Myth-buster

Coconut oil supplements added 0.04 kg to body weight in a meta-analysis — a rise so tiny it's clinically meaningless.

This systematic review of 15 trials is the first to formally pool data on coconut oil and weight, and it directly contradicts the popular belief that it helps you shed pounds. But because the effect was statistically significant yet trivially small, the real takeaway is that coconut oil likely does nothing meaningful for weight — either for better or worse — and the body of evidence on this specific question is still thin.

Researchers combined 15 clinical trials totaling 620 people and found that taking coconut oil led to a statistically significant increase in body weight of 0.04 kg (about 0.09 pounds) and a tiny uptick in BMI. These changes are far below what anyone would notice on a scale or in their health, and the same study found no effect on waist circumference at all. So while the numbers show a real effect in the statistical sense, it's not big enough to matter for anyone's actual weight.

Where this fits in the evidence

This is among the first studies we've indexed on Coconut for Reduced Body Weight — treat it as an early signal until more research accumulates.

The study

Dose-dependent effect of coconut oil supplementation on obesity indices: a systematic review and dose-response meta-analysis of clinical trials.

Systematic Review
n = 620
2025-06-06
BMC nutrition

More on Coconut More on Reduced Body Weight

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