Some forms of keto supplementation have been shown to increase bloodketone levels and mimic what happens during ketosis when you eat ketogenic food (7, 8, 9, 10). Various studies on ketone supplementation and exercise suggest that exogenous ketones can improve skeletal muscle metabolism by conserving muscle glycogen (glucose in muscles), lowering plasma lactate levels and providing an alternative source of energy. The intake of exogenous ketone preparations can increase the ketone level in your body and mimic the ketosis state achieved by a keto diet.
Although this research is not conclusive, it should be noted that most studies on exogenous ketones revolve around ketone esters, which include the keto diet in addition to dietary supplements. Long-term research into the effects of exogenous ketone preparations has not been carried out because the people who use them do not follow the diet themselves. That being said, keto pills can give you the extra boost that you need to achieve ketosis because they contain exogenous sketons, ketones that the body itself recognizes as fat and burns.
Over time, the body switches from burning carbohydrates as fuel to burning ketones as an alternative fuel source and the liver produces and breaks fat down, says keto nutritionist Amy Davis RD, LDN. If you’re ready to enter what scientists call ketosis and to lose serious weight, here are seven dietary supplements with high levels of exogenous ketones that can keep you in this state and get your cells to burn fat for energy. Some suggest that ketone supplements mimic ketosis, a nutritional condition characterized by elevated blood ketones and weight loss (1) by increasing blood ketone levels without changing your diet.
Taking exogenous ketones does not eliminate the need to follow a strict ketogenic diet to get ketosis – you can still eat and eat your high-carb cake – but it may help some users. For example, if you quit ketosis because you ate too much carbohydrate, using a ketone supplement in conjunction with the keto diet can help restore ketosis to you. Exogenous keto supplements can complicate the ketosis process, putting you through the tough first few weeks when your cravings for carbohydrates are probably strongest.
Keto dietary supplements can be used alone or together with the keto diet to achieve ketosis. One of the most popular and widely known (and there are more and more keto-related products) are exogenous ketone preparations that claim to improve the effects of ketogenic diets and offer the benefits of the diet without restricting carbohydrates. Exogenous ketones come in different forms and you can use them for various purposes, from reducing keto-flu symptoms to improving physical and mental performance.
Exogenous ketone supplements have been shown to boost ketones in the body, but in the human body you would take dozens of pills at the same time to achieve a clinical dose in meaningful quantities to affect your ketosis condition. I see many people taking ketone supplements and vitamins marketed for ketogenic diets and think they are eating carbohydrates to get to higher ketosis levels. I do not believe that we need to drum up excitement here, but based on background research by ketone supplement manufacturers, surveys of dieticians and users, and the experiment itself, we do not recommend taking dietary supplements.
There are many misconceptions about exogenous ketones and they have a reputation as a silver bullet or shortcut to ketosis, weight loss and other health benefits without having to follow a keto diet. Although there have been a few preclinical studies on how to mimic the therapeutic effects of a ketogenic diet (in which ketones make the liver an important fuel source for the body), it is curious from a perspective that the way in which the benefits of endogenous ketosis are used to describe the benefits of exogenous ketones is claimed by Pruvit staff on their official website and in their video. Different forms of salt esters, as they are absorbed together with carbohydrates (carbohydrates versus minerals), background diet (ketogens versus high-carb), dosage, timing and adjustment time are just some of the important factors that determine the metabolic response to ketone supplements.
You must eat ketogenically or take other dietary supplements to trigger ketosis. A growing number of people are using keto diets thanks to exogenous ketogenic preparations that claim to put your body into a ketosis state for up to two and a half days, while eating pasta and biscuits and following a low carbohydrate diet. A ketogenic (or keto) diet over several days puts the body into ketosis, a nutritional condition that is characterized by elevated blood ketones and weight loss (1).
You can supplement your keto diet with beta-hydroxybutyrate (BHB) ketosis preparations to ease your stay in ketosis. In other words, taking ketone supplements with carbohydrate-rich meals increases blood ketone levels, but not as much as fasting, suggesting that your body uses less ketone as fuel than is available via glucose (carbohydrates) (15). If, like Keto, you follow an extremely low-carbohydrate diet and want exogenous ketones, supplements can facilitate fat burning.
B is a salt or extra ketone that puts the body you are absorbing into a state of ketosis. Ketones in the body happen when the body is in a state of ketosis and a keto diet seems to help minimize the damage to the immune system because your body may be infected with viruses and bacteria (12). Exogenous ketones, also known as ketosis preparations, are formulated for ketogenic nutrition and lead to an increase in the circulating concentration of beta-hydroxybutyrate (I2OHB) which is associated with different ketosis patterns and different metabolic and physiological results.