Veech Ketone EsterClinical Studies

Twenty-eight trained men completed supervised cycling training. Post-exercise and pre-sleep Veech Ketone Ester produced a larger improvement in 30-minute power and several skeletal-muscle adaptation measures versus control.

Eighteen recreational runners took 30 g of VKE three times daily, 90 g a day, for 31 days. Executive function improved on two separate tests, blood glucose fell about 15%, and after dosing stopped the VKE group held its oxygen uptake in a maximal test while placebo declined. The 5-km time trial did not change: a short near-maximal effort is the one event type where this ester has never improved race-day speed, and none was expected. The cognitive and oxygen results are the findings; the 5K result was predictable.

KetoneAid field note. Another mega-dose trial. 90 g a day is three to four times what KetoneAid recommends, and KetoneAid does not endorse the protocol. The only dose-response study in the literature (Dearlove 2021) found the metabolic gain at the lower dose, about 18 g for a 70 kg athlete, and nothing added from tripling it. Large amounts also push blood glucose down, which is the last thing you want on race day.

Seventeen endurance-trained men completed 90 minutes of loaded treadmill exercise at 34 °C, then ran to exhaustion. With 2 × 25 g VKE (plus 4 mg/kg caffeine in both arms) versus carbohydrate, 1-back accuracy was higher (+2.8% total, +8.9% target) and time to exhaustion was 27% longer (8.9 vs 7.0 min; 9 of 17 longer, 4 shorter). Blood BHB reached 4.0 mM. The 2-back, word recall, reaction time, heart rate and core temperature did not differ. Both arms contained caffeine, so the result is for the combination, not the ester alone.

In 25 adults, VKE raised BHB to about 1.5 mM and preserved cognitive flexibility and selective attention under experimentally induced mental fatigue. VKE + caffeine produced larger effects on some reaction-time measures.

During an ultra-endurance run, the placebo group showed slower reaction and movement times. The VKE condition maintained performance on several psychocognitive measures and produced higher circulating dopamine during the event.

Ten well-trained cyclists completed a strenuous training day followed by overnight polysomnography. VKE improved sleep efficiency and counteracted the exercise-related decline in REM sleep and rise in wakefulness after sleep onset.

A low-dose VKE protocol was associated with higher ultrasound-derived intramuscular glycogen fuel scores during the final study period in college basketball players. This is a conference abstract, not a full peer-reviewed paper.

Executive function and reaction held up after exhausting intermittent running with VKE, while they declined on carbohydrate alone; blood lactate was also lower. Shuttle-run time to exhaustion and 15-m sprints did not change, which is the expected pattern: VKE protects the brain under fatigue and has never been claimed to add top-end speed. Compare the cognitive-battery trial in which cognition did not improve: those subjects were not taken to exhaustion.

KetoneAid field note. The ester shows its effect when there is a deficit to fill. Rested, well-fed subjects on easy tasks are not where this molecule shows.

During a three-week intensive cycling overload block, post-exercise and pre-sleep VKE increased sustainable training load in week 3 and improved final 30-minute power in a two-hour endurance test.

Fourteen healthy young adults completed randomized crossover conditions. KetoneAid-supplied VKE increased R-BHB rapidly and dose-dependently; the 10g VKE condition reached about 2.4 mM at 15 minutes.

Eleven male middle- and long-distance runners ran with VKE alone, VKE plus carbohydrate, or carbohydrate alone. Running economy improved 4.1% with VKE and no carbohydrate. Time to exhaustion did not change, and the two measure different things: running more efficiently at a steady pace does not have to show up in a test of how long you last at maximum. Read alongside the same lab's 2025 footwear study, where the ester replaced a sports drink and economy did not improve.

In trained cyclists, an acute 0.35 g/kg VKE dose 30 min before exercise raised BHB to about 2.0 mM, while mean power in a 20-minute cycling time trial was 2.4% lower than placebo.

Why negative. A 0.35 g/kg dose 30 minutes before a 20-minute all-out trial, no carbohydrate strategy, no buffering. That is the one job this molecule is known not to do: short maximal efforts run on glucose, and a large acute dose lowers blood glucose and pH right when they are needed. Same pattern as Poffé’s 30-min trial. Neither says anything about recovery, focus or long efforts, where the positive evidence lives.

KetoneAid field note. 0.35 g/kg is about 28 g for an 80 kg rider, taken all at once before a sprint-type effort. Nobody we work with takes it that way. Start low, in training, and keep acute doses away from short all-out events.

Fifteen normal-weight adults consumed a ketone ester or calorie-matched dextrose after an overnight fast. The ketone condition raised BHB to about 3.3 mM and significantly reduced ghrelin, hunger and desire to eat.

Twenty healthy young adults completed a standard 2-hour oral glucose tolerance test twice, 30 minutes after drinking either Veech Ketone Ester or a water placebo. Glucose area under the curve was 16% lower after VKE and free fatty acids were 44% lower, with no change in insulin AUC. An oral insulin-sensitivity index improved by about 11%.

Eleven well-trained cyclists completed a 3-h simulated race in the heat (28 °C, 60% humidity, radiant heat lamps) with fluid intake set to keep them euhydrated. VKE lowered urine output and circulating NT-proANP by about 20%, a real fluid-retention effect with a matching hormone change. The 15-min time trial attached to it did not differ; nobody dehydrates in 15 minutes, so that test could not detect the benefit it was paired with. The finding is the fluid balance.

KetoneAid field note. KetoneAid does not see this in the field. With smaller amounts of VKE, people report going to the bathroom more, not less. Do not read a 20% lab result as permission to drink less water.

Nine well-trained male cyclists completed a ~3-hour simulated race followed by a 15-minute time trial under four conditions. VKE alone did not significantly improve time-trial power versus control; VKE combined with sodium bicarbonate produced about 5% higher mean power than control. Sprint time to exhaustion was unchanged.

Well-trained cyclists took 50 g of VKE before a 30-min all-out time trial, with or without bicarbonate to cancel the acid load. Blood BHB ran 3–4 mM and mean power was about 1.5% lower either way. A short all-out effort is a glucose event, and this was a glucose test applied to a ketone. The same lab's recovery and three-week training studies were positive. It may simply be the event, not the molecule.

KetoneAid field note. This is a glucose test run on a ketone, at two to four times the amount KetoneAid recommends. The only dose-response study (Dearlove 2021) found the metabolic gain at 18 g, not 53 g. Fifty grams before an all-out effort drives blood glucose down at the exact moment a time trial runs on it. The result says more about the dose than the molecule. Start low; work up.

Fourteen highly trained cyclists rode a 3-h simulated race while inspired oxygen fell to 14.5%. VKE counteracted the hypoxia-induced drop in blood and muscle oxygenation by about 3%. Adding bicarbonate cancelled both the extra ventilation and the oxygen gain, which shows the oxygen effect runs through breathing. The 15-min time trial at moderate altitude did not change; a 3% oxygen difference is not expected to move a short clock. This is the mechanism paper behind every later altitude result.

During three weeks of endurance overload, VKE increased capillary contacts by 44% and the capillary-to-fibre exchange index by 42%, and increased circulating EPO by 26% versus control.

Nine healthy men completed exercise followed by recovery nutrition with or without VKE. Peak serum erythropoietin was significantly higher in the VKE condition.

Nine recreationally active men completed a mental-fatigue task followed by a simulated soccer match. A 25g VKE dose improved selected cognitive-performance measures during later exercise blocks.

Across five studies in 39 high-performance athletes, nutritional ketosis altered fuel selection during exercise. In the cycling time-trial protocol, the ketone-ester condition produced an approximately 2% improvement in distance covered.

Twelve trained male athletes completed glycogen-depleting exercise. Under a controlled high-glucose clamp, the VKE condition increased glucose uptake and produced higher muscle glycogen than the matched control condition.

Eight trained men did glycogen-depleting exercise, then recovered on a carbohydrate-protein drink with or without VKE. Muscle-building signals went up: mTORC1 activation (S6K1, 4E-BP1) rose and AMPK fell faster with VKE. Glycogen resynthesis did not change, because the carbohydrate-protein drink was already refilling glycogen as fast as it could; a full tank cannot be topped up. Holdsworth 2017, which controlled glucose and insulin, did find a glycogen effect, and the Duke basketball study measured glycogen restoration directly. Both are on this page.

In the acute bolus experiment with healthy young adults, calorie-matched glucose and VKE produced opposite effects on functional brain-network stability: glucose destabilized networks while the ketone ester stabilized them.

Human pharmacokinetic experiments compared ketone ester and ketone-salt drinks and established major differences in D-BHB exposure, D- versus L-BHB handling, food effects and repeat-dose behavior.