ReviewJournal of obesity & metabolic syndrome2022
The Effects of Medium-Chain Triglyceride Oil Supplementation on Endurance Performance and Substrate Utilization in Healthy Populations: A Systematic Review.
Review in Journal of obesity & metabolic syndrome, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
7 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Gastrointestinal issues predominate among side effects of medium-chain triglyceride consumption in humans.Frontiers in nutrition · 2026Pooled it
- Trial
- Substrate Oxidation Does Not Influence Middle Distance Running Performance: A Randomized Controlled Crossover Trial.Nutrients · 2025Trial
- Preliminary In Vitro Screening of Structure-Dependent β-Hydroxybutyrate Responses to Dietary Fatty Acids in Hepatocyte Models.Nutrients · 2026Article
- The science of ketogenic supplements for athletes: boosting endurance, efficiency, and energy metabolism.Nutrition & metabolism · 2025Review
- A novel hepatocyte ketone production assay to help the selection of nutrients for the ketogenic diet treatment of epilepsy.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Acute Oral Toxicity and Genotoxicity Test and Evaluation ofFoods (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Background: The use of medium-chain triglyceride (MCT) oil has increased due to its potential for therapeutic and ergogenic properties. Although recent evidence has suggested that MCT oil supplementation may lead to an improvement in endurance and substrate utilization, contradicting studies have reported the ergogenic benefits of MCT oil toward exercise performance. Methods: An extensive systematic review was conducted to assess the role of MCT oil as an ergogenic aid in exercise performance. Moreover, this study examined any alterations in substrate utilization and various physiological components while using MCT oil. The databases searched in this review were PubMed, Embase, CINAHL, and the Cochrane Library. Results: Most studies reported that MCT oil did not improve exercise performance and had no effect on respiratory exchange ratio, glucose concentration, fat and carbohydrate oxidation, and lactate concentration. Although ketones were increased when supplementing with MCTs, most studies demonstrated that the body could not utilize the MCT oil-induced ketones as its primary energy source during an acute bout of endurance exercise. Thirty grams of MCTs seems to be the safe maximal dosage to minimize adverse reactions during or after exercise. Conclusion: MCT oil showed very little to no ergogenic effects on exercise performance and substrate utilization in healthy populations. Future research is needed to examine the effects of long-term intake of MCT oil alongside various diets, perhaps a ketogenic diet, on exercise performance within different sports/exercises in a variety of populations.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.