Can anyone offer any insight as to why I have horrible Keto breath/smell even though I cheated badly for several days in a row (ice cream cheat). I’ve been on Keto x 6-7 mos due to GI issues-SIBO/leaky gut.
This makes no sense to me. I’m not diabetic-never had an abnormal a1c and am at my goal weight pretty much. I smell like I did the first month on Keto over 6 mos ago.
I will be interested in any answers. I’m ten months in and every few weeks get that horrible taste/smell. I stopped dairy a week ago and it’s happening to me again. I think in this case it might be the further reduction of carbs.
I enjoy it.
It’s probably a sign your metabolism is healthier than it was before.
I agree with Chris. And even when I get that keto feel in my mouth, my breath is not bad. (Or at least, no one’s ever said anything, lol!)
So even though I’m loaded up on carbs from cheating on ice cream for several days in a row I’m still in ketosis? It just makes no sense to me but the smell is unmistakable. I figured after such a bad cheat it might takes a week to get back into Ketosis.
Thanks for the fast replies!
My guess is that since there are two competing fuel sources availble to your body, that your ketone production and usage has become less efficient. That might lead to an increase in ketones being expelled in your breath and urine.
It does the same for me even after two years. It had been a long time since my last bout and I thought I was finally over it for good but my recent bout of Influenza brought it back for a weeks.
Interesting - thought it was just me. And oddly enough, when I do test, my blood ketones are lower when I get the smell. I didn’t get the keto flu so am still confused by the used vs. wasted ketone issue. They are wasted in the urine, that I get, but does the blood monitor show wasted or circulating ketones?
Only for the first three days, but the breath was awful for close to a month. However, now that I think about it I was treating myself to Mars bars in the evenings while I was ill and that does take my ketosis level from about 6 mmol to just around 1 mmol.
That’s an interesting observation you’ve made. I’m going to keep an eye on that. If anything can cure me of my Mars bar addiction it would definitely be that!
Once we become fat-adapted, it’s easier to return to fat metabolism than when intially going keto. Though if you impaired your muscles’ ability to burn fat temporarily, they might have to return to using ketones for a time and the liver might have to make more to accommodate that? Just a guess, don’t take it for real science.
The keto “flu” is related to our salt intake. If you keep it up, there’s no symptoms of “flu.”
As for used vs. wasted ketones, here’s my take: when we initially embark on our ketogenic diet, our muscles are unused to metabolizing fat, so they have to make do with ketone bodies. Hence, the liver makes an excess, so that the muscles can have some energy. But the muscles prefer fatty acids, even to ketones, so when they eventually finish switching over to full fat metabolism, they refuse the ketones as well as the glucose in the blood, and so the liver can make a smaller amount of ketones. Hence there’s less need for a large amount of ketone bodies to be circulating in the blood.
That would be my guess, anyway. I wonder if there are any experimental data that would confirm this? (There’s an awful lot of stuff on PubMed to wade through; haven’t found anything yet.)
Also relevant to our ketone reading is how hydrated we are, at any given moment. Just remembered that.
Thanks Paul. And yes, It’s difficult to find data on some of the Keto diet nuances without diving into pubmed