ResearchReviewEffects of Medium-Chain Triglycerides on Weight Loss and Body Composition: A Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials
Section snippets
Eligibility Criteria
We reviewed RCTs, both parallel and crossover, published until March 2014 with no language restrictions. Only studies >3 weeks’ duration were reviewed. All studies were peer reviewed and conference abstracts were excluded. In addition, the participants were required to be healthy and older than age 18 years. A body weight measurement was required at baseline and at the end point. Both ad libitum, weight maintaining, and reduced-calorie diets were included, but any exercise intervention studies
Results
The literature search identified 701 possible studies, 675 were eliminated based on title and abstract because they did not meet the inclusion criteria (Figure 1). A full-text assessment was completed on 26 articles: 21 articles represented 13 RCTs that met the inclusion criteria and are described in the Table. The five excluded studies are referenced in Figure 1.
The final analysis included 239 and 250 individuals in the intervention or control diet, respectively, for nine parallel studies4, 19
Discussion
The findings from our meta-analysis suggest consuming MCTs as part of a diet compared with LCTs may result in a small average reduction in body weight of 0.51 kg (range=0.80 to 0.23 kg) over an average 10-week period. Waist and hip circumferences, total body fat, subcutaneous fat, and visceral fat were also significantly reduced and no changes were seen in TG, total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, and HDL cholesterol when dietary MCT was compared with LCT. Although the reduction in body weight
Acknowledgements
The authors thank Florian Pichlmuller for his assistance in translating reference 36 into English.
K. Mumme is a student, Institute of Food, Nutrition, and Human Health, Massey University, Auckland, New Zealand, and The Liggins Institute, The University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand.
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K. Mumme is a student, Institute of Food, Nutrition, and Human Health, Massey University, Auckland, New Zealand, and The Liggins Institute, The University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand.
W. Stonehouse is a senior research scientist, Institute of Food, Nutrition, and Human Health, Massey University, Auckland, New Zealand, and CSIRO, Food and Nutrition Flagship, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia.
STATEMENT OF POTENTIAL CONFLICT OF INTEREST No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Supplementary materials: PowerPoint presentation available at www.andjrnl.org
FUNDING/SUPPORT None to report.