Acetone Smell in Nose only after Jogging

samanthachen

Let me take this minute... So for two days in a row, I’ve ran 30 minutes nonstop! It felt incredible!!! Even when I was most active, I didn’t run for that long without resting and/or taking walk-breaks. I jogged for 30 minutes without resting, catching my breath, or anything, and it was absolutely amazing!

I wasn’t overly strained, but I was feeling the burn. However, both days, I noticed something new. I could smell ammonia from within my nose. I don't think that it was external because minutes later, it was gone even though I was still rockin' my nasty workout attire. I’ve looked into it, and I have seen many people say to “up your carbs before a longer cardio burn” or “it’s just your sweat that you are smelling as the bacteria metabolizes your sweat into that ammonia smell” or “It’s Ketosis! YOU ARE DYING! YOU LOW-CARB FOOL!”

First, let me say that I am far from low carb. I eat fruits, breads, rice, etc. I do eat high protein as well though. So while I am not low carb, I do aim for high protein.

A bit more helpful information about me: I eat my exercise calories back. I try to only do about 80% as a safety buffer in case my HRM is slightly off, but in all honesty, it’s usually 100% haha. I did the whole BMR TDEE thing to find a number that was good for me in my weight loss. I had a baby one year ago (second child), so my body isn’t exactly losing the weight consistently (sometimes 1 lb in a week, sometimes up half a pound, sometimes down 0.25lbs), but on average I am losing between 0.5-1lb/week. I'm also fairly certain that I'm not diabetic, as they test you during pregnancy, and I was always really far away from the danger zone.

Has anyone experienced this ammonia smell? What did you find helped? Do I need to up my calories on those days? Is it better to eat before or after or neither? Do I need to reevaluate my calories overall? Is it a result of eating 100+ g of protein/day mixed with jogging? Or is this a normal thing that can come and go on higher burns?

Thank you all in advanced!!

Hornsby

Burning off amino acids I would guess. I get it sometimes.

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

samanthachen

Thank you for the link

Most of the stuff I was able to find was from fitness sites like this one. Your link made me feel a bit better about the answers.

ladipoet

Yep, that's definitely a side affect of nutritional ketosis.

MeanderingMammal

samanthachen wrote: »

... “up your carbs before a longer cardio burn”

What I would say is that 30 minutes of running isn't longer, so that doesn't have much bearing.