ketones

Ketosis with exogenous ketones cocktail

There are a number of ways to enter ketosis state.

First approach is to do it natively
When you fast or follow a ketogenic diet (with less than 50 gr of carbs in a day) liver glycogen becomes depleted at some point and liver starts to convert fats (free fatty acids) into ketones.

There are three ketone types in the body:
1. Beta Hydroxybutyrate – BHB a primary fuel for the body
2. Acetoacetate – used for energy to a less extent (expelled in urine)

3. Acetone (isn’t used for energy and expelled in breath and urine)

Second approach is to take a supplement

It is also possible to enter into ketosis by taking supplements. There are three main types of them:

  1. MCT Oil (or MCT Oil Powder) which stands for Medium Chain Triglycerides oil. It’s a purified Coconut Oil that retains only C8 and C10 fractions that are metabolized in the liver to ketones.
  2. Ketone salts, use Potassium, Calcium, Magnesium, Sodium salts combined with BHB ketones.
  3. Ketone esters which are a type of chemical compound that is converted to ketones and provides high level of ketosis in comparison to ketone salts and the effect of taking them lasts for hours, while ketone salts last for an hour or so.

My experimenting with exogenous ketones

The above mentioned supplements are known as exogenous (external) ketones since they can induce exogenous ketosis independent of the diet. It means that even though you may eat carbs and hence insulin level will be high you still will get into ketosis taking such supplements.

I’ve been taking MCT Oil, MCT Oil Powder, Ketone salts for months. So today I’ve decided to make a cocktail of all of them at once and see what happens.

Experiment setup
On 14th hour of the fast I am mixing in 250 ml of carbonated water the following compounds:

  1. 9 grams of MCT Oil (I took 1 tablespoon of MCT Oil which is about 10 ml)
  2. 11 grams of MCT Oil Powder that contains 6 grams of MCT Oil.
  3. 9 grams of Potassium D-BHB ketones salt that contains about 6.5 gr of BHB ketones.
  4. One tablespoon of Raw Apple Cider Vinegar (about 10 ml)

In total:

  • 15 grams of MCT Oil,
  • 6.5 grams of BHB ketones.

This cocktail should bring my Acetone ketone level in breath which I can measure to about 0.5 mmol/l.

Notice
A better and more exact way to measure ketones would be to measure BHB ketones concentration in blood using Blood Ketone Meter.

References
More information about ketones

https://ketonutrition.org/the-many-faces-of-beta-hydroxybutyrate-bhb/?form=MG0AV3