ammonia smell after long intense hiking

dskline1

Has anyone else experienced an ammonia smell (mostly smell it in the back of my nose if that makes any sense) after a longer work out. Intense hiking is my first choice of working out at the moment...I hike most of the trail at a fast pace, but any hills - we run up them to help create a kinda HIIT experience. These hikes last all but 2 hrs. I have uped my water intake and have played around with what I ate an hour or so beforehand. I have lots of energy to complete the hike, but just don't know if I should be concerned.

Iceprincessk25

You secrete small amounts of urea when you sweat so perhaps you are picking up on that waste product.

LotusF1ower

Has anyone else experienced an ammonia smell (mostly smell it in the back of my nose if that makes any sense) after a longer work out. Intense hiking is my first choice of working out at the moment...I hike most of the trail at a fast pace, but any hills - we run up them to help create a kinda HIIT experience. These hikes last all but 2 hrs. I have uped my water intake and have played around with what I ate an hour or so beforehand. I have lots of energy to complete the hike, but just don't know if I should be concerned.

I've smelt that when I've been on the treadmill, thought it was my imagination, glad I am not the only one to get that lol

lawkat

Here is a link that should explain it. It isn't anything to be alarmed about. However, to prevent it, it does suggest eating more carbs before working out to avoid burning off excess amino acids.

http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/cms/article-detail.asp?articleid=326

aymetcalf

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/ammonia.htm

hawkeye01

I had the "exact" same issue/smell after doing pretty intense workouts and found that drinking more water cleared it up within a week.

Good luck!

AndriaLL

You either have eaten a lot of protein (this is from the breakdown of amino acids, excreted as ammonia in your sweat) or you are dehydrated (protein can't be processed by the kidneys into urea without enough water). It is very normal, though.