HVMN IQ Ketone Ester

As of late, ketones have become a hot bed for discussion about their application across the endurance sports realm. We had the pleasure of sitting down with Co-Founder Geoffrey Woo of HVMN to discuss all thing ketones and why their product is making an impact.

Q: Ketone Drinks - why are they even interesting?

We know we have three energy substrates to use: carbs, fats, and proteins... but what if we had a fourth? Ketones are that fourth and have a different metabolic impact compared to C,F,P in their effect within the body.

Q: What’s the history behind ketones?

• Space missions provided early interest in them by their desire to determine what the most calorically energy efficient fuel was.
• DARPA - Operation Metabolic Dominance; the military wanted to invest in tech to enhance our warfighters abilities of endurance.
• First used by Special Operations and Le Tour athletes in vast quantities.

Q: What are the benefits of adding them to your protocol?

• Their use shows a glycogen-sparing effect
• No impact or impairment to the other energy substrates (aka doesn’t switch off the utilization of carbs in an event).
• Exogenous ketones provide the signaling effect of being a lean muscle preserver while still getting Carb/Fat/Pro in your diet.
• "Fasting without the fast".

Q: What’s the difference between ketones and just eating fat?

Fat in diet is metabolized into fatty acids and not used for muscle preservation, such as in fasting. Additionally, endogenous consumption (fat coming from diet and being broken down) takes time and energy to get ketones from it.

Q: Are there implications for this product with TBIs/concussions and etc.?

Anecdotally, ketones can assist in the recovery aspect of healing where glucose is limited in brain after a bout of damage.

Additionally, oxygenation/SPO2 at altitude drops significantly, like around 88%. However, with ketones we’ve been able to maintain 96%+ levels.

Q: What’s the protocol for use in competition/training vs recovery?

• Day-of/Performance: 30min prior, get a ketone hit (target: .5g / kg of weight with total goal being ~ 3+ mmol in your body) and can top off every 60min (another half dose to full dose).
• Recovery: Adding a serving of Ketones in addition to standard meals/recovery process. Esp. helpful to add some right before sleep.
• Is there such a things as too much? Clinically they use 45-60g of ketones for peak performance, roughly 4.5-6 doses. Meanwhile in the Tour (de France) they would use 100-150g. A: So no there is essentially not when take over time accordingly.

Check out HVMN's Ketone IQ HERE at The Feed!