Acute Effects of Exercise Combined With Ketone Ester Supplement

To examine the acute changes in cardiometabolic and neurocognitive outcomes in response to exercise combined with ketone ester supplement in overweight/obese adults.

The prevalence of excess body weight and associated medical burdens (i.e., cardiometabolic and neurocognitive impairments) have been rising over the past several decades globally. The combination of exercise and ketone supplementation has been recently proposed as one of the solutions with potential clinical value, of which the interventional effects and underlying mechanisms remain unclear. The current study aims at (1) investigating the additive effects of ketone ester supplements to exercise in aspects of cardiorespiratory fitness, metabolism, and neurocognitive status, and (2) examining how the exercise type (HIIE \[high-intensity interval exercise\] vs. MICE \[moderate-intensity continuous exercise\]) influences the cardiometabolic and neurocognitive responses of the exercise-diet regime. For each of the 30 participants, six experimental trials will be performed in a randomized trial with a counterbalanced order: (1) HIIE-KT condition (HIIE with ketone supplements); (2) MICE-KT condition (MICE with ketone supplements); (3) NE-KT condition (non-exercise with ketone supplements); (4) HIIE-PLA condition (HIIE with taste-matched placebo); (5) MICE-PLA condition; and (6) NE-PLA condition. Cardiometabolic and neurocognitive parameters will be assessed before and after 30, 60, and 90 min subsequently ketone ester supplements.