One of the most frustrating things you can experience as an early keto dieter, is after days or even weeks of strictly trying to adhere to a new nutrition plan, to test for ketosis and still not be there.
For some people, the body needs some extra time to get into a state of ketosis naturally, especially if net carbs aren’t being vigorously cut down.
So how can you get into ketosis faster? The answer for some is through supplementing a diet with exogenous ketones.
What Are Exogenous Ketones?
Ketone bodies can easily be produced naturally within your own body when it is in a state of ketosis (endogenously) or they can also come from an artificial source outside of your body (exogenously).
Exogenous Ketones is the shorthand term for these artificial supplements. These supplements only contain one type of ketone, which is called beta-hydroxybutyrate. The other kind of ketone, acetoacetate, which is naturally produced by the body, isn’t chemically stable in supplement form.
The two types of ways these supplements can be delivered include ketone esters and ketone salts.
Ketone esters are typically chemically linked to another compound referred to as an ‘ester’, and are produced in a liquid form. These are primarily used for research, as they can be expensive, and aren’t usually sold for commercial use.
Ketone salts are bound to a salt (usually sodium, potassium, magnesium, or calcium), and are most often sold as powders that are meant to be mixed with liquids into easy shakes or drinks. These are the kinds that you’ll most often encounter when supplementing your keto diet. Most of these supplements contain around 8 to 12 grams of ketones per serving.
Both types of those ketone supplements have been proven to increase the body’s levels of blood ketones, essentially recreating what happens naturally during ketosis when you follow a keto diet.
This produced increase in levels of blood ketones after supplementation is especially beneficial for people who want to transition their bodies into a state of ketosis quickly, and is often used by new keto dieters as a way to kickstart their weight loss process.
Like the natural result of the keto diet, increased rates of weight loss is a big benefit that comes with taking exogenous ketone supplements.
One thing to keep in mind though is that these aren’t miracle supplements. You can’t expect to eat a diet high in carbohydrates and low in fat and expect them to do all the work of kicking your body in ketosis.
That’s why I recommend that they be used alongside a healthy ketogenic diet as an extra boost for the body, rather than an artificial get thin quick scheme.
However exogenous ketones are one of the most controversial ketogenic supplements on the market today, and have been getting a lot of mixed reviews by both the medical and media communities.
With so many companies racing to produce the most optimal form of exogenous ketones, it can be easy to get confused by the variety of information surrounding these supplements.
A lot of acclaimed doctors and successful keto dieters rave about the benefits of these ketones, but a lot also think the prices are too high, and the effects are minimal if anything.
That’s why I decided to do some research and experiment with these myself, in order to accurately get to the bottom of this exogenous mystery.
What I’ve found may not be the end-all answer to whether or not exogenous ketones are perfect for the diet, but I think I’ve found some of the most important facts that any new keto dieter will want to know when considering whether or not to add ketones to their routines.
What are the Dangers of Exogenous Ketones?
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Ketones Are High in Calories
While using exogenous ketones on their own will only add about 100 calories to your meal, the way in which they’re most usually supplemented tends to be in the form of shakes and drinks that can very easily take over your calorie allowance depending on the stringency of your keto diet.
Furthermore, if you’re using exogenous ketones to help maintain a state of ketosis, without hitting the right macros through the food you eat, you’ll likely need to supplement with exogenous ketones multiple times per day, and that’s when the calories will really start to add up before you even realize it.
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Ketones Prevent Fat Breakdown
Exogenous ketones are generally used to build up the rate at which your body is able to burn fat, mimicking the natural effects of the keto diet.
What makes taking supplements of ketones exogenously different than naturally entering ketosis, is that sometimes you can consume too much, which has major drawbacks when it comes to fat breakdown.
If your ketone blood levels become too high from taking too many exogenous ketones, your blood can actually start to become dangerously acidic, which will essentially slow down the overall efficiency of ketone production, inhibiting the right kind of fat breakdown – which pretty much defeats the purpose of taking them anyway.
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Digestion Issues
Frequently experienced side effects generally linked to taking supplements of ketone salts will typically include nausea, diarrhea and general stomach discomfort.
It’s also been reported that exogenous ketones come with a pretty bad aftertaste, which can exacerbate symptoms like nausea and indigestion.
With the keto flu being a prevalent source of nausea in early keto dieters, combining exogenous ketones with these adaptation pains can make for an unfortunate product of discomfort that will definitely make it harder for you to power through to the more beneficial phases of ketosis.
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High in Salt and Other Ingredients
Achieving a state of ketosis solely through ketone salts is generally not recommended, because of all of the ingredients that your body will need to ingest in order to make up for a lack of natural ketones in the blood.
Exogenous ketones generally have the following breakdown of ingredients:
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- 590 mg of calcium (57% of the RDA)
- 680 mg of sodium (27% of the RDA)
- 320 mg magnesium (85% of the RDA)
When you’re supplementing multiple times per day in lieu of eating the right keto macros on your own, you’ll start to experience some major side effects, especially from all that sodium.
Because of this, it’s best advised to just utilize exogenous ketones alongside the keto diet so that they can work together, rather than making exogenous ketones work overtime for you.
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They’re Expensive
There really isn’t a good way around this one. Exogenous ketones are just expensive, end of story.
That’s not to say that there aren’t great brands out there offering competitive prices and providing exogenous ketones in generous servings to make things easier for keto dieters, but it isn’t something for everyone – especially those of us who are dieting on a budget.
There are a few ways to make your supplements last a little longer, like by replenishing electrolytes frequently so that you don’t need to get all of your calcium, sodium, and magnesium just from exogenous ketones.
Later in this article I’ll include some of my favorite brands that are working to help make exogenous ketones more affordable for everyone, without sacrificing the quality of the product.
Benefits of Exogenous Ketones
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They May Decrease Appetite
Ketone supplements have widely been shown to result in a decrease in appetite, which might be able to help promote weight loss simply by getting you to want to eat less food.
In one recent study, from measuring 15 people of roughly normal weight and healthy body mass indexes, those selected that were drinking a beverage containing ketone esters reported experiencing 50% less hunger after an overnight fast than those who were drinking a sugary beverage instead.
The study determined that the effect of a suppressed appetite could likely be attributed to lower levels of the hunger hormone known as ghrelin being produced between two to four hours after drinking the exogenous ketone drink.
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They Help to Ease Your Way Into Ketosis
Exogenous ketones are great for people who are struggling with fully getting into ketosis naturally.
In most people, there will be an experienced transition period from the point in time when one elects to go on a ketogenic diet and implements the changes to their daily eating routine, to when they actually are able to get into ketosis their bodies are able to burn fat and ketones for fuel.
By supplementing this transition period with exogenous ketones, your body will be able to utilize some of that extra energy to avoid symptoms from the keto flu, and will have an extra source of ketone bodies in the blood to help get it used to that fat adapted state of rapid weight loss.
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Provide Cognitive Benefits
While many think that the body uses the most energy to move all of its various muscles, it’s actually the brain that utilizes the vast majority of al of the energy that our bodies produce.
While in non-keto diets this energy is typically produced from glucose within the blood stream when glucose levels have started to reduce, ketones in the blood stream can provide roughly 50-70% of this energy, in a more efficient way that doesn’t result in the same kind of crash that you’ll get from glucose energy.
The cognitive benefits from this energy include sharpened memory, faster cognitive reaction time, and an overall heightened level of mental clarity.
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Boost Physical Performance
Athletes that train much harder and more strenuously than regular people typically experience much higher energy needs for their general workout routines.
In non-ketogenic diets, this energy typically would come from sources high in sugar, such as bars, drinks, shakes, gels, and other types of protein supplements.
Utilizing exogenous ketones is one way to circumvent the lack of this energy when restricting your sugar intake on a keto diet. What’s better, is that the exogenous ketones provided are a cleaner, more beneficial form of energy that can last much longer than the short spikes that our bodies would normally get from sugar.
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Improved Quality of Sleep
While this tends to affect different people in different ways, taking ketones exogenously has been shown to help people with improving their sleeping patterns.
Part of this is likely because taking exogenous ketones early on in the keto diet helps to speed up the ketosis process, getting you past that keto flu period at a much quicker rate. Insomnia is one of the most frequently experienced side effects of the keto flu, so exogenous ketones might actually be able to help curb that keto flu-induced trouble sleeping.
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May Elevate Mood
Just as exogenous ketones can help with cognitive function, they can also help with emotional functioning and stability. The increased mental clarity from taking exogenous ketones has also been linked to elevated moods, reduced stress and anxiety, and overall an easier propensity to be able to relax, especially after a workout or a healthy meal.
How to Pick The Right Exogenous Ketones
So with so much conflicting information out there, how do you know which exogenous ketones are beneficial?
I’ve tried a lot over the last two years of being a keto dieter, and I’ve weighed factors like cost, calorie density, versatility, nutritional value, and generally how they all made me feel together, and came up with a list of some of my favorite exogenous keto brands, and where to find them.
Perfect Keto’s one of the most popular keto supplement brands of 2019, and rightfully so. They offer a wide variety of options that are all affordable, long lasting, and in my experience, great to use on a ketogenic diet. I picked up my base BHB supplement on sale over at Amazon.com
One of the best parts about their chocolate base is that it’s easy to mix. The BHB ketones in the BASE keto drink mix easily can dissolve in water, coconut milk, coffee and shakes while still tasting great.
Another big plus is that there are zero additives. Unlike a lot of other exogenous ketones on the market, Perfect Keto BASE is a bhb supplement that contains zero carbs, zero gums or fillers, and zero sugars. It has nothing but pure, effective exogenous ketones that have been designed to designed to optimize anyone’s ketogenic state
Ignite is another top pick for a lot of the same reasons. I prefer the wild berry BHB flavor because the drink tastes pretty great with just water but can also easily be mixed into different types of shakes and iced drinks too.
The convenient keto powder mix also comes in an easy to store container, making it perfect for the office, traveling, or before heading to the gym. What’s even better, is that it also has zero fillers and zero carbs, making it a guilt-free choice.
What’s even better is they also provide a 100% money back guarantee, so if you aren’t satisfied with your product, you can get the entirety of your purchase back with little handle. I’ve experienced their customer service first hand, and it’s honestly one of the best companies I’ve ever had to deal with over the phone. You can pick it up for pretty cheap right here.
This is one of the most powerful exogenous ketones I’ve ever experienced.
Of all the BHB supplements I’ve tried, I’ve got to be honest in saying that the flavors of Keto Drive are my absolute favorite. I’m not the biggest chocolate or vanilla fan, but their Orange Mango, Black Cherry, and Lemonade flavors have really helped curb some fruit cravings that I’ve been missing while on the keto diet.
Without any carbs, caffeine, or sugar, you’re getting exactly what you need out of these exogenous ketones without having to worry about your energy crashing.
Like the other exogenous ketones I’ve mentioned, Keto Drive mixes in every liquid I’ve tried it with, and a little honestly goes a long way, so while it isn’t the cheapest of the three, it’s still a lot of benefit for the buck you spend.
You can pick up Keto Drive BHB on sale over here.
Final Thoughts
It’s important to remember that exogenous ketones aren’t for everyone, and when considering adding them to your keto diet, you should be aware of both the dangers and benefits.
It’s also important not to overdo it on the serving size, as most of the dangers surrounding exogenous ketones come from either consuming too many servings, or not following a healthy enough keto diet while taking them.
Do you have any types of exogenous ketones that you prefer? Do you have any experiences with exogenous ketones that ended up being a disappointed? Leave a comment below, I’d love to hear from other seasoned keto dieters and active beginners!