Many people think coconut oil is heart healthy and effective at promoting weight loss, but the majority of research doesn’t support those claims, says Destini Moody, registered dietician and former head of performance nutrition for the NBA’s G League. The confusion is understandable, she adds, considering that coconut is a plant-based source of fat and the results of a number of outdated studies have been misinterpreted or overblown over the years.

Heart Health

The American Heart Association (AHA) recommends consuming no more than 5% to 6% of your daily calories from saturated fat, which equates to about 13 grams of saturated fat for someone who eats 2,000 calories per day.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, too much LDL cholesterol can increase one’s risk of heart disease and stroke, and a meta-analysis of clinical trials in the AHA’s journal Circulation reports that consumption of coconut oil may result in significantly higher LDL cholesterol than nontropical vegetable oils like canola or safflower oil.

A 2023 summary of peer-reviewed studies confirms that while coconut oil has fewer detrimental effects on total and LDL cholesterol compared to butter, it can be more damaging compared to unsaturated vegetable oils. Another 2021 meta-analysis concludes that coconut oil significantly raises both LDL and HDL blood cholesterol levels, adversely affecting cardiometabolic health. The benefits of increased HDL cholesterol appear to be outweighed by the drawbacks of increased LDL cholesterol.

Coconut oil is better for your heart than butter, but evidence shows that oils like olive, avocado and canola are considerably healthier than coconut oil.

Weight Gain

According to Moody, misinterpretation of research in recent years led to the widespread use of coconut oil as a weight loss aid, with some people eating it by the spoonful daily in attempts to reduce body fat. This confusion can be linked to limited research showing that MCTs have a fat-burning effect and that coconut oil is higher in MCTs than other plant-based oils, she explains.

However, these fat-burning studies use an isolated version of MCTs in large quantities that isn’t available in commercial coconut oil. “In other words, you would need to eat a lot of coconut oil to get the amount of MCTs needed for the weight loss [benefits] shown in those studies—so much, in fact, that the calories alone would likely cause weight gain,” says Moody.

The same problem exists with the brain studies mentioned above. MCTs can be more readily utilized for energy and are less likely to be stored as fat than LCTs, but all oils (including coconut oil) are high in calories, and eating too much of them can lead to weight gain.

More recent studies show no measurable differences in weight loss in participants consuming coconut oil.