Exogenous ketones: what does the research actually show?
Exogenous ketones supply ketone bodies from outside the body, commonly as ketone salts or esters.
Acute effects
A 2023 systematic review/meta-analysis included 30 studies and 408 participants. It reported that exogenous ketone supplementation significantly increased blood BHB and reduced blood glucose acutely; insulin responses varied by population.
What this does not prove
Those acute biomarker findings do not establish that every commercial ketone supplement produces long-term weight loss, nor do they substitute for product-specific clinical evidence.