What Are Ketones?
Ketones are a chemical produced by your body when, due to a lack of insulin, it is not able to use glucose as its source of energy, and instead start breaking down fat.
Glucose (a type of sugar) is the body's main energy source. But when the body can't use glucose for energy, it uses fat instead. When fats are broken down for energy, chemicals called ketones appear in the blood and urine. This can occur when not enough food has been eaten to provide glucose for energy, or it can occur in diabetes, when the body can't use glucose normally.
There are 2 types of Ketones:
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Endogenous ketones
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Exogenous ketones
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Endogenous ketones are those that are produced inside your body. They are created when you follow a low carb, high protein and fat diet, often referred to as ‘the keto diet’. It is the ‘internal’ source of ketones.
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There are 3 different ketone bodies produced inside our body:
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Acetone
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Acetoacetate (ACA)
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Beta-hydroxybutyrate (BHB)
Each is used by the body differently: (1) Acetone is the least abundant, produced in much smaller amounts, and is usually exhaled through the lungs rather than being used as fuel. (2)Acetoacetate is part of the metabolic pathway whereby humans make and use ketones, but it tends to be found in the blood at lower levels than BHB. (3)BHB is the predominant ketone body in the blood, which is why it's most often used in exogenous ketones.
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Exogenous ketones are those supplied to the body by an external source like a nutritional supplement.–they are not produced in the body. With the advent of exogenous ketones, scientists have developed a way to raise ketone levels significantly and safely without the need to fast or diet. Exogenous ketones provide the body with another fuel to employ. Most exogenous ketone supplements, including Keto// OS, use beta-hydroxybutyrate as their exogenous ketone source because it is used most efficiently by the body.
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Think about it like an electric car that runs on both gas and electricity: by consuming ketones along with carbohydrates, the body will preferentially burn the ketones first, saving the carbohydrates for later.
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Exogenous ketones allow us to enter a metabolic state that wouldn't occur naturally: the state of having full carbohydrate stores, as well as elevated ketones in the blood. This could be advantageous to athletes looking to boost their physical performance. It’s like a shortcut to ketosis.