Updated October 2026: I wrote this in 2016, based on what I had read then. Later research is more mixed. A 2020 review of trials found that coconut oil did not change body weight, and that it raised LDL cholesterol compared with other vegetable oils. Coconut oil is still a natural, traditional cooking fat that we value — but like any fat, it is best used in moderation.
Many people say coconut oil helps you lose weight. Here is the case as I understood it in 2016, and what later research found.
We usually link eating oil with putting on weight. So why do many people say coconut oil helps with weight loss? Here is the case as I understood it in 2016.
An exception among oils
Coconut oil is an exception among cooking oils. Science has a famous exception too: water. Most liquids get denser as they cool, but water below 4°C expands and gets lighter — which is why ice floats, and why fish survive under frozen lakes.
In the same way, coconut oil is unlike other oils: most of its fat is saturated, and it is solid below about 24°C. Though we call it an oil, it behaves in many ways like a fat.
Common beliefs, and what I thought
In 2016, I argued that some common rules of thumb do not fit coconut oil:
- “Saturated fat is bad; coconut oil is saturated; so coconut oil is bad.” I believed the saturated fats in coconut oil were different. Research since then suggests they still raise LDL cholesterol.
- “Coconut oil contains cholesterol.” It does not: no plant oil contains cholesterol.
- “Avoid oil for better health; so avoid coconut oil.” The body needs some fat, and coconut oil is a natural, traditional source of it.
Shorter fat chains
Fats are made of chains of carbon atoms. Most cooking oils are made mainly of long chains of 18 carbons: olive oil is mostly oleic acid (C18), and sunflower oil mostly linoleic acid (C18).
Coconut oil is different. About half of it is lauric acid, a 12-carbon chain (C12), and about 15% is even shorter chains of 8 and 10 carbons (C8 and C10). These shortest chains, called medium-chain fats, are digested and used for energy faster than long chains. Lauric acid sits in between and behaves partly like a long-chain fat.
Many people, me included, find that food fried in coconut oil sits lighter in the stomach than food fried in sunflower oil.
| Oil | Main fat | Chain length |
|---|---|---|
| Coconut oil | Lauric acid (about half) | 12 carbons |
| Olive oil | Oleic acid | 18 carbons |
| Sunflower oil | Linoleic acid | 18 carbons |
Value what grows at home
Oddly, people in cold countries, where coconuts don’t grow, go out of their way to import coconut oil, while in the tropics, where coconuts are everywhere, we often undervalue it. As a Kannada saying goes, hittala gida maddalla, “ಹಿತ್ತಲ ಗಿಡ ಮದ್ದಲ್ಲ”: the plant in your own backyard is never thought of as medicine.