Acetone body odor long after doing keto diet

(Jonathan G) #1

Hi,

It has been about 2 months since I did the keto diet (stayed on it for 6 months.) I had to stop because I could no longer tolerate the keto breath and the strong ammonia/acetone body odor. The problem is that even though I am no longer doing the diet the body odor has persisted, especially after I eat proteins (mainly ground beef and salmon.) I wonder if this is because I still have a considerable amount of ketones in my body and any more are just excess and therefore my body gets rid of them through urine, breath, sweat etc OR could there be another reason for this? I did some blood work and it looks good: enzymes okay, lipids good. Please advise.
Thanks

(Katie the Quiche Scoffing Stick Ninja ) #2

If you have been off Keto for 2 months there is no chance you are still producing ketones unless sticking to a very low carb diet at <20g a day.

I cannot explain the body odour though, I got the breath as soon as I entered Ketosis but it went away, never to experience again.

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #3

Is it an ammonia smell or an acetone smell? Acetone is sort of fruity-smelling, since ripening fruits often produce it, whereas ammonia is the smell of windows being cleaned.

I ask, because ammonia on your breath would be a sign that you are eating far too much protein, to the point of verging on ammonia toxicity. This would be extremely not good. If the smell is indeed ammonia, cut your protein drastically–right now.

If the smell is acetone, on the other hand, what’s going on will depend on a number of considerations. First of all, if your carbohydrate intake has returned to its pre-keto level, then it is extremely unlikely that you are still producing ketone bodies. The insulin response to a high intake of carbohydrate prevents the liver from making ketones. I suppose it is possible that your carbohydrate intake is still low enough for you to have remained in ketosis, in which case, eating more carbohydrate should do the trick.

But if your carb intake is high and your body is still producing acetone, then there is something wrong that needs to be checked out by a doctor.