Does anyone here use coconut oil to improve health/lose weight? I read that 3 tbsp of oil everyday will do wonders, as it's a different kind of oil.

weigh2much:

there is no such thing as "wonders" when talking weight loss. There is only sensible dieting & exercise. There are hundreds of quick weight loss schemes out there that MAY take off some pounds, but I promise you, unless you learn to eat healthier & find some sort of exercise that you enjoy, you will never lose the weight & keep it off.

PLEASE ....TRUST ME ON THIS. I know it's not what you wanted to hear, but it's the truth.

There are 352 calories in 3 tbsp of coconut oil. Given that weight loss pretty much always comes down to calories in vs. calories out, regardless of the plan (Studies of Atkins, South Beach, etc have all pretty much shown that the people who lose weight on those plans are reducing their calorie intake, resulting in the weight loss, though there are different health reasons and other reasons that people choose different plans), i would guess that coconut oil in that big of a quantity would seriously impair your losses.

There are about 3500 calories in one lb of fat. If you did nothing more than add the coconut oil into your diet, thats the equivalent of a full pound every 10 days! Seems like using that much coconut oil every day would be somewhat of a disaster for your waistline.

The websites that promote coconut oil for health benefits conveniently have a financial stake in the business. I've not found recommendations for it on any unbiased, medical website. Most still say to avoid it. There is very little truth to the claims, and the cons seem to outweigh the pros by a longshot.

Even Dr. Weil, who is widely known for promoting natural health care, doesn't recommend it.

It makes a very good base for soaps and creams, though

Hmmm...Interesting! I may have to stop using it, or finish it off and then not buy any more. Thanks!

you can use it externally if you don't want to waste it. I have heard it is a good moisturizer.

I don't know where you got your info from but I looked into this b/c I have hypothyroid I havent tryed it yet but here is an article I found and I think this guy isn't selling anything . http://raypeat.com/articles/articles/coconut-oil.shtml I have read this other places as well. and IMHO I don't think there is any harm in using it if you are substituting it for other oils and not just adding it ontop of your regular calorie intake.

Actually tropical oils like coconut and palm are tend to be higher in saturated fats, the bad kind that clogs up the arteries -- thus I wouldn't even want to substitute liquid vegetable oils with these kinds. For cooking, whenever possible and in moderation, I'd use olive & canola oils, which has more poly- and mono- unsaturated fats that can be beneficial (again, as long as one doesn't overdo it.)

I used coconut oil on a very regular basis and really love it! I am not going to go into all the arguments as I will get totally blasted, I'm sure, but there is nothing unhealthy about coconut oil! Saturated fat does not clog arteries. Hydrogenated oil does. I use 3 oils only...coconut oil, cold-pressed olive oil and butter! From my reading (and I've done it extensively) these are the 3 healthiest fats. I use them regularly and am still losing weight.

Oh, forgot to mention, read the book "Real Food: What to Eat and Why" as it will offer some insight on coconut oil and the other fats I mentioned. This woman doesn't sell coconut oil and has done a lot of research on healthy fats. It's an interesting read. There entire book book is very insightful, in my opinion.

just to clarify - i was not saying that coconut oil was unhealthy...just that eating 350 cals of it a day isn't going to help your weight loss efforts.

I would like to point out that the native Hawaiians ate coconuts and used coconut oil and palm oil a LOT, and many of them were very fat (which was considered beautiful in that culture), but these people didn't develop heart disease until they adopted the typical Western diet. Same with Eskimos of the far north, who mostly ate animal blubber. It's not the fats, it's something else... I don't know what, though.

I love coconut and coconut milk, but the calories are WAY over the top, so I have to limit my indulgence in Thai food, for example.

Jay

Avsfan2 I agree with you 100% .
Not all saturated fats are bad for you. dietary saturated fats in moderation won't cause high colesteol.

Hydrogenated oils clog arteries faster, but saturated fats DO clog them as well. The American Heart Association suggests strict limits on saturated fats. They used to recommend no more than 10% of your daily calories come from saturated fats, but they are currently revising them to lower it further to 7%. This includes saturated fats such as coconut oil.


As mentioned before, the cons outweigh the pros. There's no valid reason for adding it to the diet. I enjoy foods that contain coconut milk or cream as an ingredient, like JayEll mentioned, but would I buy a jar of coconut oil and intentionally put it in my body? Never. I'm 45 years old, I have a heart condition, and really am tired of doing bad things to my body. If I believed there was any benefit to it, I would take it. I believe it would do more harm than good.

Coconut oil and other tropical oils may not be equally as bad for you as beef fat, but what you are looking at is the lesser of two evils. And as Jerry Garcia once said - Choosing the lesser of two evils is still choosing evil