I recently learned about a company that makes ketone salts, which are in essence a supplement you can take that will put ketones directly into your bloodstream. I purchased the only 2 types I could find on the market currently, KetoForce and KetoCaNa available at Prototype Nutrition.
I then began the process of figuring out exactly what these supplements were and how to use them. (Yes, it does seem backwards – most people would research first, then buy.)
Thankfully, others who are interested in nutritional ketosis have done the same research and have interviewed the maker of the 2 products, Patrick Arnold. Patrick discusses how he came to make these supplements in his blog titled “Instant Ketosis?” The professor referred to in his blog is Dr. Dominic D’Agostino, who has done some terrific work in the area of ketone therapy. You can read more about him (including some exciting progress in the treatment of cancer using a ketogenic diet) on his blog. And yes, I will be ordering his book, “Fight Cancer With a Ketogenic Diet.”
There are a number of podcasts where Patrick and Dr. D’Agostino are interviewed about ketone salts (sometimes referred to as ketone esters), and transcriptions of these podcasts as well. Nourish Balance Thrive co-founder Chris Kelley interviewed Patrick most recently about his KetoForce and KetoCaNa supplements, and he interviewed Dr. D’Agostino about ketone supplements in October, 2014. The transcript of that interview can be found here. And, the Bulletproof Diet founder Dave Asprey’s interview of Dr. D’Agostino can be found here.
I’m providing these links to allow you to dive into this research if you choose to.
After reading as much as I could about the ketone salts, I took Dr. D’Agostino’s advice and started slowly, with one cap of the KetoForce liquid diluted with water and lemon juice. I wanted to make sure it wouldn’t upset my stomach, which it didn’t. I tested my blood before taking the KetoForce, and an hour later. My results only increased by .1 mmol with one cap of the liquid. The recommend dose is 3 capfuls, not to exceed 3 doses in 1 day.
The next day I took the recommended dosage of 3 capfuls. My ketone levels more than doubled an hour later. One of the advertised benefits is appetite suppression, and I did notice I wasn’t nearly as hungry after taking the ketone salts. Make sure you dilute KetoForce with water and some type of citrus juice – I use lemon juice as it contains no carbs and makes the supplement palatable. And don’t be afraid to use a lot of the juice!
My next experiment was seeing whether I noticed any improvement in performance on the bike. Based on the recommendation of Pat and Dr. D’Agostino, both Jonathan and I took 3 capfuls of KetoForce before a long ride with steep climbing. We noticed our energy was good, but we did not experience anything that felt much different than our usual pre-ride ritual of Super Starch after a ketogenic meal and coffee with butter and coconut oil. Last weekend we planned 3 days of riding over the 4th of July weekend, with the first day being the toughest. We tried KetoCaNa this time, and felt better than we had on this particularly tough ride that involved over 3 hours of continuous climbing, and about 4.5 hours of total ride time.
I can’t argue with the numbers and the fact that the supplements definitely increase ketone levels. While the supplements are expensive, we will continue using them for longer rides – those over 3 hours – as it did provide us with a steady boost of energy. We may also experiment with taking a bottle with the supplement in it to sip on throughout the ride, combined with some MCT oil.
I have some concerns with the whole concept of being able to induce “artificial ketosis” but I’ll save that for another post!
