Quick Summary

From the brand:

Keto BHB is a sugar-free, stimulant-free hydration and performance aid that helps boost energy, focus and fat burning thanks to a powerful combination of patented goBHB exogenous ketone salts and L-Tyrosine. BHB Salts, or Beta Hydroxybutyrate Salts are an alternative, readily accessible source of energy to help control cravings & support the ketogenic lifestyle. Supplementing with BHB salts may help burn fat, decrease appetite, increase metabolism & energy production all while preserving muscle & supporting recovery.

6g goBHB I 300mg L-Tyrosine I TRAACS Minerals & Electrolytes

ENHANCES FAT BURNING
BHB salts are exogenous ketones that help shift your body from burning glucose to burning fatty fatty acids for fuel, which may ease the transition to a ketogenic diet.

IMPROVES ATHLETIC PERFORMANCE
Exogenous ketones provide your muscles with readily accessible energy that can support performance during training or competition.

AIDS HYDRATION
Keto BHB contains essential electrolytes, in the form of TRAACS minerals & electrolytes from Albion, to replenish electrolytes lost when transitioning to a ketogenic diet as well as to support cellular hydration and proper muscle function.

VERSATILE
Keto BHB contains ZERO caffeine or any other stimulant, therefore it can be used any time of day or night to help increase energy, reduce cravings, heighten focus and boost your mood.

Introduction

Hello all. Full intro about myself can be found here in the forum: https://supplementreviews.com/forum/index.php?topic=35432.0

Thank you to VMI Sports for their continued participation here on SR.com and allowing us TROOPers to try and review many of the products they offer. My thoughts today are going to be about my experience with their Keto BHB product. Based on my food choices for the past six months or so, I have been following the keto lifestyle protocol of consuming zero direct carbs while increasing my fat intake and keeping protein to a moderate amount (much lower than I am used to). With that said, I do not know if I am technically in a state of ketosis because I have not invested in the supplies to test my blood on a regular basis. With that in mind, I wanted to give this supplement a try to see if it could improve my overall feeling of well-being while being very low carb and possibly improving my weight training sessions at the same time. Let's see how everything goes.

Ingredient Profile

I have included a photo of the supplement facts panel at the bottom of this review for your reference.

As you may have figured out from the name of this supplement, the heart and soul of this formula revolves around the 7.2g of BHB salts. This is broken down evenly between the calcium, sodium and magnesium forms at 2.4g each per serving. To ensure quality ingredients are being used, VMI decided to use the patented goBHB version of the exogenous ketone salts. These are manufactured and distributed by the company Compound Solutions. The following information is taken directly from the Compound Solutions website (https://www.compoundsolutions.com/gobhb.html)

What is goBHB?
GoBHB is a ketone body, a breakthrough energy supplement from Compound Solutions. When eating a low carbohydrate diet, the liver converts fats to ketones, which serve as an alternative energy source for the brain, heart and muscle. With goBHB, you are ingesting a ready-to-use ketone body, giving athletes and busy professionals more energy, performance, and focus.

Boost Mental and Physical performance
Ketone bodies include acetoacetate, acetone and beta-hydroxybutyrate (BHB) which facilitate mental and physical performance. goBHB is a ketone body delivering an immediate boost of energy and performance to athletes, busy professionals and "Biohackers" looking for an edge.

HOW DOES goBHB WORK?

Beta-Hydroxybutyrate is a ketone body providing a direct energy source to the brain and muscles. You do not have to be in a ketogenic state to benefit from goBHB. Even those with low carbohydrate diets can experience the benefits of higher energy and better performance.
Translation: It's a non-carb energy source

Other than the BHB salts included, this supplement also has 300mg of L-Tyrosine. L-Tyrosine is an essential amino acid which supports brain function. It can be converted by neurons in the brain into the neurotransmitters dopamine and norepinephrine (noradrenaline), hormones which are depleted by stress, excessive work and certain drugs. By replenishing norepinephrine in the brain, mental energy levels are enhanced and a feeling of contentment often occurs. L-Tyrosine boosts certain neurotransmitters in the brain and has been used to support stress reduction and depression. L-Tyrosine is converted in the body into other key biologic compounds, including L-dopa, CoQ10, thyroid hormones and melanin. Tyrosine can also enhance athletic performance. L-Tyrosine is an important component of protein and helps form the bioactive factors vital to cellular growth and maintenance. Tyrosine supplementation has the potential to increase athletic performance in a few ways. One of the mechanisms possibly contributing to fatigue during exercise is an increase in central serotonin levels and an increase in the ratio of serotonin to dopamine. Tyrosine may help decrease this ratio and compete with tryptophan (the amino acid precursor to serotonin) at the blood-brain barrier. Increased dopaminergic activity may decrease the perception of fatigue. Also, during highly stressful conditions, catecholamine levels can become depleted, and tyrosine may be particularly useful under these conditions.

Personally, I find this dosage to be a little low and in a perfect world I would like to see this ingredient dosed closer to 1000mg but would also settle for something in the range of 500mg to 750mg. The remainder of the ingredient profile is the hydration elements in the form of TRAACS minerals & electrolytes from Albion, to replenish electrolytes lost when transitioning to a ketogenic diet as well as to support cellular hydration and proper muscle function.

Taste/Mixability/Dosing

Taste >> I received the Star Berry Savers flavor, which based on the packaging should be a mix of red berries/fruits (strawberries, cherries and raspberries). Overall the flavor is enjoyable but nothing out of this world. No specific fruit flavor really stands out when drinking this and it is not overly sweet either. There is also no negative Stevia "bite" or aftertaste that sometimes comes with products that use that ingredient. The flavor system also allows for this supplement to be watered down beyond the recommended 8-16 ounces of water and it still tastes good.

Mixability >> I have included a few photos of my experience when it comes to the mixability with this supplement. After tossing a scoop into my shaker bottle, you can see some of the powder begins to dissolve on its own while most of it still sits on top of the water. After a few shakes without a blender ball, everything is cleanly mixed with no floaters, sinkers or any residue on the sides. The only minor issue that occurs is about a couple inches of foam forms on the top after shaking. If you give it ten to fifteen seconds, all that foam disappears and you are ready to go.

Dosing >> Per the brand: "Suggested Use: Mix one scoop in 8-16 oz of water (adjust water to personal taste preference), then shake or stir well & consume prior to physical exercise. For best results, use two scoops per day. Do not consume within four hours prior to sleep/bedtime. Avoid consuming in conjunction with other caffeinated products." They also say on their website "Consume 1 serving preferably on an empty stomach prior to exercise, or in between meals for a low calorie ketogenic snack."

I will speak about how I dosed this product in the effectiveness section.

Effectiveness

Before I begin speaking about the effectiveness of this product, I wanted to give a brief overview of the lifestyle and eating protocol that I follow. I typically eat most of my food in the evening between 10pm and midnight. During the other hours of the day, I am either sleeping or just drinking water while I am awake. Sometimes that water will include some aminos or some type of flavor enhancer. On my lifting days in the gym, I typically workout in the early to mid-afternoon hours. This means that at least 12 hours has passed since I last had a whole food meal.

I used this supplement a couple of different ways throughout the tub to see how it performed in different areas of my everyday life. The majority of the scoops used from this supplement were as an intra-workout drink. I typically use either a BCAA or EAA supplement intra-workout to help with energy and recovery. When I had my tub of the Keto BHB, I wanted to see how it worked as a replacement for the amino acids. For this purpose, I would have to say that this supplement performed quite well. It gave me a nice little boost in energy mid-way through my workout without the consumption of more caffeine. The most noticeable effect for me was the hydration elements that each scoop provided. While taking this intra-workout, I never experienced or even came close to having muscle cramps or feeling light-headed from a lack of electrolytes or de-hydration. Using this instead of amino acids also did not affect my recovery or muscle soreness at all. Plus, this was a nice refreshing drink to sip on while working out in a hot and stuffy gym.

The other way I used this supplement was on my off days from weight lifting and when I only do LISS cardio. Depending on how the day was going, I would either throw a scoop in my water bottle sometime in the middle of the day as a little pick me up or I would sip on it during my late afternoon/early evening cardio session. As most of my food is eaten towards the end of the day, these scoops were taken on an empty stomach and while being somewhat fasted (even though drinking this would technically break my fast). While I did not have the chance to use that many scoop in this way, Keto BHB was perfect as a mid-day energy drink type supplement but without consuming extra caffeine and with the bonus of the additional electrolytes that your average Rockstar or Monster do not provide. When used during my LISS cardio sessions, this provided me just enough energy to keep my desired intensity throughout the entire duration while staying hydrated and avoiding all muscle cramps without affecting my sleep later that evening.

As for the claims on the tub, I cannot speak to how this supplement increased the ketone levels in my body because I did not perform any blood test to measure those. I can only go off based on how I felt before, during and after consuming this supplement while being fasted. Another claim on the tub is about appetite suppression and I do feel this supplement was effective at that goal. When I used this as an intra-workout, my training sessions were typically in the afternoon and there would still be four or more hours remaining until I started eating again. Prior to my use of Keto BHB, I would sometimes finish my workout and be ravenous for food. But when I had myself a scoop of this during my training, there were no extreme feelings of hunger felt. Some days I would even have to remind myself to eat in the evening because my body gave me no signals that it was hungry; even after a tough workout a few hours earlier.

Value

A tub of this supplement with 20 servings retails for $45.99 on the VMI Sports website and currently about the same on Amazon as well. They also provide a 25% discount to military and first responders through their website, so that helps a little with the price. There is also currently a seller/store on eBay that has both flavors available for $37.95 with free shipping and sometimes there is an additional $5.00 off coupon available from this specific seller/store. (https://www.ebay.com/itm/VMI-Keto-BHB-Salts-Exogenous-Ketones-Ketogenic-Fat-Burner-20-Servings-2-FLAVORS/292898936732?hash=item443223179c:m:m779b_NiaESbjkeSwWC5Tvw:rk:1:pf:1&frcectupt=true)

Side Effects

None personally experienced. As the brand mentioned in dosing, do not consume this too close to bedtime as it may cause some issues with falling asleep. Other possible problems I could foresee would be if you are allergic to Stevia, beet root or Beta-Carotene.

Conclusion

In conclusion, I believe this supplement is a good entry into the keto market but there are multiple areas for improvement to make this a top tier keto product. I would love to see some additional Potassium added to the formula along with some more tyrosine. I also hope they come out with some additional flavors (ideally for me, bring the rainbow candy flavor over from their other products) to compete with others on the market. VMI may also need to look into the size of the scoop for this product as it consistently came in heavy when I weighed it out. I would also like to see the tub come with at least 30 servings without having to increase the price too much. Since the tubs are currently only about half full, there is plenty of room for the additional servings in my opinion. Aside from that, this supplement performed excellently for me with the different ways that I was able to use it. The flavor I received was enjoyable and flexible enough to use different amounts of water. I am also glad that VMI decided to use the goBHB version of the ketone salts so I know the quality is there, along with the TRAACS minerals & electrolytes from Albion.

Once again, thank you to VMI Sports for being a part of SR.com and sending this product out to me. With a few changes to the formula and some additional flavors, this supplement should be a top seller for your company in the future.

Thank you for reading my review and let me know if you have any questions.