I’m 9 days into a water fast and I still smell strongly of ammonia. Is this normal?

#1

Hi, I’m new to this forum and hope I am presenting my question in the right place. I am currently 9 days into my water fast and am still smelling very strongly of ammonia. Is this alright? I thought that my body should have been in keto for quite some time now. Am I really burning protein and not fat still? I’m starting to get concerned. Any help with this would be much appreciated. Thank you

(The amazing autoimmune 🦄) #2

Strong ammonia smell is a sign of deep ketosis

(James) #3

I remember this on Keto. I use to think it was our cat’s litter box at the time.

(Carl Keller) #4

Is the smell coming from sweat? If it is then you probably need to be drinking more water and making sure you are getting your daily salt. Normally we have stinky urine but if we are not peeing because we are not drinking much water, the excess ketones can leave our body via sweat.

The following article pertains to ammonia odor in endurance atheletes. While it’s not exactly your situation, I believe the triggers and variables are similar to fasting. For sure it would be easy to test if you simply increase electrolytes.

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #5

I would strongly encourage you to see your physician about this, or else to stop fasting.

Ammonia in breath or sweat is a sign that the deamination of amino acids (i.e., the formation of ammonia) is occurring at a rate that is overwhelming the normal processes that turn ammonia into uric acid and uric acid into urea for safe excretion. Eating too much protein can be a cause of this.

The body has a limited ability to store amino acids, the constituents of proteins. There is always some inescapable minimum of amino acid breakdown going on, which is one of the reasons our diet must contain protein. The deaminated amino acids must be replaced.

Obviously, deamination at a rate high enough to border on ammonia toxicity nine days into a fast is not a good sign. In this case, the ammonia cannot be a by-product of eating too much protein, so it means that protein from somewhere in the body is being broken down, and at a worrisomely high rate. Again, I would strongly urge you to speak to your doctor about this.