HVMN, a San Francisco-based startup, in partnership with the University of Oxford, developed a ketone ester drink.The company claims that the drink, reviewed by the US Food and Drug Administration, improves athletic ability, focus, and energy.

It contains 120 calories and has no fat, protein or carbohydrates.Its calories come from molecules formed by the breakdown of fat, Geoff Woo, the co-founder and CEO of HVMN, said, Business Insider reported.

Alternative body fuel

Although ketone is consistently produced by the liver, a lot of the molecules are used as an alternative body fuel when carbohydrates run out naturally.Another instance is when a person goes on a low-carbohydrate, high-fat diet.

The drink will boost the fat-melting capability of the body without starving or going on a strict, low-carbohydrate diet.According to a study, the ketone levels of a body can equal ketone levels after a week of fasting one hour after drinking ketone, Tech Times reported.

Side effects

However, professional cyclists who took ketone complained the HVMN drink made them two percent slower.All of the 10 cyclists claimed they experienced nausea and severe gut discomfort after drinking ketone, another research, published in Frontiers of Psychology, reported.One participant, supposed to be the 11th, failed to complete the experiment because ketone caused vomiting and severe dizziness.

However, it was a different case for rowers, Brianna Stubbs, the lead researcher of HVMN, shared.  A World Rowing Championships two-time gold medalist, Stubbs said that when she drank ketone when she got to the red line, she felt like she can go further.Rowers who reach the finish line normally run out of energy, but because of ketone, she felt like she had an extra gear at the end.

Louise Burke from the Australian Institute of Sport and lead author of the study explained that some ketone drinkers might have just adjusted to the sudden inflow of the drink.The body likely interpreted the molecules as a metabolic problem that urged the muscle to slow down,

Tech Times reminded that while ketone burns fat and functions as the fourth fuel of the body when there is no other fuel source, it is not a stimulant that would enhance performance with minimal effort.Using the right amount of effort and the right dosage of ketone could make the molecules really work as the superfuel of the body.

Tastes like rubbing alcohol

Ketone will be marketed in a bottle about the size of a five-hour energy shot.While it is clear and has no smell, the taste burns.Business Insider reporters who tried the drink describe its taste as like rubbing alcohol that made them cry and gag.

A few minutes after ingesting ketone, their stomachs started to toss with nausea.The flavor, which was like a nail polish remover that lingered on the lips of Melia Robinson and Erin Brodwin, was extinguished only with ice water.

However, Brodwin said that after the nauseous phase, she felt a definite curb in her appetite and she could focus on her work easier.Since she drank the ketone at 11 AM on the second day of her weeklong intermittent fasting experiment that she broke at noon, after she drank the ester, Brodwin felt her normal fasting jitters disappear.She did not think about food until 12:30 PM and ate only at 1 PM.

Robinson felt a surprising alert at 3 PM, three hours after she took ketone.Instead of looking for distractions in her inbox, she spent the time writing and skipped her second and third cup of coffee which she normally takes around that time.

Second try

The next day, Brodwin took a second ketone drink at 7:30 AM on an empty stomach before her high-intensity interval-training yoga class.Like the first time, it still tasted and felt disgusting, but the drink enabled her to perform better in her class than normal.

Stubbs measured the effect of ketone on the two journalists by having them undergo a blood glucose test and a ketone test thrice during the two-day trial.She pricked their fingers before they drank the ketone, 30 minutes after, and one hour after drinking,

One hour before and after they drank the ester, the ketone level of Robinson was 6mmol/l which is a deep state of ketosis usually achieved by fasting.Brodwin's ketone level went up t0 4.2mmol/l.While most people keep a non-existent level of ketosis of 0.1mmol/l, the two female reporters began with higher levels because one of them was on a low-carbon diet and the other was fasting.

Frontiers in Physiology reported that the 10 cyclists tried ketone on a 31-kilometer laboratory-based cycling trial time measured by a cycling ergometer programmed to simulate the 2017 World Road Cycling Championships course.It induced a higher blood ketone concentration during submaximal cycling, ranging between 1.5mmol/l and 3 mmol/l.