We all have our own health and wellness goals, yet many of us struggle to turn those wishes into reality. It doesn’t matter if you’re trying to lose weight, gain weight, tone your body, build strength, or improve your endurance, your results will heavily depend on the nutrition you fuel your body with.
When it comes to dieting, we won’t be dealt with any shortage of options to choose from. While vegans and vegetarians often get the most attention, there are a variety of unique diets that each come with certain benefits — including the ketogenic diet.
The main catch with any diet is how difficult they are to implement in your day-to-day life. Since most of us have followed the same diet our whole lives, any sudden changes will take time and effort to grow accustomed to. For those that can’t seem to make the necessary transition, supplements could definitely help! So, what are the best BHB Keto supplements?
Best BHB Keto Supplements
It’s time to outline some of our favorite Keto BHB supplements available today. Our top choices include:
- Perfect Keto Base Exogenous Ketone Base
- Kiss My Keto Exogenous Ketones
- Vitamin Bounty Keto BHB
- MusclePhenon Sports Keto Pills
- Bett3r Keto Keto Burn
Let’s take a closer look at what we’ve found!
Perfect Keto Base Exogenous Ketone Base
Our number one choice is Perfect Keto Exogenous Ketone Base. This supplement comes in powder form with some neat flavors — Peach, Coffee, Chocolate, Vanilla, and Salted Caramel.
It’s an extremely powerful blend, containing 3,800mg of Magnesium, Sodium, and Calcium BHB each! That’s a total of 11,400mg! You’ll get 645mg of Calcium, 670mg of Sodium, and 390mg of Magnesium per serving.
You’ll get 15 scoops per tub and each serving will be one scoop. One tub costs $40 on their official site, but you also have the option of buying flavorless capsules if you don’t want a powder.
Kiss My Keto Exogenous Ketones
Another one of our highly rated BHB Keto supplements is Kiss My Keto Exogenous Ketones. This supplement’s goal is to help you get into ketosis, whether that’s after a cheat meal or if you’re just starting off. Exogenous Ketones includes a variety of high-quality ingredients such as BHBs, citric acid, and malic acid, to name a few.
Kiss My Keto Exogenous Ketones prides itself on not having any added artificial flavors, carbs, or sugars and provides quite a few health benefits. Its benefits include increased fat-burning activity, consistent energy, improved mental performance, and support for getting back into ketosis.
You can purchase Kiss My Keto Exogenous Ketones through their website. There are a few purchase options including flavored options at $49.99, capsules with added caffeine at $29.99, or an 180 count encapsulated supplement without caffeine at $39.99.
Vitamin Bounty Keto BHB
Best of Category
This product is made by Vitamin Bounty. It’ll contain 69mg of calcium, 50mg of magnesium, and 20mg of sodium. The 800mg blend of BHB will contain the three most popular forms of BHB — Magnesium BHB, Calcium BHB, and Sodium BHB.
It’s straight to the point, sugar-free, GMO-free, and made in the USA. Each bottle will come with 60 capsules and you’ll be required to take two capsules daily, totaling 30 servings. It’s best to take a half hour before you eat.
Keto BHB by Vitamin Bounty can be found on their official site for $20.
MusclePhenon Sports Keto Pills
The second product is similar to the last one, but will come with more BHB. Made by MusclePhenom Sports, these Keto Pills come packed with a total of 3,000mg of BHB. You’ll get 1,000mg of Magnesium, Sodium, and Calcium BHB for a balanced blend.
A 60-capsule bottle will normally run you $30, but they are on sale right now for just $20 — making it a no-brainer. The only pitfall is that each serving size is four capsules, meaning 15 servings per bottle. Still, you can get a 1,500mg blend by only taking two capsules.
MusclePhenom Sports also makes an MCT Oil supplement that can easily be added to their BHB supplement.
Bett3r Keto Keto Burn
Next up, we have a BHB supplement that will combine the MCT Oil for you. You’ll get the typical Magnesium, Sodium, and Calcium BHB that you find in most supplements, but it adds MCT Oil powder, Apple Cider Vinegar, and Green Tea. The downfall is they only tell you the dosage of the entire blend, which is 1,200mg.
It’s a good value pick, though. One bottle contains 120 capsules and each serving is 3 capsules — meaning 40 servings per bottle. They normally run $30 per bottle, but they are on sale right now for just $25.
What Are Keto BHB Supplements?
Before we can fully understand what Keto BHB supplements are, it’s essential we understand the following terms — ketosis, ketones, and BHB. You can think of these as the three pillars of Keto BHB supplements.
As you can probably imagine, the three terms listed above will also have a heavy influence on the ketogenic diet — which is where the name comes from. Let’s learn a little more about what these supplements are and how they can help you stay healthy.
What Is Ketosis?
First up is ketosis, which is actually a normal process your body undergoes when there’s a short supply of carbs and glucose. As a result, our bodies will run low on energy and will start searching for other sources.
One of those sources will be produced in the liver and will take us to the second term we listed above. Ketones are created when fats are broken down in the liver and will eventually be converted into ATP, also known as the energy currency for its role in storing and transferring energy in our cells.
There are many products out there to help you determine if your body has entered ketosis, such as the Keyto Breath Sensor. Some of us will experience ketosis regularly, while others might rarely experience it. For those that don’t follow a keto diet, there’s a good chance your body enters ketosis when you’re sleeping or fasting.
The Three Physiological Ketones
When breaking down fats in your liver, the body will produce three main physiological ketones — Acetone, Acetoacetate, and Beta-Hydroxybutyrate. Although Acetone is rather easy to remember, the other two ketones have shortened names — AcAc and BHB.
Let’s take a closer look at these three ketones:
- Acetone – of all the ketones in blood circulation, acetone will only make up less than 2% of them. Furthermore, they won’t be used for energy and will largely contribute to the bad breath often experienced during ketosis.
- Acetoacetate (AcAc) – making up around 20% of all ketones in the body, acetoacetate is the first ketone produced in ketosis. Once produced, it will either be used as fuel or converted into one of the other two ketones.
- Beta-Hydroxybutyrate (BHB) – the most abundant of the ketones in our body, BHB makes up nearly 80% in circulation. The body will use it as fuel, but will also have the ability to cross the blood-brain barrier.
As the name suggests, Keto BHB supplements will take advantage of BHB ketones. Believe it or not, BHB isn’t a “true” ketone when you break it down to its chemical structure.
A typical ketone will consist of a carbon molecule double-bonded to an oxygen molecule, as well as two carbon atoms with a single bond. The BHB ketone will differ by being attached to only one carbon atom, though it will be double-bonded to an oxygen molecule.
How Does The Body Produce BHB?
We’ve thrown a lot of information at you, so let us backtrack a little and summarize how we went from talking about carbs to BHB.
Your body has several ways of receiving energy, but it won’t receive them all at once. You’ll typically turn to glucose first, especially since it works quick and is normally readily available. Your body gets glucose from breaking down carbs.
If you run out of carbs or glucose, your body will start to turn to other ways of getting energy. This is when the liver will start to make use of the fats you’ve been eating all day. The fats will be broken down into ketones, more specifically the Acetoacetate (AcAc) ketone.
From the AcAc ketone, it will have three different fates — provide fuel to the body, convert into Acetone and be excreted, or convert into BHB and provide quality fuel.
To make things more complex, BHB ketones will be broken down into two different types — D-BHB and L-BHB. The one we are going after is D-BHB, which is produced in high amounts and provides the energy we need.
The Difference Between Endogenous And Exogenous Ketones
When researching the many benefits and precautions to ketones in the body, you’ll likely come across two terms that may cause confusion — endogenous and exogenous ketones. Don’t worry, these aren’t difficult concepts and it’s largely the reason why I wanted to touch base on them.
Endogenous ketones are simply those that are made naturally through the processes listed above (fasting, keto diet, exercise). Exogenous ketones are going to be those that we supplement through our body (Keto BHB supplements).
Keto BHB Supplement Benefits
Let’s paint a quick picture.
You’ve been studying up on ketosis and have seen all your role models on Instagram give it a try. Unfortunately, you see them doing it the natural way. You see them fasting, which is going long periods of time without food. You see them exercising their lives away and following these crazy low-carb, high-fat diets.
That simply doesn’t seem to fit your lifestyle and you see no way of making it happen.
That’s when you read up on Keto BHB supplements and BHB salts. These can help your body enter ketosis very easily and without the excessive lifestyle change — that’s the first benefit. In addition to that, Keto BHB supplements will regulate blood sugar levels and increase fat-burning.
You’ll also effectively avoid the brain fog, irritability, stomach aches, and sore muscles that often result from major diet changes.
Getting The Most Out Of Your Keto BHB Supplement
As you can tell, the keto lifestyle and BHB breakdown is a fairly technical body change. While you’ll now understand what the ketones and supplements do to your body, you’ll also want to understand how to get the most out of your experience.
Spotting the good from the bad, as well as what you can combine with your Keto BHB supplement, will help you maximize the benefits.
What Should I Look For In A Keto BHB Supplement?
A good BHB supplement will have three distinct qualities — a high ratio of BHB to salts (minerals), a balanced list of salts, and limited-to-no fillers. Of course, you’ll also want to stay away from BHB supplements that provide carbs or other forms of energy, which would defeat the purpose.
BHB supplements are often — almost always — combined with minerals like magnesium and sodium. This isn’t a bad thing, but too much of it can be. Look for a supplement that contains under one gram of each mineral provided.
You’ll also want to confirm they are distributing the salt and mineral content evenly throughout the blend. Stay away from the product if you see something like 0.2 grams of calcium, 0.8 grams of magnesium, and 1.2 grams of sodium.
Lastly, avoid fillers when possible. Xanthan gum, silica, and guar gum are commonly found in supplement products, but have no real use.
MCT Oils
MCT Oils can be found in many keto supplements, like Keto Zone. Many researchers have studied the effects MCT Oils have on BHB supplements. More specifically, one study looked at what would happen if BHB salts and MCT oils were supplemented together.
They found that BHB in the blood peaked at 1.33 mmol/L after just 60 minutes. This was a significant increase from the 0.93 mmol/L of blood BHB when just supplementing with BHB salts.
If you want to get the most out of your BHB supplement, add some MCT Oils or find a brand that does it for you!
Is Fasting Effective With BHB Keto Supplements?
We’ve mentioned this previously, but many people will wonder if fasting is allowed when taking a BHB supplement. Believe it or not, fasting will be one of the quickest ways to maximize the amount of BHB in the blood when combined with a supplement.
In the same study listed above, they measured the BHB levels after 60 minutes of fasting and supplementing with both MCT Oils and BHB salts. The result was 2.77 mmol/L instead of 1.33.
When fasting, you should always follow the advice of a professional to ensure your body is getting the right nutrients daily.