CapTri on Veggies
I love it when research confirms what we at Parrillo Performance have known for decades. Yet another study has shown that MCT oil really is a fat-burning fat. Of course, you know MCT oil as CapTri®, one of our flagship supplements. MCT oil was first formulated in the 1950s by the pharmaceutical industry for patients who had trouble digesting regular fats. It is processed mainly from coconut oil but does not have any of the adverse effects associated with tropical oils.
Here’s the latest, greatest news on MCTs: A 2008 study published in Journal of the American College of Nutrition found that substituting moderate amounts of MCT oil for other fats in a weight-loss program resulted in fat loss, including around the waist, with no adverse impact on cardiovascular risk
factors.
In the 16-week study, 31 overweight patients consumed either olive oil or MCT oil in muffins. All of the subjects participated in dietitian-led weekly group weight-loss counseling sessions that stressed following a prudent diet, and encouraged healthy eating patterns. The oils accounted for roughly 12 percent of participants’ calorie prescription.
At 16 weeks, the MCT group had lost significantly more weight: an average of 7 pounds, or 3.8 percent of their baseline body weight, compared with 1.7 percent in the olive oil group. That’s 200% better than the control group for all you math whizzes. That’s over twice the weight loss of the control group. The MCT group also had a 1.5 percent decrease in total fat mass as measured by CT scan, including a reduction in intra-abdominal fat. (1)
Unlike conventional oils, MCT oil gets burned immediately by the liver before it even has a chance to get stored as body fat, and many researchers feel that it has a place in weight management. Of course, I agree!
CapTri® is a unique high thermogenic ultra pure MCT available exclusively from Parrillo Performance. CapTri® comes unflavored for cooking or making salad dressings, etc. or butter flavored for drizzling over vegetables, fish, popcorn and more. CapTri® contains around 115 calories per tablespoon.
I have very specific recommendations for how to use CapTri® in a weight-loss program, and it is Parrillo Performance’s own version of the low-carb diet (but without the side effects of typical low-carb diets). The calories from CapTri® provide the energy you need to keep training hard, while you’re trying to lose body fat. Also, by substituting CapTri® for an equivalent number of calories from carbohydrates you avoid the slow-down in metabolic rate which inevitably results from calorie-restricted diets.
My approach to low-carb dieting allows you to utilize the power of the low carb diet without resorting to using regular fat as a food source. Instead of regular fat, you use high thermogenic CapTri®, which behaves more like a carbohydrate in the body, except that it doesn’t increase insulin levels. This means you can use CapTri® in place of carbs to decrease insulin levels and shift your metabolism into a fat-burning mode. This is very similar to the strategy of low-carb diets except without relying on conventional fat as an energy source.
To use CapTri® for fat loss, continue to keep your protein intake high at about one to 1.5 grams per pound of body weight per day, then reduce carbohydrate intake and provide an equivalent number of calories from CapTri®. For example, if you normally consume 300 grams of carbs per day (1200 calories worth), reduce that to 150 grams per day and add 5 tablespoons of CapTri® per day (providing 570 calories). By reducing carbs and always combining your starches with protein, vegetables, and CapTri® at each meal, you will dramatically reduce insulin levels and maximize fat loss. One more point: Unlike conventional fats, CapTri® also works well during weight gain because it doesn’t contribute to fat stores (2, 3).
Of course, CapTri® isn’t just for weight loss; it’s also for building and maintaining lean mass, since it has a positive effect on your metabolism. CapTri® is very thermogenic and dramatically increases the rate of oxygen consumption after a meal. It’s no accident that we’ve incorporated CapTri® at the core of our supplement program. The reason? As you know, CapTri® is a very concentrated source of calories – calories that can be used for energy and to support weight gain. The increase in oxygen consumption that occurs after you eat CapTri® means that it is being burned very fast (4, 5). Remember, foods are burned by reacting with the oxygen we breathe, so the reason oxygen consumption increases after you eat is to supply enough oxygen to burn the food to produce energy.
Some of the energy from CapTri® is converted into body heat in a process known as thermogenesis (4, 5). This is the single most important reason why excess calories from CapTri® have less of a tendency to make you fat than excess calories from other foods. CapTri® is burned so fast that excess calories from it are turned into body heat instead of being converted into fat. This is why I’ve called CapTri® the best supplement ever developed for active people – it’s an excellent way to supply extra calories but has very little tendency to make you fat.
CapTri® is available exclusively from Parrillo Performance. You can use CapTri®: 1. To maintain energy levels while dieting. 2. To add clean calories for gaining muscle.
3. To replace regular fat with healthier CapTri®.
References
1. St. Onge, M.P. et al. 2008. Medium chain triglyceride oil consumption as part of a weight loss diet does not lead to an adverse metabolic profile when compared to olive oil. Journal of the American College of Nutrition 27(5):547-552.
2. Baba, N., Bracco, E.F., and Hashim, S.A. 1982. Enhanced thermogenesis and diminished deposition of fat in response to overfeeding with diet containing medium chain triglyceride. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 35: 678-682.
3. Bach, A.C. and Babayan, V.K. 1982. Medium chain triglycerides: an update. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 36: 950-962.
4. Hill, J.O., et al. 1989. Thermogenesis in humans during overfeeding with medium chain triglycerides. Metabolism 38: 641-648.
5. Seaton, T.B., et al. 1986. Welle, Warenko and Campbell, Thermic effect of medium chain and long chain triglycerides in man. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 44: 630-634.