Do Exogenous Ketone Supplements Work?
As the ketogenic diet becomes increasingly popular, a hot new ketogenic supplement, exogenous ketones, follows suit. It is claimed that people who are not ketogenic can become ketogenic as soon as they drink it, and people who are ketogenic can double their benefits after drinking it. Can it be so amazing?
What Are Exogenous Ketones?
→ What are ketones?
When you restrict carbohydrates and consume fat, the liver converts the fat into small molecules called ketones that feed the body. Using ketone bodies instead of glucose for energy has many benefits, including controlling appetite, improving mental health, having more stable energy, and increasing physical endurance.
→ What are exogenous ketone bodies?
In contrast to ketone bodies that are metabolized by the liver to metabolize fat and are produced spontaneously, ketones that are ingested from outside the body are exogenous ketones, which are all ketone forms of beta-hydroxybutyric acid, or BHB for short, a ketone body present in the bloodstream.
When ingesting a drink or capsule that can produce BHB, the presence of ketone bodies can be detected within 30 to 60 minutes. The duration depends on the type of product, lasting as little as one hour and as long as eight hours.
→ Ketone Salts vs. Ketolipids
Exogenous ketogenic supplements come in two forms: ketone salts and keto lipids. Ketone salts are mainly bound to minerals like sodium, magnesium, calcium, potassium, or even some amino acids.
Ketolipids, on the other hand, mainly bind ketone bodies to lipid compounds, such as alcohol. Ketolipids exogenous ketogenic supplements have a one-size-fits-all flavor, so the exogenous ketone supplements on the market are mainly ketone salts, when we talk about exogenous ketone supplements below, we are referring to ketone salts.
What are the benefits of exogenous ketones?
If you’ve been following exogenous ketones for a while, you’ll know that there are four “benefits” that stand out the most:
→Appetite suppression
In one small study, people who drank ketone supplements before bedtime experienced a 50% reduction in hunger after a night of fasting compared to those who drank sugary drinks before bedtime, mainly due to ketones’ ability to balance blood sugar, growth hormone-releasing peptide and leptin levels.
→ Build muscle and improve endurance sport performance
The fact that ketone bodies can help build muscle has to do with the role of ketone bodies themselves, which have been found to aid in protein synthesis, which is a major component of muscle.
→ Lower blood sugar and improve insulin sensitivity
Ketone bodies can increase insulin sensitivity and improve mitochondrial function in beta cells. One study found that after an overnight fast, healthy subjects of normal weight who consumed ketone supplements had blood ketone levels that rose to 3.2 and continued to rise throughout the oral glucose tolerance test. That is, exogenous ketones decreased their glycemic response and increased insulin sensitivity.
→ Improved cognitive performance
In a 2017 study that gave rats intravenous ketone bodies and then put them in a state of stress, scientists found that BHB reduced stress-induced neuroinflammation. While at first glance, ketone supplements seem to be backed by a great deal of fantastic science, if you look at the sources, you’ll see that the ketones in all of these scientific articles refer to pretty much all endogenous ketones, i.e., ketones produced by nutritive ketogenesis, and not ketone salts.
Anna Stubbs, PhD in Ketone Research at the University of Oxford, says, “The most commonly cited benefit about ketone salts is to enhance athletic performance, but recently completed studies have shown that it does not affect athletic performance; furthermore, the ketone salts supplements that are currently circulating in the marketplace have not been subjected to peer-reviewed scientific studies.”
Possible Problems With Exogenous Ketone Supplements
1. Inflated prices
These exogenous ketones are sold at a high price, and based on official guidelines, the total amount of money spent to get to a ketogenic state is daunting.
2. Product effect can not be measured
Take a look at the product ingredients: raspberry extract, microcrystalline cellulose, calcium phosphate, gelatin, dioxide, magnesium stearate, and that’s it. Although the ingredients of the product are clear, we do not know the number of active ingredients, as a consumer, spend so much money, that you may not know how much BHB you get. If you are going to buy, it is best to test the ketone body changes yourself.
3. Direct marketing
Exogenous ketone supplements are not diet pills and are mainly used in medical research or by athletes. Like certain health products, certain exogenous ketone supplements use direct marketing. Participants receive commissions for referring others to join, one layer after another, which is the main reason why a certain exogenous ketone is sold at a premium, rather than how rare and valuable the ingredients are.
This kind of direct marketing, always intentionally or unintentionally inciting new people to join, become a distributor, and then continue to develop more downline, product sales, will exaggerate a variety of functions but also will attract a lot of skepticism.
In this model, it is also easy to breed unhealthy psychology, even if you do not benefit from the product, but at this time the product can not be returned, you may be to make up for your losses, to deceive others to buy.
4. You can add other ingredients
Many exogenous ketone supplements contain large amounts of caffeine and some contain malic acid. It’s important to note that ketone salts are most prominently advertised as increasing athletic performance, and there’s no question that ketones improve athletic performance, however, some products will amplify this effect by adding other ingredients.
5. Exogenous ketone supplements can make you sustained nutritional ketogenesis
Merchants advertise that this supplement can get you into a nutritional ketogenic state in 30-60 minutes! When you drink it for an hour, you can detect the presence of blood ketones with a blood ketone meter, however, this is not a nutritional ketogenic state.
High blood ketones ≠ nutritional ketogenic state.
The vast majority of the benefits of ketogenesis come from a nutritional ketogenic state, and there’s not much to be gained from simply producing ketone bodies in the blood, in the breath, and in the urine for a short period of time. Moreover, exogenous ketones are easily metabolized by the body and may return to the starting state as soon as 1 hour later.
6. Exogenous ketone bodies may inhibit lipolysis
Many people want to use exogenous ketones to lose weight, but this may have to disappoint you, exogenous ketones may not be very effective in weight loss. It is almost impossible to have large amounts of blood ketones and blood sugar in our bodies at the same time (except for type 1 diabetics, when ketoacidosis occurs).
The body has a feedback mechanism to regulate blood ketone levels, and if it detects that your blood ketone levels are too high, the body reduces the production of endogenous ketone bodies. In other words, the higher your blood ketone levels, the fewer endogenous ketones your body produces, which are made from the breakdown of fat, meaning that not only will this not make you lose weight, it will prevent you from burning fat.
Although ketones help suppress appetite and indirectly promote weight loss, exogenous ketones directly prevent fat burning and it’s hard to say, at the end of the day, whether you gained or lost weight, and to this day, there is not a single scientific study that proves that exogenous ketones directly burn fat to achieve weight loss!
Who Needs Exogenous Ketone Supplements?
Most people are not in favor of taking exogenous ketone supplements, and it’s not worth getting in terms of both reliability and necessity. Theoretically, ketones do have health benefits, so it’s not useless, and there are a couple of scenarios in which you might want to consider it:
1. Improve mental fatigue in the pre-ketogenic phase
Going from high carb to strictly low carb, ketogenic, there’s a transition period where some discomforts can occur, such as lack of concentration, brain fog, and mental fatigue. These are normal because your body is not yet producing enough ketone bodies to fill the energy gap. Ketone bodies are one of the brain’s energy sources, and an extra increase in ketone bodies can help improve concentration while improving mood.
The exogenous ketone supplements on the market today are ketone salts, also known as BHB salts, which are combined with common salts such as sodium, calcium, magnesium, and potassium. These salts are also core electrolytes that your body needs to help you increase vitality and avoid pre-ketogenic lethargy, constipation, bad breath, muscle cramps, and decreased athletic performance.
2. Get into a ketogenic state more quickly
Exogenous ketone supplements are basically like a trigger that allows cells to adapt quickly: ketones can be used as a fuel of choice, which may help the body get into a ketogenic state, allowing you to produce and utilize endogenous ketones faster and easier. This may also be an effective strategy if you’re carb-raging and want to get into a ketogenic state quickly.
3. People with hormone issues who want to get into a ketogenic state
Some people want to try a ketogenic diet but have hormonal issues that make getting into a ketogenic state difficult. Some people have a low tolerance for hunger or poor blood sugar control, and ketogenic can be difficult at first, and you may want to consider exogenous ketone supplements.
4. Want to fast, but fasting is very difficult.
Fasting can quickly lose weight and quickly enter the ketogenic state, but many people can not adhere to fasting for various reasons. At this point, you can try exogenous ketones, because ketone bodies can reduce your craving for food, but the effect varies from person to person.
5. Have a neurological disease
There are a lot of people who are afraid to go on a ketogenic diet for one reason or another, and there are a lot of doctors who are afraid to let you go on a ketogenic diet, even though ketogenic diets have been shown to have healing properties for many diseases. If you have any of the following disorders and can’t go on a ketogenic diet, maybe you can try exogenous ketones:
- Epilepsy
- ADHD
- Autism
- Depression
- Alzheimer’s disease
- Cancer
Because many neurodegenerative diseases, are due to mitochondrial dysfunction and oxidative damage caused by neuronal cell death leads to, and ketone bodies can protect protect brain cells, enhance the function of mitochondria in neurons.
6. Want to improve arthritis
Exogenous ketones are touted to reduce inflammation and inhibit the expression of inflammatory pathways, such as arthritis, which is the selling point of many exogenous ketone supplements.
7. Want to improve endurance sports performance
Providing exogenous ketones prior to competition may enhance athletic performance, however, there is mixed feedback on the effectiveness of high-intensity exercise.