酮体（Ketone bodies）是在身体饥饿、禁食或某些病理状态（如糖尿病）下产生的一类化合物，它包括丙酮、乙酰乙酸和β-羟丁酸三种化合物，不过严格意义上来讲，β-羟丁酸是一种羟基酸，而非酮类。

身体在上述状态时，脂肪动员加强，大量的脂肪酸被肝细胞吸收和氧化；而同时为了维持血糖浓度的稳定，体内的糖异生也得到激活。糖异生的原料草酰乙酸被大量消耗，影响到草酰乙酸所参与的另一代谢途径三羧酸循环，大量中间物乙酰CoA得不到消耗、出现堆积，并因此生成酮体。

Ketone bodies are three water-soluble molecules (acetoacetate, beta-hydroxybutyrate, and their spontaneous breakdown product, acetone) that are produced by the liver from fatty acids during periods of low food intake (fasting), carbohydrate restrictive diets, starvation, prolonged intense exercise, or in untreated (or inadequately treated) type 1 diabetes mellitus. These ketone bodies are readily picked up by the extra-hepatic tissues, and converted into acetyl-CoA which then enters the citric acid cycle and is oxidized in the mitochondria for energy. In the brain, ketone bodies are also used to make acetyl-CoA into long-chain fatty acids. The latter cannot be obtained from the blood, because they cannot pass through the blood–brain barrier.