Five reasons to skip the ketones for performance

There is a lot of hype in endurance sports about ketones. Do they work and should you take them? You might want to skip the supplements to save money and improve performance.

What are ketones?

Ketones are produced in your liver when your body breaks down fats. Ketones are used for energy when you don’t have ready access to carbohydrates when fasting, or during longer exercise sessions.

Ketones are not harmless.

Having high levels of ketones in the blood changes the body’s chemical balance and changes the blood’s pH, making it too acidic. This is called ketoacidosis, a serious condition that leads to poisoning. The body eliminates ketones in the urine.

Why would athletes take ketones?

Everyone is looking for an advantage and ketones are one of the latest fads. The United States Anti-Doping Agency states,

There is little to no evidence that consuming metabolic ketones without changing your diet or exercise levels will have any effect on weight or performance.

USADA

Humans have evolved to store fat and use carbohydrates as a fuel source and this process is very complex. Trying to “hack” biology never works out.

Five reasons to skip ketones.

They are expensive.

Ketone supplements are really expensive, with a two-week supply range from $50-100 US. The other disappointing news is that they are mostly salt. That is very expensive salt.

They inhibit fat burning.

The purpose of ketones is to use stored fat as an energy source, to help you burn more fat.

Unfortunately, the opposite is actually true. Consuming ketones means that you don’t need to access stored fat as a fuel source.

When ketone blood levels become too high, and your blood becomes acidic, healthy people have a feedback loop that naturally slows down the natural production of ketones. This means that the higher the level of ketones, the less your body will produce. This results in preventing the body from using its own fat as a fuel source.

They add to your daily calorie total.

If you are trying to maintain your weight for athletic performance or using ketones as a fat-loss aid they contain the same amount of calories per gram as carbohydrates or protein. Each gram has 4 calories. A single ketone serving has 100 calories and since the benefit is short term you would need several servings a day.

The brain benefits are not from ketones

You may have heard about the “clarity” that comes with ketones. That ketones will reduce brain fog.

Of course, they do because they contain caffeine.

Clarity also comes when you fuel your brain properly, which means carbohydrates. Your brain’s preferred fuel source.

Ketones impair performance

Researchers at McMaster University have discovered that ketones impair performance!

Athletes seeking an advantage have been taking ketones and now it seems that they are reducing performance. Researchers found that ketone supplements in endurance cyclists increased cardiorespiratory stress during activity.

Devin McCarthy, author and researcher in the Kinesiology Department of McMaster University states,

The main observation from this study was that the speed that the cyclists could sustain during the test was lower after drinking the ketone supplement compared to the placebo.

Devin McCarthy

If that is not enough, they taste awful.

Keto, is it worth it?

The best way to be able to burn more fat and improve endurance is to skip the ketones.

Change your mind, change your health,

Shayla