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Should I use MCT Oil?

MCT oil is cool stuff for a ketogenic diet. Your liver will convert it almost directly into ketones. This can give you an energy boost or more “keto clarity” – the enhanced mental state that accompanies deep ketosis. The extra ketones can also help get you into ketosis faster and potentially raise your tolerance for carbs. However, MCT oil does not directly help with weight loss. It’s more of an added bonus if you’re already in ketosis.

MCT oil can also cause…” the runs.” Take more than your body likes and you will spend a lot of time on the toilet. Starting a ketogenic diet can often mess with bowels anyway. Therefore, we do not recommend using MCT oil when starting Keto or Keto Chow, specifically. If you’ve been doing keto chow for a while then you can start incorporating MCT oil if you like. Most people can’t handle more than 40ml a day even after doing keto for years.

Versions prior to Keto Chow 1.9 had instructions to use MCT oil. You may still find traces of that on the blog and other locations.

Another issue with MCT oil is that it tends to cause problems with the lipid system (lipoproteins and triglycerides, etc.). This was actually one of the things that Chris tested in the 100 Days of Keto Chow experiment. When he introduced MCT oil, it lowered HDL (bad) and raised triglycerides (also bad). The full analysis of the experiment with graphs and data can be found here.