Why Does My Sweat Smell Like Ammonia?

So I have been on the a low carb diet for the past week and I noticed that after training my shirts and shorts smell like ammonia. I was thinking it had to with not eating enough fat and metabolizing aminos instead. If I up the fat well the smell go away?

It’s likely the smell of acetone, which is the final breakdown product of the ketone bodies produced by the body when it is in a state of ketosis, which is itself brought on by very low-carb diets.

that’s interesting. no idea though. sometimes i randomly get the smell of ammonia in my nose, sometimes in the shower.

[quote]Dolce wrote:
that’s interesting. no idea though. sometimes i randomly get the smell of ammonia in my nose, sometimes in the shower.[/quote]

I often get the smell in my nose towards the end of a long cardio session (60mins +). I always figured it was from some sort of ketone breakdown by product thing a ma jig or because I was in a completely catabolic state and I was wasting away in a state of eternal atrophy.

PAGING: Bill Roberts.

Why am I getting that smell towards the end of fasted cardio?

I did a Google search and there seems to be no definitive answer. My workout clothes smell much more like ammonia after they’ve sat in the gym bag for a day, so I’m guessing the ammonia is a by-product of whatever bacteria are feeding off the perspiration.

I’ve had the same in the past, not very low carb at that times.
Yes I was dieting, but just regular low fat, complex carbs (less than usual) but my protein intake was high at that moment, min. 1,5 gr/pound bw.

When I increased the carb intake a bit pre workout, or i lowered my overall protein intake the smell dissapeared… so it has something to do with the breakdown of proteins, for me, it was a sign my diet was not balanced right…

I’ve read in a few places that that is one of the signs of being in ketosis. I don’t know why people are still doing keto diets. None of the bodybuilders getting in the best shape are using keto diets anymore. George Farah is getting guys to 2% bodyfat while eating plenty of carbs. My prediction is keto diets wont be popular at all for much longer.

[quote]absolute3 wrote:
It’s likely the smell of acetone, which is the final breakdown product of the ketone bodies produced by the body when it is in a state of ketosis, which is itself brought on by very low-carb diets.[/quote]

This is correct, but it can also be brought on by extremely hard training even when carbs are consumed.

[quote]HK24719 wrote:

[quote]absolute3 wrote:
It’s likely the smell of acetone, which is the final breakdown product of the ketone bodies produced by the body when it is in a state of ketosis, which is itself brought on by very low-carb diets.[/quote]

This is correct, but it can also be brought on by extremely hard training even when carbs are consumed.[/quote]

I’ve had this happen while not low-carbing (read: No ketogenic diet) as well. Are ketones simply produced whenever fat is burned for fuel?

[quote]HK24719 wrote:

[quote]absolute3 wrote:
It’s likely the smell of acetone, which is the final breakdown product of the ketone bodies produced by the body when it is in a state of ketosis, which is itself brought on by very low-carb diets.[/quote]

This is correct, but it can also be brought on by extremely hard training even when carbs are consumed.[/quote]

I get the smell at the end of cardio usually. The last time I remember smelling this, I was cutting down with about 350 carbs a day. So yes, ketosis is not needed for ketones to exists.

[quote]SteelyD wrote:

[quote]HK24719 wrote:

[quote]absolute3 wrote:
It’s likely the smell of acetone, which is the final breakdown product of the ketone bodies produced by the body when it is in a state of ketosis, which is itself brought on by very low-carb diets.[/quote]

This is correct, but it can also be brought on by extremely hard training even when carbs are consumed.[/quote]

I’ve had this happen while not low-carbing (read: No ketogenic diet) as well. Are ketones simply produced whenever fat is burned for fuel?[/quote]

Only when low on carbohydrates.

Ketones aren’t a generally necessary product when fats are burned for fuel, but are produced from acetyl-CoA resulting from burning of fat when carbohydrate stores are low.

(EDIT: aeyogi’s post hadn’t appeared yet when I began replying, hence the unnecessary duplication.)

I don’t know with regard to ammonia smell. The possibility of confusing acetone smell with ammonia smell sounds like something many might do (not everyone is really familiar with the smell of acetone) but then again for all I know it may be actually ammonia being smelled. If so I don’t know the reason.

If it is ammonia, it wouldn’t be from burning fat, but from burning of amino acids and, I would think, failure of the urea cycle to keep up as it needs to do.

I don’t know anything about the latter other than that I could speculate that the urea cycle also requires Krebs Cycle intermediates, and these are depleted in ketogenic diets. Now ordinarily that is not a problem, but it occurs as a potential possibility.

For the OP: Are you keeping your percent calories from fat at least 50%? Or are you heavy on the protein and not so much on the fat?

If it really is ammonia you are smelling you should see a doctor. Your liver should be converting all ammonia to urea; ammonia is toxic, I recall reading somewhere that it causes brain damage.

That’s quite true with regard to ammonia in the blood.

An alternate theory would be, as yorik pointed out, skin bacteria.

Some amount of nitrogen is lost in the sweat, I know, though I never did know in what form although amino acids would seem the likely explanation. Bacterial metabolism of these could yield ammonia.

The ammonia is likely a by-product of the purine nucleotide cycle. When you engage in high-
intensity intermittent exercise, at some point you won’t be able to generate enough ATP via
phosphorylation of ADP with PCr (ADP + PCr + H+ = Creatine + ATP). What then happens is 2 ADPs are
combined to form an ATP and AMP. AMP is acted upon by AMP deaminase to yield IMP and ammonia.
Ammonia is very volatile so it comes out of the blood easily, thus you taste and smell it.
Personally, I’d try some Creabose by Eclipse (creatine + ribose). The additional Cr may help with
PCr (phosphocreatine regeneration in the muscle) and the ribose with adenine-nucleotide synthesis.

High protein diets and excessive breakdown of protein for energy could contribute as well. May
want to have some blood chems done to check liver and kidney function. Gotta drink water if you
are consuming a lot of protein or you’ll get yourself in trouble.

AAS are lipolytic. That means they burn fat, regardless of how fat you are. However, those that
aromatize (turn into estrogen) or cause water retention would be a poor choice. Oxandrolone has
been shown to reduce abdominal body fat in men (real clinical literature). It does not aromatize
or 5-alpha reduce and is not known for dramatic increases in muscle mass. Thus, if one were to use
an AAS for fat loss, OX would probably be the agent of choice.

Get your bodyfat checked, otherwise you’re guessing based on what you see in the mirror and that’s
almost always wrong.

You may want to cycle your diet. Couple of low carb days, then one higher carb, then back to
low carb.

A thermogenic may also help (EPH + caffeine) if you can tolerate it safely.