Do You Need Bulletproof Coffee on Keto? What It Is and Why It's Optional
Three minutes on one drink. I'd already called daily bulletproof coffee a lot of empty calories in my first update. This one is the full explanation.
In this video
- [0:00] What it is: coffee blended with MCT oil, coconut oil, grass-fed butter, heavy whipping cream, or some mix, usually to a latte texture.
- [0:30] Why it shows up in keto: it's an easy way to get a lot of fat in. But keto doesn't require coffee, MCT oil, or grass-fed butter (video DLRlphyc1t8).
- [1:00] Grass-fed butter gets added for omega-3s and MCTs for their research in epilepsy and brain health. I said both have promising research, and neither is specifically tied to ketosis.
- [1:30] Heavy whipping cream is my favourite coffee add-in, a lower-sugar swap for milk or half-and-half.
- [2:00] If you enjoy bulletproof coffee, keep drinking it. If you don't, it isn't required.
- [2:30] For people doing keto to lose weight, a daily one worried me: a large amount of fat without much other nutrition. I'd rather people get fat from salmon, avocado or chuck roast.
- [3:00] My read on the Kerrygold-and-MCT craze: people found keto at the same moment they were reading health news about those products.
The line that holds up: "good for you" is not "needed for keto"
This is the move I made over and over in 2017: keep two questions apart. Is this thing good for general health? Is it needed for ketosis? Bulletproof coffee mixes them up. The ingredients have their own research stories, and people carry those stories over into keto as if they were rules (video DLRlphyc1t8).
I'll be straight about the limits. None of the evidence pages for this site covers MCT oil, omega-3s or grass-fed butter, so I'm not going to put numbers on any of that here. What I said in 2017 was "promising research, not about ketosis," and that's as far as I can take it without a source in hand.
What the evidence pages do make clear is how ketosis happens: the liver makes ketones (acetoacetate, BHB and acetone), regulated by insulin and glucagon (StatPearls, Ketogenesis). Nothing in that process needs a special oil. Lower the carbs and the liver does it. More on that in is MCT oil necessary?.
Drill-down: why a fat-only breakfast is a weight-loss problem
The line I'd keep is "a large amount of fats without a lot of accompanying nutrition" (auto-caption). For anyone trying to lose fat, that's the issue. Not the coffee. The trade.
A fat-only drink replaces a breakfast that could have had protein in it. The protein evidence page is where the trade shows up. When protein went from 15% to 30% of energy, people eating as much as they wanted ate 441 fewer calories a day and lost 4.9 kg in 12 weeks (Weigle 2005). That was 19 adults, and it wasn't a coffee study. But it's the direction: protein seems to fill you up, pure fat in a mug doesn't bring any.
So if bulletproof coffee works for you and you're losing, fine, I meant it when I said keep drinking it. If you're stalled, a 400 to 500 calorie coffee (my figure from the first update) is the first thing I'd look at.
Then vs now
This is one place I didn't flip. In this video I warned about fat with little nutrition. Three weeks later I made a video telling people to stop eating too much fat for weight loss (video NUJNFG6lLWw). In 2018 I described fat as the variable you raise or lower by phase (video UygKGoP_BtA).
Three days before this one, in the "what do I need" video, I'd made the same separation as a broader point about money: grass-fed is better if you can afford it, MCT oil isn't necessary, and avoiding carbs is what matters (video DWI8qQl5BbY).
Key points
- Bulletproof coffee is coffee blended with fats (MCT oil, coconut oil, butter, cream). Keto doesn't require it (video DLRlphyc1t8).
- The ingredient research I mentioned (omega-3s, MCTs and epilepsy) isn't about ketosis. This site's evidence pages don't cover it yet.
- Heavy cream in coffee is a simple low-sugar swap if you want one.
- For weight loss, a daily fat-only drink trades away a meal that could have had protein and other nutrients.
- If you're stalled, look at calories you drink before anything else. See eating less fat to lose weight.