Of course no pill is going to magically make you lose weight if you scarf down pizza and ice cream all day long and never exercise. But let’s say you are eating less and exercising more, especially on a low-carb ketogenic diet; and after a mediocre weight loss it stops working and now you’re on a perpetual diet for seemingly nothing. Do these pills in fact actually make your body better at taking fat off?
Moved from Café to MPSIMS, this is mostly about weight loss which is usually in MPSIMS.
It’s almost certainly a scam.
Clue 1. The website doesn’t list any of the ingredients.
Clue 2. The website talks a little bit about the theory on losing weight with a keto diet. It then fails to mention how their product is at all related to a keto diet, instead seeming to claim the benefits of the diet and attaching to their product, which again doesn’t even mention the ingredients or even a purported mechanism of action.
ETA. In addition, regardless of the particular diet used to achieve weight loss, if you go back to your old diet, the weight will come right back. Diets aren’t something to try for a month or two with the hope of permanent weight loss. It has to be a permanent lifestyle change if you hope to achieve permanent results.
Apologies for the double post.
I’ve read many of the books written about keto / low carb / paleo diets. As far as I know, among the legitimate doctors advocating such a diet (Robert Atkins, Arthur Agastson, Terry Wahls, David Perlmutter, etc.) none of them advocate for weight loss pills of any sort.
Okay, I gave in and ordered my “free” ($6.95 shipping) sample because it was much cheaper than the pharmacy shelf price for the same product. Basically the ingredients are ketone metabolites* plus medium chain triglycerides. These are the substances that your body produces when in ketogenesis. Apparently the theory is that these substances provide the fuel your body needs for energy when not using carbohydrates, and therefore you’re supposed to feel less hungry. They recommend drinking it along with some vinegar, the acetic acid of which is also a non-carbohydrate part of the energy producing metabolic cycle.
Seems harmless at least. I’ll use up the free sample and if I don’t notice anything in particular, that’ll be the end of it.
*for the record:
β-hydrobutyrate (sodium, calcium and magnesium salts of)
medium chain triglycerides
α-ketoglutarate
dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA)
This is what diets are supposed to be, a lifestyle change for ever.
That’s fine, except that I’m still 80 lb overweight and not losing an ounce.
When you consume MCTs while restricting your carb intake on a keto diet, your liver breaks them down into ketones. So, yes, under these conditions, MCTs can increase the ketones in your blood. And because MCTs have a shorter fatty acid chain than most other saturated and unsaturated fats, the body breaks them down more quickly.
However, this doesn’t mean the MCTs in keto pills will help you lose weight. Also, keto pills are limited in that they only increase ketones in your blood, and only when you’re also following a highly restricted ketogenic diet. Whereas the ketogenic diet offers additional benefits that keto pills lack.
" A ketogenic diet does more than just stimulate ketone production," notes Barbara Gower, a professor of nutrition sciences at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. “Ketogenic diets also lower circulating insulin, and often glucose, which arguably may have more benefit than the ketones themselves.”
Moreover, the FDA has approved five drugs for weight loss based on extensive research proving their ability to help people lose weight - often in combination with a healthy diet. Keto pills are not one of those drugs.
Well, they do provide a Quack Miranda Warning.
‘‘These statements have not been evaluated by the food and drug administration (FDA). These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.’’
That statement annoys me to no end. It’s meaningless because things that are legitimate treatments have to use it just because they haven’t been through the formal FDA review process. Those things then get lumped in with snake oil treatments like this.
Make sure you didn’t sign yourself up for a subscription. I saw one (can’t recall the specific brand) with fine print that said after the free sample, you’d be sent a bottle every month and your credit card would be charged. Just FYI.
What examples would you cite of treatments proven on the basis of relevant research and clinical trials that are being marketed with that disclaimer?
Vitamins and minerals have that warning on them, even though vitamin C does treat scurvy, vitamin D does treat a vitamin D deficiency, iron treats iron deficiency anemia, and so on. Melatonin does help with sleep, but carries the label as well.
Taking ferrous sulfate to treat iron deficiency anemia is nowhere close to being in the same ballpark as taking Keto You for weight loss.
Oh lovely! 
AFAIK ketoyou themselves don’t do that, it’s mainly never-heard-of-them third parties marketing keto pills. Or so I hope.
ETA: it wasn’t even in the fine print at the bottom, it was in the text of the service agreement which you have to open and read through to find the catch! Thank you for the warning, I went through the rigmarole of cancelling and I’m also going to tell my bank to refuse any further bills from them. (=One particularly scammy thing is that the shipping price only holds if you don’t return the unopened bottle- at your own expense!- otherwise they charge you full price.
What pills? Did I miss the link?
Supplements in general (including vitamins and minerals) are not required to have the Quack Miranda Warning* on their labels. From the FDA:
“This statement or “disclaimer” is required by law (DSHEA) when a manufacturer makes a structure/function claim on a dietary supplement label. In general, these claims describe the role of a nutrient or dietary ingredient intended to affect the structure or function of the body. The manufacturer is responsible for ensuring the accuracy and truthfulness of these claims; they are not approved by FDA. For this reason, the law says that if a dietary supplement label includes such a claim, it must state in a “disclaimer” that FDA has not evaluated this claim. The disclaimer must also state that this product is not intended to “diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease,” because only a drug can legally make such a claim.”
Remember that DSHEA was passed into law by Congress as a way to allow marketers to make (often dubious) claims for their products without being subject to proper FDA regulation. The disclaimer is part of that manufacturer protection act.
“Taking ferrous sulfate to treat iron deficiency anemia is nowhere close to being in the same ballpark as taking Keto You for weight loss.”
Agreed. A standardized, properly prepared iron supplement has a great deal of research and clinical backing when it comes to its use to prevent or treat iron deficiency anemia. Keto You (which sounds to me like an obscure curse) is a specific formulation that to my knowledge has never been properly tested to 1) assure that its ingredients are what the manufacturer claims, and 2) that those ingredients combined in a supplement have a beneficial effect on health and are safe to use.
*More on the Quack Miranda Warning here:
Can you tell me if there is a website or link in the OP? Because I didn’t see any so I’m wondering how you knew what he was talking about?
Thread title: Keto You a.k.a. Keto You Keto.
Oh it gets even better! I sealed the (thankfully unopened) bottle of pills back in their mailing pouch and took it to the Post Office to send back (cost me $4., but at least the scammers can’t claim I didn’t send it back), and what looked like a return address sticker they included with the package was instead simply a receipt (with sticky backing??) that wasn’t a valid mailing address. So the scammers apparently try to trick people into misreturning the packages so they default on the return agreement.