Middle-chain trigliceride, MCT, is perhaps the least known additive for bodybuilders nutrition. This additive presents unique type of fats, which have wide range of beneficial effects. They help increase dry muscle mass, reduce fat deposits, provide energy for pre-competition training. Despite their enormous practical benefits surprisingly enough not many people know about MCTs.
It is traditionally believed that bodybuilders need to reduce their fat intake to the very minimum. However, those days some types of fat are even recommended for athletes. There is no doubt that fats are essential nutrients for the organism and serve important function. Fats act as protective cushions around internal organs. They improve vitamin absorption and facilitate cell membrane, hormone, and prostaglandins formation. The body can not survive unless it receives fats as part of nutrition.
However, every bodybuilder knows that overly high consumption of fats can have substantial effect on how the body looks. Fats are transformed into fat deposits easier than any other nutrients since the organism practically spends no energy on digestion of fat. After you consume fats, they are immediately broken down into fatty acids, which in turn quickly move to fat cells and form fatty deposits used by the organism as energy reserves.
MCTs make entirely different type of fats. Due to the unique structure of the molecules they bypass the usual fat formation mechanisms. Instead of breaking down into fatty acids MTC are transported directly to liver where they quickly are converted into instant energy source. Consequently, the body prefers to immediately use this type of energy source instead of forming fat deposits.
Source of the image: flickr.com/photos/su-chan.
