Hi, I hope You all are well. I have a question about acetone breath. When I was in my teenage age I was an obese child and when I decided to loose weight I used to do crazy stuff like not eating for three days, then eat once and then not eat for three days again. The reason for saying that I often experienced acetone breath. How I know it was acetone breath? My mom had diabetes and acetone breath is common with that disease and always when I used to do this, my dad was worried saying to me “You’re not eating again as I can smell acetone from Your mouth.” Not that long ago I also tried keto diet and had the same experience of the acetone breath. I just want to establish fact here that I can recognize acetone breath in my mouth without exception unmistakably. Recently I turned to raw food diet or fruitarian diet and I lost around 12 kg (24 pounds) in three weeks. But here comes my question. I NEVER NEVER one single time felt acetone breath while on the raw food diet yet lost 12 kg. I am so much leaner now, but how is it possible when people say that acetone releases when body breaks fat for energy, while I did lose 12 kg so my body had to break fat for energy as I lost fat mass, yet never released acetone like it did on keto diet? I can figure this one out. Could anybody help please? Many thanks and kindest regards
Acetone --> breaking fat for energy or something else
Welcome to the forums! Your question is a very interesting one. Here is my attempt at explaining the biochemistry. I hope is doesn’t come out too confusing:
There are three ketone bodies: β-hydroxybutyrate, acetoacetate, and acetone. They are the intermediate products of fatty acid metabolism (much as charcoal is an intermediate product of burning wood). They can be used for energy by cells that cannot metabolise fatty acids, and are produced in the liver—but only under certain circumstances. One of the requirements of making ketones is that insulin has to be low enough, and for insulin to be low enough, we have to keep our carbohydrate intake low enough. So the liver produces ketones only when we fast or when we eat a ketogenic diet.
When you cut calories to lose weight or when you were on your fruit diet, you were still eating so much carbohydrate that it prevented your liver from producing ketone bodies. But when you were fasting as a kid, and now, eating a ketogenic diet, your body was/is producing ketones, and the acetone was/is showing up in your breath (some people’s breath never smells, some people’s does, it’s very individual). After you’ve been eating ketogenically for a while, your body will stop wasting so many ketones, and the fruity smell on your breath will most likely go away.
Hope that all makes sense.
This all make great sense. Thank You so much for taking time to reply. You are a great gentleman. Many thanks again and the kindest regards