Why This 25-Year Supplement Veteran Picked One Ingredient For Life

If you've been in the supplement industry for a while, you know Marc Lobliner's name. He built iSatori, launched MTS Nutrition, helped create the Outright Bar, and worked with brands most formulators grew up buying off the shelf. So when NuLiv sat down with him and asked which single supplement he'd take for the rest of his life if he could only pick one, his answer wasn't creatine. It wasn't protein either. It was goBHB.

"I mean that. I'm in the ingredient space now because of it," he said. "It's a game changing ingredient. It truly is. We don't even like to call it an ingredient. We call it a technology."

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That's a big claim from someone who's launched more products than most people have tried. So we dug into why.

The Trend Catching Up to Him

Marc isn't early to this anymore, the industry is starting to agree with him. Creatine and BHB stacking is being called one of the defining supplement trends of 2026, with new dual-fuel products launching almost monthly and industry press asking whether goBHB could become as common on labels as creatine already is. Marc saw this coming years before the headlines did.

Why He Judges Ingredients by Mechanism, Not Just Data

Ask Marc how he evaluates a new ingredient before putting it in a formula, and he doesn't start with studies. He starts with mechanism.

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"Data supports mechanism," he explained. "What does it do? How does it do it? What is the pathway we think it's going on?"

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This is the same standard behind how NuLiv approaches its own ingredient lineup. "We don't put something into a formula because a study exists," says NuLiv Science. "We put it in because we can explain exactly what it's doing in the body, and the data backs that explanation up. That's the difference between an ingredient that works by accident and one that works by design."

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Marc used his own history to make the point. Years ago, his brand Extend included glutamine, and he took heat for it because studies didn't support glutamine for muscle growth, which is what most brands were claiming at the time. But that was never why he used it. He used it because it preserves leucine and supports gut health during hard training. Different mechanism, different claim, and it held up.

The Dual-Fuel Idea Behind goBHB

Here's the part that made the conversation click. Your brain runs on glucose most of the time, but it actually prefers ketones when they're available. Most people only hit that state through strict keto dieting or fasting. goBHB gets the brain and body access to that fuel source without either one.

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"If you give your brain 2-to-1 glucose to ketones, it's going to go to ketones every time," Marc said. "That's its preferred energy source."

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He also connected this directly to something worth flagging for anyone formulating for women. Brain fog during menopause happens in part because the brain has a harder time metabolizing glucose efficiently. A second fuel source that doesn't rely on that pathway is a real, practical mechanism, not just a nice idea.

What "1 Plus 1 Equals 3" Actually Means

Marc kept coming back to one phrase throughout the conversation: "1 plus 1 equals three." It's not a slogan for him, it's how he thinks about stacking ingredients. goBHB doesn't compete with creatine, protein, or absorption enhancers. It works alongside them, and in his own formulas, he treats it as the connective layer that makes everything else in the product perform better.

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That's also why he takes it in split doses rather than one big scoop. His approach: five to ten grams before activity, then five more spread through the day, landing around fifteen to twenty grams total. Enough to hit what he calls "basically every claim dose" the ingredient has data behind, without overdoing it in one sitting.

Why He Cares Where an Ingredient Actually Comes From

Marc didn't hold back on what separates a branded ingredient supplier from a cheaper, unverified alternative. When a brand buys from an unnamed supplier overseas just to save money, there's no guarantee behind what's actually in the bag. That gap is exactly what pushed the industry toward branded, tested ingredients in the first place.

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"When you buy from NuLiv, you're getting the assurance of the studies, the millions of dollars put into the ingredient," he said. "And you're getting the assurance that you did all of the testing."

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For a formulator choosing between a mystery supplier and a documented one, that's not a small detail. It's the difference between a spec sheet you can hand to a retailer and one you're hoping nobody asks about.

The Bigger Point for Formulators

Marc's take is a useful gut check for anyone building a formula right now. Before reaching for more of an active ingredient, ask what it's actually doing and why. Before assuming a cheaper raw material is the same as a tested one, ask what you actually know about where it came from. And before treating a new ingredient as competition for what's already in your formula, ask whether it might make everything else work better instead.

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As Marc put it, half joking but not really: "I've got a mainline going to my veins at this point." Not a bad place to end up with an ingredient he says could be bigger than creatine.

Common Questions About goBHB

What is goBHB used for? goBHB is an exogenous ketone ingredient that gives the body and brain direct access to ketone fuel without requiring a strict ketogenic diet. It's used in performance, cognitive, and metabolic health formulas.

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Is goBHB the same as creatine? No. They work through different mechanisms and aren't competitors. Creatine helps cells store and use energy through the ATP-creatine phosphate system. goBHB provides an alternative fuel source the brain and body can run on directly. Many formulators now stack the two together.

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Why do some formulators stack creatine and BHB together? Because they support energy through different pathways rather than duplicating the same one. Combining them is becoming one of the more common formulation patterns in 2026, particularly in performance and cognitive products.

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Does goBHB help with brain fog? There's a mechanistic case for it. Brain fog, including during menopause, is linked to reduced glucose metabolism in the brain. Because ketones are a fuel source the brain can use independently of that pathway, goBHB offers a second route to fuel the brain when glucose metabolism is impaired.

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What should a brand look for before adding a new ingredient to a formula? A clear mechanism, not just a stack of studies. Understanding how and why an ingredient works, and whether the data actually supports that specific mechanism, matters more than the number of studies attached to it.

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