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Veech Ketone Ester
Typical protocols
Six protocols, collapsed so you can get to the one you need, plus the evidence behind “more ≠ better.” All KetoneAid products are 3rd-party batch tested for WADA-prohibited substances; certificate available on request.
Ke4 quick reference →50% · 30g per bottle
Ke2 quick reference →25% · 25g per bottle
Ketone Shot reference →8% · 5g per bottle
Ke2 users: 2× the Ke4 dose. Ke2 is the same Veech Ketone Ester as Ke4 with three times the water — whatever a Ke4 protocol calls for, double it for Ke2. One Ketone Shot bottle is about 10mL of Ke4 (compare).
Sport protocols
Some athletes use VKE only for recovery; others use a small amount before training or competition. Too much before a high-intensity effort can backfire. Test the exact protocol you plan to use in practice, not for the first time on race day.
Videos
What a “serving” is
Updated October 2026
Ke4 is a 60mL bottle containing 30g VKE. One “serving” is 5mL — one capful — containing 2.5g VKE. That is a common place to start, not the right amount for everyone. More ≠ better; the useful amount depends on the person, diet and goal.
WorldTour teams take as much as 50mL after a race, while entire Olympic teams find benefit with 10mL post-workout. Too much may lower blood glucose too far, lower top speed and reduce performance substantially. It's based on weight: if you weigh twice the average person you may need more, and if you're lightweight you'll need much less. The numbers below assume a 70kg male.
Microdosing — start in practice, not in a race
Microdosing is a fancy word for taking smaller amounts of Ke4. If you're using Ketone Shot (compare), adjust — one bottle of Ketone Shot is about two capfuls, 10mL, of Ke4.
Pre-loading — two weeks before a race
A low-risk way to take it. We don't recommend taking it for the first time on game day. Take 10–30mL a day for one to two weeks before a race — post-workout, or some before bed.
A more detailed version is explained with Chris Farley, 25 years of sub-3-hour marathons, a big sceptic who only took it in the two weeks before his big race and not even on game day.
Pre-workout — start here
All athletes, regardless of diet: (A) full keto and fat adapted, (B) new to keto or intermittent fasting, or (C) full carb / western diet.
- Empty stomachAt least 2–3 hours, if not overnight. This really is key. Without it you may have to take more, or do the dual fuel protocol with carbs, and it still may not be better.
- Most common: 1 to 3 capfuls of Ke4Same as half to one and a half bottles of Ketone Shot, about 15 minutes before warm-up.
- 1–2 capfuls for females or much lighter males
- 2–3 capfuls for non-keto males
- 1–4 capfuls for keto males — keto athletes find benefit at lower amounts, but some are able to take more without the blood sugar dropping effect non-keto people get
Warning: if you take it too early, 30–60 minutes out, and don't use the fuel, you may get sleepy or tired — a blood sugar crash. Some sprinters have taken it 45 minutes before without issue. Test the exact protocol you plan to use, in practice.
With smaller VKE amounts, extra carbohydrate may not be necessary for every workout. VKE does not replace carbohydrate for high-intensity sport; carb needs depend on the event, intensity, diet and amount of VKE being used.
Some stay at this level and never move up. Play around with different amounts.
Then try 15mL up to 25mL of Ke4 — until you reach 30mL you may not need carbs. If you notice a difference at 10–15mL, some drop to 5mL to see how that works. I wouldn't start at 5mL because it may be too subtle, but you can if you feel the energy is still there.
Tip: don't go out faster expecting a better final result. Go out as normal as possible, then increase your speed later if you want to.
"Dual fuel" — more ester, plus carbs
Non-keto athletes. As you go up in ketone ester, most people need to start adding carbs or it drops blood sugar too far and you feel flat and crash. Calculating the carb amount is tricky. For every 3 grams of carbs, 1 gram of VKE — note that Ke4 is half VKE, half water and flavoring.
| If you take | Add | As Ke4 |
|---|---|---|
| 45g of carbs an hour | 10–15g VKE | 20–30mL |
| One gel pre-workout, 18g carbs | 6g VKE | 12mL |
- Empty stomachNormal dinner the night before. Start in the morning after an overnight fast, skip breakfast. For later events, avoid food and calories for 2–4 hours. You will not be hungry.
- 30 minutes before: glucose loadFor example caffeine-free GU gels (opens in new tab). Start caffeine-free if you can. If you use caffeine, reduce your normal amount. Customers frequently report caffeine feels 2–3× stronger with VKE — including more jitters, a crash, and possible sleep disruption if taken late. More ≠ better. Keto athletes may consider some or all of the carbs as slow carbs like isomaltulose (as in SnakeWater) or UCAN (opens in new tab).
- 10 minutes before warm-up, drink Ke4
- Start the workout within 15–20 minutes of a light warm-up jogSome feel worse before it kicks in.
Recovery
Some athletes will only take it for recovery post-workout. Some use it to be able to do two workouts a day. As little as 5mL may be noticeable; 10–20mL would do more.
As for the maximum: over 20–30mL, consider breaking it up over two hours. Too much at once may lead to a ketone peak and an energy crash — so try 30mL just after the workout and 30mL an hour later.
It's unclear how taking it alongside a recovery drink affects the ester's efficacy. We suggest keeping the recovery drink 45 minutes to 2 hours clear (see the video from Dr. Dag (opens in new tab)).
Sleep for sport
There is a separate non-sport sleep protocol below.
Start with 2.5–5mL Ke4 immediately before bed. Some experienced users use up to 10mL after very hard training. Start low. Too much can backfire. More ≠ better.
Other details
Stay on top of hydration and electrolytes, especially with repeated doses or hard training.
Friends don't let friends mix VKE with C8 MCT oil (possible GI issues).
During the workout: add sugar-free electrolytes like Ultima (opens in new tab).
GI context: The early trial that reported GI issues used about 20× our current “serving” per dose, three times a day. Our normal protocols are nowhere near that. More ≠ better.
Game day adjustment. Make sure you have a 10–15 minute warm-up — warm-ups over an hour may be an issue as you're burning the fuel. Do not take Ke4 ten minutes before an all-out race unless you're OK with the first 15 minutes being worse.
Mental / CEO protocol
- One Ke4 “serving” is 5mL = 2.5g VKE. A 60mL bottle contains 30g VKE / 12 “servings.” Start with 5–10mL.
- Best on an empty stomach after an overnight fast, a couple of hours after waking, or when you start using your brain.
- If you eat breakfast, try it a couple of hours later instead.
- If too much leaves you light-headed, hungry or sleepy, you overshot — use less next time. Some people prefer 5mL every few hours instead of one larger amount. More ≠ better.
Longevity protocol
One Ke4 “serving” is 5mL = 2.5g VKE. A full 60mL bottle contains 30g VKE.
Some experienced users use smaller repeated amounts through the day as part of a longevity routine. Human studies have not established that VKE extends lifespan.
How to ease into it
This takes far less per consumption. Some find benefit with as little as 10mL of Ke4 a day for a 175lb person. Many slowly increase to 45mL of Ke4, two or three times a day.
Ease into it. People eating lower carb often need less; higher-carb users may need more to notice the same effect. At minimum, avoid loading the protocol with refined sugar.
On a daily protocol, stay on top of salt and electrolytes.
Week by week
Caffeine: Reduce your normal amount. Customers frequently report caffeine feels 2–3× stronger with VKE — including more jitters, a crash, and possible sleep disruption if taken late. More ≠ better.
Days 1–3 — only 10mL of Ke4, once a day
AM — drink 10mL Ke4. For a 175lb person (adjust according to muscle weight) try as little as 10mL of Ke4 — 10mL of Ke4 is 5g VKE — in the morning. Either immediately on waking or within a couple of hours. Must be on an empty stomach. No breakfast. Coffee or tea is fine, but reduce your normal caffeine at first. Friends don't let friends mix VKE with C8 MCT oil (possible GI issues).
We suggest diluting the 10mL with 20–30mL of cold water.
Test ketone blood levels. Expect “only” a rise of 0.4–0.8 mM. Some users report noticing changes in energy, focus or appetite over the first few days; others feel very little at this amount.
Some may prefer to stick with 10mL long term.
Days 4–7 — 10mL of Ke4, twice a day
AM — drink 10mL Ke4. For a 175lb person (adjust according to weight) try 10mL of Ke4 — 10mL of Ke4 is 5g VKE — in the morning on an empty stomach. No breakfast. Coffee or tea is fine, but reduce your normal caffeine at first. Friends don't let friends mix VKE with C8 MCT oil (possible GI issues).
PM — drink 10mL Ke4. Three or four hours after lunch and three hours before dinner. Somewhere between 3–5pm. On an empty stomach.
Week 2 — optional. Keep as above, or increase slowly. Twice a day
AM — up to 20mL Ke4. For a 175lb person (adjust according to weight) increase up to 20mL of Ke4 — 20mL of Ke4 is 10g VKE — in the morning on an empty stomach. No breakfast. Coffee or tea is fine, but reduce your normal caffeine at first. Friends don't let friends mix VKE with C8 MCT oil (possible GI issues).
PM — up to 20mL Ke4. Three or four hours after lunch and three hours before dinner. Somewhere between 3–5pm. On an empty stomach.
Week 3 — optional. Keep as above, or increase slowly. Three times a day
This is an optional experienced-user progression, not a clinically established longevity target. Most people do not need to go this high. Take up to 45mL each time (3 tablespoons), three times a day. For a 175lb person, that is 45mL of Ke4 (22.5g VKE) three times a day.
AM — up to 45mL Ke4. For a 175lb person (adjust according to weight) increase up to 45mL of Ke4 in the morning on an empty stomach. No breakfast. Coffee or tea is fine, but reduce your normal caffeine at first. This is 3 tablespoons.
Lunchtime — up to 45mL Ke4. With lunch, drink the second consumption.
Afternoon — up to 45mL Ke4. Four hours after lunch and two hours before dinner. Somewhere between 3–5pm. On an empty stomach. A ketone meter is useful feedback here: if you read over 5 mM, reduce the amount the next day.
Ceiling: Don't go past 60mL Ke4 in a day — 30g VKE. Some studies use and show tolerability up to 75g, but nobody needs to be anywhere near that. More ≠ better.
Too much? Headache, hunger, sleepiness or low blood sugar can mean you overshot — back off. Keto/fat-adapted users often need less.
Reduced calorie / fasting — not for weight loss
VKE is not a weight-loss product. It won't erase a cheat day or magically put you into nutritional ketosis. What it can do is quiet appetite, which some people use to make reduced-calorie eating or fasting easier.
You can't drink this and then justify going to McDonald's and think you're burning fat. Some grab that extra hot dog because they think this negates it. You still have to work hard.
What a “serving” is. One Ke4 “serving” is 5mL = 2.5g VKE. For this use, less is usually better. Start with 5mL; larger or experienced users may try 10mL. More ≠ better. Too much can leave you light-headed, hungry or sleepy.
Protocol
- Empty stomachNormal dinner the night before. Drink 5–10mL of Ke4. Some do it first thing in the morning, which is easier to remember; some wait a few hours until they're hungry.
- Wait at least 60 minutes before eating, preferably two hoursOr better, skip breakfast completely.
Black coffee is OK, but reduce your normal caffeine at first. Friends don't let friends mix VKE with C8 MCT oil (possible GI issues). No bread, sugar, honey. No carb drinks before starting the routine above.
Cut out the five deadly sins
- Fruit. Yes, no more fruit.
- Sugar, obviously — sodas including diet, juices, even veggie or fruit juices
- Rice, and all grains
- Bread
- Pasta
- Fruit. Yes, twice, because this is the biggest hurdle for many people. If you really want fruit, buy unsweetened açaí and make a veggie smoothie from it.
And if you work out like crazy, consider cutting back. Working out too hard leads to justification for eating that extra whatever, and to increased hunger that can exceed what you burned off.
Join our Facebook group (opens in new tab) to see what has and hasn't worked for different people.
Deep sleep
I know it sounds crazy — "won't it keep me up?" Yes, if you take too much.
- Start with ½–1 capful Ke4 (2.5–5mL), or ¼–½ Ketone Shot, immediately before bed. Some experienced users go up to 2 capfuls Ke4 (10mL) or one Ketone Shot. Start low. Too much can backfire. More ≠ better.
- Take it within 0–10 minutes of bed.
- If you're already in ketosis or took a larger amount earlier in the day, you may not need another dose for sleep.
- On an unusually short night, some experienced users increase the amount — sometimes up to 25mL Ke4. Too much can backfire. More ≠ better.
Don't use this protocol if your baseline ketones are already very high, or you're multi-day fasting. Screenshots of Oura Ring data and deep sleep are here on Instagram (opens in new tab).
Jet lag
Jet lag disrupts circadian timing and redox balance; ketone metabolism directly interacts with mitochondrial redox state.
- Start with ½–1 capful Ke4 (2.5–5mL) before the flight, repeat every 2–3 hours while awake if useful, then take another dose after arrival. Don't wake up just to take it.
- Drink water, stay on top of salt/electrolytes, and if practical skip the in-flight meal. Low-calorie intake is fine.
Personal experience: Dr. Mercola discussing KetoneAid for travel (opens in new tab)
Why more ≠ better
You’ll see “More ≠ better” all over this page. It isn’t a slogan. The dose studies on this molecule point the same way our protocols do.
Three times the dose. Same ketone oxidation. The efficiency gain showed up at the lower dose.
In a crossover study in trained cyclists, tripling the ketone ester dose roughly doubled blood ketones — and did not raise ketone oxidation at rest or at any exercise intensity. Cycling efficiency improved against control at the lower dose. It was a single dose before exercise in six athletes, and it measured efficiency, not race results — so read it as direction, not a target.
Dearlove et al. 2021 · Med Sci Sports Exerc 53(3):505–516 · PMID 32868580
Too much before a hard effort has a cost
In an earlier study from the same group, a dose that pushed blood ketones to ~3.7 mM before an all-out incremental test lowered blood pH and bicarbonate before the exercise even started. Athletes compensated by breathing harder, and their ventilatory threshold arrived 22 W earlier. Performance was no different from control. The extra ketones bought nothing and cost something.
Dearlove et al. 2019 · Front Physiol 10:290 · PMID 30984015
What we take from it
- Start at the bottom of the ladder and work up. In the dose study, the measured gain was at the lower dose, and even that is above where most of our protocols sit.
- Before high-intensity work, less. The acid load rises with the dose, and a ketone peak can make the first 15 minutes worse.
- In both studies the higher blood levels (~3.7–4.4 mM) came with the downsides and none of the upside. If you use a ketone meter, a reading up there before a hard effort is a reason to take less next time, not more.
- Save larger amounts for recovery, when there is no effort to protect — and even then, split them (see Recovery under Sport).
Both studies used the same ketone monoester molecule as KetoneAid products — not ketone salts, R 1,3 butanediol or other esters. Results from one molecule do not transfer to another.
Helpful — protocol videos
Every protocol video in one place, plus the rest of the channel.
FAQ
Start low and use the product-specific protocol for your goal. For Ke4, 5 mL is one capful and provides 2.5 g VKE; the mental protocol starts with 5-10 mL. Training, endurance, recovery and sleep use different amounts. More ≠ better, and research-study amounts are not our consumer instructions.
Timing depends on the goal. For mental work, the protocols generally use VKE on an empty stomach in the morning or when you need a brain boost. For sport, timing can be before the warm-up and during longer work. Recovery protocols use it after training, and sleep protocols use a small amount immediately before bed. Find the dose that works for you on normal days or in practice first.
Usually, when the goal is the strongest ketone response. Food can reduce the peak D-BHB response, so many KetoneAid protocols place VKE away from meals. That is not an absolute rule: endurance protocols may deliberately use VKE alongside carbohydrate. Follow the protocol for the goal instead of treating 'empty stomach' as universal.
Veech Ketone Ester contains no caffeine. If you combine it with caffeine, reduce your normal caffeine amount at first and pay attention to how you respond; some customers report more jitters, a crash or sleep disruption when the combination is too much. A 2026 controlled study tested VKE alone and VKE plus caffeine, but it did not include a caffeine-only arm, so it does not establish a universal caffeine-combination protocol.
Yes. More ≠ better. If a larger amount leaves you light-headed, hungry, sleepy or otherwise feeling worse, back off and use less next time. The current KetoneAid protocol ceiling is 75 g VKE per day - 150 mL of Ke4 - without a doctor's guidance, and nobody needs to be anywhere near that amount.
VKE is commonly used to extend a fast rather than break it. If by 'fast' you mean a strict zero-calorie fast, Veech Ketone Ester does not fit that definition exactly: it is a food and provides energy, but it is only 12 calories per "serving". It can raise blood ketones and may reduce appetite, but that is different from producing ketones because you are fasting, and it does not magically put you into nutritional ketosis. If you're already in natural ketosis, your body may recognize the increased amount of available energy and temporarily slow natural ketone production for short period of time, perhaps a few hours, until the excess energy is used or no longer available.
It depends on the amount, food, exercise and the individual. For deep-focus use, there is likely a 2-4 hour use window. That should not be treated as a universal blood-ketone duration for every dose or goal; use the product quick reference guides for the specific protocol.