These are doing the rounds again. Promoted by celebrities and influencers as a miracle cure when it comes to weight loss. Time to set the record straight.
What are they?
Ketone supplements tell you they will put your body into ketosis without you having to restrict carbohydrate intake to get there. You ingest the supplement and they provide the ketone bodies rather than your body actually producing them. (As an FYI – ketones are produced by your body to use as energy when it is in the absence of carbohydrates. The body’s preferred method of energy is carbs, when you don’t have them it has to convert fat into ketones to then use them for energy instead).
I’ve covered the keto diet itself in sundayshutdown40 so check that out for further explanation. And the same principle really applies here. The ketones don’t make you lose body fat. You lose body fat because you are in an calorie deficit. If you consume these ketones and don’t adopt a calorie deficit you will not lose weight and there are no scientific studies to demonstrate this not to be the case.
Ketone supplements are expensive. One brand is retailing at £95 for 20 servings with a recommendation of 2 per day. That’s around £300 a month. They not only claim to make you lose fat but also give you extra energy and clearer thinking and put you into ketosis in 1 hour.
Claims
They also claim that to burn body fat you first have to burn through all the carbs and then all the protein within your body. If that was the case you’d have nothing left, no muscles, no bones just a ball of fat. Basic biology 101.
To top it off they apparently rapidly repair DNA, support healthy immune function and elevate essential amino acids. I mean it seems this drink is the be all and end all to living your best ever life with no challenges. No wonder vulnerable women (and probably men) are spending their hard earned cash for false promises that will leave them feeling worse off than they were before.
There are no scientific research papers showing any of this. Why? Firstly because it’s bloody difficult to measure any of these functions and secondly you’d be hard pressed to conduct a study demonstrating these and being able to state it was the supplement causing the effect. I mean if there was a drink that did all of this surely it would be promoted by the worlds leading health authorities, wouldn’t you think?
To conclude…
…these supplements are advised to be taken in conjunction with a calorie controlled diet and for the best results to reduce your carbohydrate intake. I’ll let you in to a little secret, you will lose body weight by doing these things without the supplement.
