The Best Supplements to Take When You Start Keto, and Why They Work

KETO//OS NAT is a ketone drink sold mainly through Pruvit's promoters. A Raspberry Lemonade packet has 910 mg of sodium and 235 mg of magnesium, and it comes in a long list of flavors, each in a caffeinated (Charged) or caffeine-free version. Some fans say they feel it more than other ketone brands.

It ranks last because it's the most expensive and tells you the least. At $7.25 a packet, a month of one a day is over $200. The ketone amount isn't listed; it sits inside a 12.6 g blend with other ingredients. The Charged version says its caffeine equals a 12 to 16 oz cup of coffee, without a milligram figure. Each packet also has 6 g of carbs, 4 g of them from erythritol.

Pruvit is sold through promoters. Its own disclosure says the median promoter earned $10.59 in 2022, and the FTC sent Pruvit a warning letter in 2020 over promoter posts about COVID-19 and income. Herbalife says in its own filing that it bought certain Pruvit assets in April 2025. The product page claims KETO//OS NAT rapidly repairs DNA; we found no evidence behind that and don't repeat it as fact.

Charge is a liquid: a 4 oz dropper bottle of mineral drops with lime flavor and no sweetener at all, which is rare. You add four droppers to a glass of water. It's small enough to live in a bag, the label says every batch is third-party tested, and the 60-day refund is generous.

The doses are small. A serving has 250 mg of sodium, 99 mg of potassium and 65 mg of magnesium, so matching one scoop of SALTT would take three or four servings. At $1.33 a serving, that gets expensive fast, and a 30-serving bottle would last about a week at the label's maximum of four a day.

The page claims 99.99% absorption and says it can ease hangovers in five minutes, and we found no study cited for either. Its site shows 4.9 from 20 reviews; on Amazon it's 3.2 from 29, with complaints about price and an unmarked dropper.

Liquid I.V. is in every supermarket, which is the main reason it's here. The sugar-free Lemon Lime stick has 500 mg of sodium and 370 mg of potassium, a stack of B vitamins and vitamin C, and 0 g of sugar on the label. Buyers rate it highly: 4.84 from about 1,500 reviews.

For keto, look at the carbs. Each stick has 5 g of total carbohydrate from allulose, a sweetener that doesn't count as sugar on the label. A class action filed in August 2026 argues that it should; that's an allegation, not a ruling. There's no magnesium, and its own page shows three different sodium figures: 500 mg on the nutrition label image, 510 mg in the FAQ and 530 mg on another product image. We used the 500 mg label.

It costs $1.56 a stick one-time and $1.09 on subscription. Liquid I.V. is owned by Unilever.

This one comes at the problem from the other side. A scoop has 600 mg of potassium and 250 mg of magnesium, both high, plus vitamin D, but only 240 mg of sodium. At about 45 scoops a tub it's cheap: $0.84 a scoop, $0.68 on subscription.

For the first weeks of keto, the low sodium is the problem. Sodium is the mineral you lose fastest, so you'd still be salting your food or adding something else. It works better as a daily top-up for people who already get plenty of salt.

As with Base, the review widget shows only 5-star reviews by default. With all stars counted it's 4.7 from 693, and only six reviews were written this year. Taste and feeling no difference come up in the low ratings.

If you want a lot of ketones in one hit, nothing here comes close. Each 2 oz shot has 10 g of ketones as R-1,3-butanediol, which your body turns into BHB, with zero carbs and 70 calories. The label carries an NSF Certified for Sport mark. There's also a +Caffeine version with 5 g of ketones and 100 mg of caffeine, sweetened with sucralose.

For a keto beginner, though, it skips the main job of the first weeks: there's no sodium, potassium or magnesium in it at all. You'd still need an electrolyte mix next to it. It's also the second most expensive daily habit here, $5.00 a shot one-time and $3.50 on your first subscription order.

The rating needs a warning. The widget on the brand's site shows 4.87, but it only loads 4 and 5 star reviews. The full feed for the same products is 4.24 from 2,703, with 280 one-star reviews, and Amazon shows 3.9. Taste is the biggest complaint. The 60-day guarantee covers only your first purchase of each product.

Base is the closest thing to Fuel on this list: a ketone drink that also carries minerals. One scoop has about 12 g of BHB salts (calcium, sodium and magnesium goBHB), 690 mg of sodium and no caffeine, and it comes in Strawberry Lemonade, Vanilla and Chocolate. Perfect Keto says it spent six months reformulating Base, and it's $3.00 a scoop, or $2.40 on subscription.

Two things kept it lower. There's no potassium on the label. And one scoop has 380 mg of magnesium, which is already over the 350 mg a day the NIH sets as the upper limit for adults from supplements. That much magnesium in one go is a common cause of stomach trouble, and stomach upset comes up often in its low reviews, along with sweetness.

A note on ratings. The review widget on the page returns only the 5-star reviews by default. With every star counted, it's 4.57 from 4,477, and almost three quarters of those reviews were written in 2017 and 2018, before the reformulation. The page still says it's sweetened with monk fruit, but the current labels list only stevia.

Re-Lyte has the lowest one-time price per serving on this list: $0.77 a scoop from a 60-serving jar, and $0.55 if you buy the big pouch on subscription. A scoop of a fruit flavor gives you 810 mg of sodium, 400 mg of potassium, 50 mg of magnesium and 60 mg of calcium, with no calories or carbs. You can pay with HSA or FSA funds, and the brand says it's Informed Choice certified (we didn't check the listing).

The magnesium is the weak spot at 50 mg. A jar and scoop also isn't as handy as a stick in a gym bag; the stick packs cost $1.37 each. Pick your flavor with care: Unflavored has more sodium (1,000 mg) and Chocolate has about half the minerals.

Reviews are strong, 4.75 across more than 5,000. The complaints are about saltiness, grit at the bottom of the glass, and a refund policy that covers only one of each item.

LMNT has by far the biggest review count on this list. A Citrus Salt stick has 1,000 mg of sodium, the highest of the flavored mixes here, with 200 mg of potassium and 60 mg of magnesium. It has over 93,000 reviews averaging 4.7, refunds with no stated time limit, and lab results posted for recent batches.

The catch is balance. Next to all that sodium, the potassium and magnesium are light, so you may still want magnesium from somewhere else. It's also very salty. A common complaint in the 1-star reviews is that people couldn't drink it, and anyone watching their sodium for medical reasons should ask a doctor first.

Price drops a lot with the bundle: $1.50 a stick for one box, $0.98 on the 120-stick subscription. LMNT faces three class actions filed in 2025 that allege maltodextrin is hidden in the flavored sticks. Those are allegations, nothing has been proven, and LMNT's ingredient lists don't include it.

If you only want electrolytes, SALTT is the one we'd buy. A Cherry Chill packet has 968 mg of sodium, 409 mg of potassium and 178 mg of magnesium, the best balance of the three we found in an electrolyte-only stick, for $1.20 a packet or $1.08 on subscription. It's made by Keto Chow, a Utah company built around keto eaters, and the sodium comes from Great Salt Lake salt.

There are about 20 flavors, from fruit to chocolate and peanut butter. Some of the chocolate and peanut flavors contain peanuts and have slightly different numbers, so check the panel for the one you pick. The 90-day return window is the longest on this list.

Taste is where people split. Fans say it doesn't taste like ocean water. In the 1-star reviews, people call some flavors medicinal or too sweet from the stevia, and a few say the magnesium chloride upset their stomach.

Here's the case for it on the criteria above. Fuel is the only product on this list that puts sodium, potassium and magnesium together with ketones in a single serving.

One Melonberry flavored packet has 600 mg of sodium, 300 mg of potassium, 130 mg of magnesium and 290 mg of calcium, plus goBHB ketones and C12 (Metabolyte), with under 1 g of carbs and no sugar. The sodium sits between Liquid I.V. and LMNT. The magnesium is 30% of the Daily Value, and two packets a day still keep you under the 350 mg supplement limit.

It's not the cheapest option. Plain salt mixes like Re-Lyte or SALTT cost less than half as much per serving, and if all you want is electrolytes, they're good buys. Fuel is for people who want the minerals and the ketones in one stick so they don't have to stack two products.