After buying super shoes, a carbon fiber bike, and some custom golf clubs, I would visit TheFeed.com, where you can find all sorts of sports nutrition products and place a large order for exogenous ketones. 

I'm especially keen on this one for $30 a shot.

At that point, my extra dough would have covered all avenues for the marginal gains that my body could handle.  

But are these ketone supplements worth the cost for those on a budget who still want a slight edge? 

I wrestled with this debate for myself, trying to justify that the pros are using this, and some of the more affordable options are only about the price of a Starbucks.

Overall, it's hard to say, and I'm still holding onto my money.  But here is some of the research for you to decide.

For starters, ketones are not foreign to the body.

When glucose is scarce—such as during prolonged fasting, starvation, or a low-carbohydrate diet—the liver creates ketones from the breakdown of fats to use as an alternative fuel.

These ketones give the brain the energy it needs to function when glucose is low, and they also fuel other tissues like the heart and skeletal muscles.

Maintaining a state of ketosis via a low-carb or no-carb diet has been suggested to have certain health benefits, but more notably as an effective treatment for specific medical conditions, such as controlling seizures in those with epilepsy.

For our current focus, some have promoted taking ketones as a fuel to achieve better performance, but the research on this is still evolving.  In theory, there are several ways that supplementing with ketones might help athletes, including:

1. Providing an additional fuel source for the body to use, especially in endurance events,
2. Reducing the body's reliance on its finite stores of carbohydrates and thereby conserving glycogen,
3. An energy substrate that produces ATP more efficiently compared to glucose.

Despite these potential benefits, most studies show that ketone supplementation does not directly improve performance, and some even find that it causes GI distress, which will definitely slow you down.

So, currently, the best answer is that it is a "waste of money" as an immediate ergogenic aid.  They do not seem to improve speed, power, or endurance in the present. 

Since I started lifting 25 years ago, I've been rushing off to grab a shake post-workout to perfectly time my "anabolic window."

During this time, the body is focusing on rebuilding its carbohydrate stores for the next performance.  Additionally, the body begins making proteins to build more muscle. 

Consuming protein and carbs during this four-hour time is known to support the processes, and the evidence suggests that ketones may augment it further.

As far back as the 1930s, researchers found a post-exercise increase in ketone by-products in the urine, known as the Courtice-Douglas effect, suggesting that ketones play a role in metabolic response to exercise.

Although, the studies on the topic are mixed.  There are a couple of experiments that show the body boosts glycogen storage better with ketones post-exercise, but they used some wacky protocols that don't occur in real life and rats.

Even more suggestive is that ketones activate pathways that stimulate muscle protein synthesis. Still, more research is needed to understand its overall impact.

So why am I still tempted to dump my lottery winnings into ketone shots? 

Overall, there is one study that has piqued my interest.

In the experiment, researchers put a group of athletes through a protocol of two-a-day cycling workouts designed to overtrain them.  However, one group took those $30 ketone shots I mentioned following training and before bed, and the other group got nothing special.

The experiment found that the ketone shots blunted overtraining and improved performance at the end of the study.

Additionally, it was found that the group who dosed with ketones had a 26% increase in erythropoietin.  This hormone stimulates improvements in the body's oxygen-carrying capacity (and is a common doping agent for endurance athletes.)

So, Are They Worth It?