits (antiviral agents, thyroid disease) -HOWEVER, there is no evidence that these health benefits include weight loss. Call a spade a spade, saturated fat is saturated fat. It raises bad cholesterol and elevated bad cholesterol causes Heart Disease.
As far as the health benefits of the poly and monounsaturated fats, there's no real proof that there is any, just evidence. Some believe that the use of these fats in place of saturated fats may only increase "good" cholesterol because of the reduction in saturated fats.
I found a couple non biased articles, a few people were curious:
http://www.nutritionaustralia.org/Fo...s_oils_faq.asp
and
http://www.healthcastle.com/goodfats-badfats.shtml
not sure of the second one, but the first one is a non profit web site in australia, so it's legit.