Ketones are changing the way how athletes, trainers, and fitness professionals are approaching training. It’s true. Ketone supplementation with exogenous ketones are the real deal, and they’re here to stay.
We are going to share with you what most fitness professionals and trainers have yet to wrap their minds around. They just don’t understand how ketones work. Ketone supplements are one of the greatest fitness performance tools ever created in the supplement industry. The problem is, people don’t understand how they work, and more importantly, why ketones for fitness performance are so valuable. Even more so, most assume ketones are exclusive to ketogenic or high-fat / low-carb dieting, and that just simply couldn’t be further from the truth.
So, how do ketones for fitness performance work?
Nutritional Ketosis is a state, or condition, defined by elevated levels of blood ketones. The body’s natural response in the absence of glucose is using body fat to make energy in the form of ketones.
In the past, you couldn’t achieve a state of ketosis without burning body fat for fuel, without initiating ketogenesis, until now. With advances in performance nutrition, funding from DARPA, and the research of the US Dept of Defense, ketones can now be consumed exogenously in a supplement form. You can now achieve a state of ketosis without the body having to naturally produce ketones.
So, why does that matter? Why should you care as an athlete?
Because ketones act as a fourth macronutrient. They have a high energy value that’s more efficient than proteins, carbs, or fat. They allow for dual fuel performance. This is why fitness professionals are now unable to deny the science.
Let’s say that again. Ketones contain calories. They’re a nutrient. These calories are exclusive to this type of supplementation. In other words, you don’t get ketones from food. Your body must make them or you have to supplement them. So, why should fitness professionals, athletes, trainers, competitors, supplement with ketones? The short answer is, because science says so.
Think about it? What’s the goal? Train, compete, recover, regenerate, repeat. Now a single product can be found in supplement form to expedite that process. It makes sense to train harder because ketones create more ATP with less oxygen than glucose.
- To train stronger, ketones increase muscle power output through improved cell signaling.
- To recover faster, ketones are very protein sparing, minimizing muscle metabolism from workouts.
- To regenerate quicker, ketones help maintain healthy joint mobility.
It’s these reasons alone that predict ketone supplementation will become the biggest breakthrough in performance nutrition. It’s why we believe the ketone conversation will remain the biggest conversation in the health and fitness industry for many years to come.
What now?
Create your own hypothesis. Test it on yourself, your clients, your workouts. The results, they’ll speak for themselves. They’ll validate what science has already confirmed. Many high level athletes have already started taking exogenous ketones, such as; UFC fighters, professional dancers, pro bodybuilders, pro golfers, and on and on…
Ketones are a fitness performance tool that’s here to stay, and we want to help educate you on the benefits of ketones and show you how to best use them. Check out our Keto Blog for more material on the ketone conversation.