My review of the Ancient Keto BHB salt

These Beta-Hydroxybutyrate (BHB) ketone salts work.

I’ve noticed people complaining that they took these pills as prescribed on the bottle and saw no results:

3 pills taken 3 times a day, which is 9 pills. The package information says that 1 pill contains about 0.542 grams of BHB salts.

Well, there is a big problem with such prescription. And the issue is as follows.

Scientific studies that are available at PubMed Central (PMC) show that the smallest does that was shown to induce exogenous ketosis was 3.75 grams at once taken twice daily.

Taking into consideration that 1 pill contains only 0.542 gram it means that to get 3.75 grams of BHB salt to induce mild ketosis (0.7 mmol/L after 15 minutes as was in the paper below) [ref #1], one needs to take:

3.75 grams / 0.542 gram = 6.91 pills. Or 7 pills exactly!

So, it means you need to take at least 7 pills at once, while the bottle has only 90 pills in total.

Now, you can see why you see no results after taking 3 or even 6 pills at once.

What can you do?

1. If you usually practice Intermittent Fasting for at least 16 hours, then your body, most probably, is already got used to producing ketones. Then, possibly, you don’t need to take more than 6 pills at once to induce ketosis on the last hours of your fast. Pay attention, studies show that BHB salts are much more effective taken in a fasted state [ref #2].

2. If you practice ketogenic diets or very low carb diets, then too, you possibly can induce exogenous ketosis between meals with 6 to 9 pills taken at once.

3. If you do intensive exercises like cycling, spinning or weight training for at least 60 minutes or more, then, again, in a resting period between meals taking 6-9 pills at once may help you induce ketosis.

In other cases, studies show that regular people who don’t practice one of the above need at least 3.75 grams of BHB salts taken at once! [ref #1]

Moreover, the dosage in various studies was 3.75 grams, 7 grams, 12.75 grams, 22.1 grams, 42.2 in one sitting! [ref #3].

So there you have it, taking 3 pills, 3 times a day won’t work for most of regular people.

References:

1. Stefan M, Sharp M, Gheith R, Lowery R, Wilson J. The Effect of Exogenous Beta-Hydroxybutyrate Salt Supplementation on Metrics of Safety and Health in Adolescents. Nutrients. 2021 Mar 5;13(3):854. doi: 10.3390/nu13030854. PMID: 33807731; PMCID: PMC8000900.

2. Saris CGJ, Timmers S. Ketogenic diets and Ketone suplementation: A strategy for therapeutic intervention. Front Nutr. 2022 Nov 15;9:947567. doi: 10.3389/fnut.2022.947567. PMID: 36458166; PMCID: PMC9705794.

3. Clarke K, Tchabanenko K, Pawlosky R, Carter E, Todd King M, Musa-Veloso K, Ho M, Roberts A, Robertson J, Vanitallie TB, Veech RL. Kinetics, safety and tolerability of (R)-3-hydroxybutyl (R)-3-hydroxybutyrate in healthy adult subjects. Regul Toxicol Pharmacol. 2012 Aug;63(3):401-8. doi: 10.1016/j.yrtph.2012.04.008. Epub 2012 May 3. PMID: 22561291; PMCID: PMC3810007; Prins, P.J., D’Agostino, D.P., Rogers, C.Q. et al. Dose response of a novel exogenous ketone supplement on physiological, perceptual and performance parameters. Nutr Metab (Lond) 17, 81 (2020); Holland AM, Qazi AS, Beasley KN, Bennett HR. Blood and cardiovascular health parameters after supplementing with ketone salts for six weeks. J. insul. resist. 2019;4(1), a47.