Research

Hormonal

Supplementing with 20g/day of medium-chain triglycerides (MCTs) starting 5 days before a very low-calorie ketogenic diet (VLCKD) significantly enhances weight loss, fat mass reduction, and BMI class improvement compared to VLCKD alone.

If you are starting a strict ketogenic diet, consider taking 20g of MCT oil daily starting 5 days before you begin the diet. This may help you enter ketosis faster and lose more weight and fat than starting the diet without it. Ensure you are following a very low-calorie plan.

ModerateSupportsMEDIUM confidence
MCTs supplementation significantly decreased body weight, BMI, and waist circumference as compared to the control group, with a greater effect in the VLCKD + earlyMCTs group... A two-fold decrease in fat mass and an increase in muscle mass were observed in the VLCKD + earlyMCTs group as compared to the control group... participants presented a high likelihood of improvement of BMI classes (OR: 1.85, 95% CI 1.02–3.36)
Claudia Vetrani et al. · Journal of Translational Medicine · 2023

Why this rating

Retrospective analysis in a real-life setting with a large sample size (n=263) but lacking randomization and ketone body measurements.

Source

Supplementation with medium-chain fatty acids increases body weight loss during very low-calorie ketogenic diet: a retrospective analysis in a real-life setting

Claudia Vetrani et al. · Journal of Translational Medicine · 2023

DOI 10.1186/s12967-023-03880-7

cohort · n=263Cited 13×
Read the paper
DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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