yesterday i got sent a post about a
before and after photo
and i immediately recognized the person
in the post back in february
she used the coronavirus pandemic to
sell supplements
which i took issue with at a time where
people are
literally dying pimping supplements for
profit in the absence of any
solid data seems a little bit shitty
anyway
i got called upon to weigh in with my
stance on the science
and obviously talking about science
tickles my testicles
so i thought it was finally time to make
a video about
ketone supplements you may be one of
many people who notices that
lots of people are promoting these at
the moment so you can increase
your production of endogenous ketones
that means within
the body by restricting the amount of
carbohydrate you eat
alternatively you can supplement with
exogenous ketones
that means from outside the body so
ketone supplements can come in the form
of ketone
esters or ketone salts and a big selling
point is that you can achieve the
benefits
sorry benefits of ketogenic diets
without the dietary restriction the most
accurate way for me to demonstrate what
they're marketed for
is to let the manufacturer speak for
themselves instantly feel what
world-class
athletes and biohackers spend weeks
trying to accomplish your body will be
in nutritional ketosis
and you'll get all the benefits that
come with that increased fat loss more
mental clarity and focus
tons of extra energy was it just me or
did that feel super sleazy
i kind of want to wash after watching
that
okay so you can get all the benefits of
a keto diet
without being on a keto diet this can't
be what they're marketing it as
surely let's look at another brand
experience deep ketosis
and elevated blood ketone levels without
having to follow an excessively
restrictive
low-carb diet you will simply enjoy all
the benefits of the keto diet
without the restrictions the perfect
tool for
easy fat burning well this sounds
fantastic
and you can understand why people sign
up for it right all the benefits
but without the restriction let's go
back to brand one and click on their
handy
research tab they do have one study
listed for weight loss
but this study wasn't actually about
keto supplements at all
it was a study where they put people on
a ketogenic diet for 24 weeks where they
were only allowed to eat 30
grams of carbs or less per day no
control group
either to show that keto is superior now
in fairness to some keto companies
some of them claim that they don't
actually result in weight loss at all
like this one but it does say that it
helps cravings so
let's look at that there is a study
showing that supplemental ketones do
help appetite and hunger when compared
to a dextrose drink
now given that sugary drinks aren't
exactly the most satiating thing in the
world
it's probably not fair to say that
ketone supplements are more satiating
than you know
actual food that still remains to be
seen but some of the marketing around
keto supplements is
probably the best case of
misdirection
i've ever seen let's pretend that the
weight loss that can be achieved by
reducing calories on a keto diet can be
achieved
just the same way by adding a supplement
in to your existing diet
so to summarize yes there is research
showing that supplements can raise your
ketone levels
temporarily yes there is other research
showing that ketogenic diets can result
in fat loss
when those diets are calorie controlled
no
adding supplements in to your existing
diet
is not the same thing and
companies using this research
to support this claim are unethical
further demonstrated by the fact that a
lot of them won't even tell you
how many ketones are in their supplement
that's because they use
less than the studies but they don't
want to tell you that
some companies also claim that you will
get better energy and performance but
then they put caffeine in it caffeine
kind of does that too and like
really well but sure it's definitely the
ketones
so here is a list of all the studies in
humans
showing that adding keto supplements
into your diet will result in weight
loss
and as you can see this is blank
because they don't exist