Acute Ketone Monoester Supplementation Does Not Change Exercise Efficiency during Incremental Cycling in Trained Individuals

METHODS: Twenty-eight adults (16 males and 12 females) aged 30 ± 10 yr (peak oxygen uptake (V̇O 2peak ): 59 ± 11 mL·kg -1 ·min -1 ) completed three experimental trials in a randomized, crossover, and double-blinded manner. Participants ingested either 0.3 (KE-LO) or 0.6 (KE-HI) g·kg -1 body mass of KE or a flavor-matched placebo (PLAC) ~30 min before exercise. Exercise involved a 3-min warm-up, three 5-min stages at fixed incremental workloads corresponding to 75%, 100%, and 125% of individual ventilatory threshold, followed by a ramp protocol to volitional exhaustion to determine peak power output (PPO). RESULTS: Venous blood [ß-hydroxybutyrate], the major circulating ketone body, was higher after KE ingestion compared with PLAC (KE-HI: 3.0 ± 1.1 ≥ KE-LO: 2.3 ± 0.6 ≥ PLAC: 0.2 ± 0.1 mM; all P ≤ 0.001. There were no differences between conditions in the primary outcome exercise economy, nor gross efficiency or delta efficiency, when analyzed over the entire submaximal exercise period or by stage. Heart rate and ventilation were higher in KE-HI and KE-LO compared with PLAC when assessed over the entire submaximal exercise period and by stage (all P ≤ 0.05). PPO after the ramp was lower in KE-HI compared with both KE-LO and PLAC (329 ± 60 vs 339 ± 62 and 341 ± 61 W, respectively; both P < 0.05) despite no difference in V̇O 2peak . CONCLUSIONS: KE ingestion did not change indices of exercise efficiency but increased markers of cardiorespiratory stress during submaximal incremental cycling and reduced PPO.