Study Shows Coffee in the Morning Increases Ketone Levels

Researchers in Canada found that coffee helps your body produce ketones, and as participants drank more coffee, ketones in the blood increased.^[1] 

What the study says:

• Drinking coffee in the morning increased ketone biomarkers by 88-116% for up to four hours after drinking it.
• Coffee consumption broke down fats in the body and increased free fatty acids (FFA) in the blood, which the liver converts to ketones.
• The ketones produced after drinking coffee contribute to 5-6% of brain energy needs.^[2] 
• Ketone levels in the blood increased as coffee consumption increased.

What we already know:

• Ketosis helps weight loss by resetting your hunger and fullness hormones.^[3][4]
• Fat in the morning signals to your body that you’re not experiencing a famine.
• Fat increases ketones, especially in the morning because you’re still in a fasted state from sleeping.
• Researchers found that caffeine increased insulin sensitivity, which would make you crave less sugar because you are able to use the sugar you have.^[5] 

Does coffee kick you out of ketosis?

A portion of the low-carb community avoids coffee because they think it raises blood sugar, kicks them out of ketosis, and makes them hungry.

You can find studies that both support and reject the idea that coffee alters blood glucose, and that’s usually because the foods offered alongside and added to coffee mess with blood glucose and insulin.

However, the Canadian study measured elevated ketones in the blood in addition to FFAs, which the liver converts to ketones, after coffee consumption. All that ketone power gives you steady energy and mental stamina to make it through your intermittent fast without even thinking about food.

Related: Keto Diet for Beginners – Your Complete Guide

More From Bulletproof

What’s Dirty Keto and Should You Be Doing It?

The Pitfalls of the Keto Diet and Why Carb Cycling Is Better

How to Calculate Net Carbs on Keto — and Why They Matter

What to Eat on Keto: Your Complete Keto Food List

What about fat in your coffee?

Does blending high-quality fat with your morning coffee compound these effects? The scientific community hasn’t studied the synergy of coffee and high-quality fats together, but you can experience the benefits first hand.

If you’ve tried even one cup of Bulletproof Coffee, you know how limitless it makes you feel. So coffee can’t be bad, right?

An easier path to ketosis

People find that the Bulletproof Diet gives them endless energy while suppressing hunger. Part of the Bulletproof Diet is getting into ketosis and staying there much of the time with short cycles of “refeeding” carbohydrates.

The easiest way to get into ketosis is to ramp up your ketone production with Bulletproof Intermittent Fasting:

• You start by making yourself a Bulletproof Coffee in the morning using grass-fed butter and Brain Octane Oil.
• Then, eat your meals for the day within a shorter time span.
• Once a week or so, have some green-zone carbohydrates, like squash or sweet potato.

The idea is that when your body is in the fasted state, it isn’t looking for food. Instead, your cells take out the trash and your body burns fat for energy. Once you eat something, your system switches to the fed state and you start getting hunger signals.

Your body doesn’t treat protein, carbs, and fat the same way. Protein and carbs kick you out of ketosis, but a pure fat breakfast like Bulletproof Coffee won’t mess with your hunger hormones. You’ll stay in the “fasted” state until afternoon or later. When you’re Bulletproof, you don’t experience the typical mid-afternoon energy dip because your body doesn’t think it’s starving.

The result: time-released energy, a sharp mind, and noticeable changes in the way your clothes fit.

You don’t have to play a guessing game. Have your Bulletproof Coffee first thing in the morning, and see how you feel. If you need to know exactly what’s happening in your body, get yourself a blood ketone meter and test yourself. You can collect piles and piles of research and expert accounts, but you are the best person to decide what’s working and what’s not.