High-fat, low-carbohydrate diets, such as the ketogenic diet, trigger ketosis, which causes you to lose your appetite. But ketosis has several nasty side effects, including body odor and bad breath. Most people experience this strange symptom in the first few weeks after starting the new diet.
However, the intensity of body odor can vary from one person to another, depending on their state of health and how well the body is coping with or adapting to ketosis.
If your general health is poor, the chances of developing body odor are higher. Let’s make it clear that by poor health we don’t mean weak and malnourished, but a condition that is the result of your unhealthy lifestyle habits such as:
- Smoke
- Recreational drug use
- drink alcohol
- Years of a typically unhealthy diet
- Incorrect routine with changing meal times and irregular sleep routine
These lifestyle habits mean that your body needs to remove many of the toxins that you have accumulated over the years. If your body tries to do this by stimulating the detoxification processes by increasing sweating or exhaling, you will suffer from body odor and even bad breath!
But … your body is actually doing it for your own good! The body odor is the sign that you have successfully entered the phase in which you are beginning to lose all toxins and become cleaner and healthier. It also indicates that you have started to lose weight.
Why do I stink on keto?
Your body develops a bad body odor during ketosis, either because of the smelling ketone bodies, you eat too much protein, or because of the keto detox effect.
Cause # 1: The Ketones
Sooner or later, after you’ve eliminated carbohydrates from your diet, your body will start producing ketones. Fatty acids are converted into ketones, which are natural chemicals your body produces when you enter ketosis.
Three ketone bodies that your body produces are hydroxybutyrate, acetoacetate, and acetone. These are almost magical ketones that will eventually improve your body condition.
Okay, but ketone bodies should be a good sign, right? Why do they make me suffer from body odor?
At the beginning of the keto journey, your body has just started producing ketone bodies and is still adapting. This means that your body is slowly adapting and learning to burn fat for energy, but this is not very effective at first.
This is why a large number of ketone bodies are initially excreted through urine, breath, and sweat. The interesting thing is that ketone bodies smell and it’s not as pleasant as we’d like it to be.
How does it smell?
When you get ketosis going, you excrete noticeable amounts of acetone and aceto-acetate from your body through your breath, urine, and skin. This is the same chemical found in nail polish removers.
This is why this smell is often referred to as a fruity smell and is reminiscent of the chemical acetone. It’s fruity, sour, and definitely not a good smell. The extent of the odor will vary from person to person and the number of ketone bodies produced.
What to do?
After a while, this will get better as the body has got used to using ketone bodies for fuel and the smell will fade.
Once you get used to the keto, everything will be back to normal. As with most side effects from the ketogenic diet, the main goal is to get into ketosis and stay there as soon as possible.
This means that you
- can not cheat and really do without all carbohydrates,
- should eat more high-fiber vegetables,
- stays hydrated and
- Pay attention to a high supply of electrolytes.
Another option is to use exogenous ketones. In simple terms, it’s just extra ketone bodies that help minimize the side effects and get you into ketosis faster. Dietary supplements such as Keto Direct can help you here.
Cause # 2: The Keto Detox
Detoxification itself is a process or a period of time in which one rids the body of toxic or unhealthy substances.
But what does this have to do with keto?
What is not so widely known is that all kinds of chemicals and toxins that we put into our bodies are stored in our fat cells. These toxins are called persistent organic pollutants and have the problem that they are not easily broken down.
Once in the body, they will stay there for a while. These pollutants are stored in body fat. As soon as you start burning fat, these toxins are released into your bloodstream and excreted through sweat, for example.
In simple terms, your body gets rid of the toxins stored in fat and they are excreted through sweating and that is what smells bad.
What to do?
Well, there really isn’t much you can do. All you have to do is get into ketosis quickly and stay there. If the smell is bad, then definitely shower more often and use natural deodorants.
One measure that, while not correcting the cause, can help minimize the bad odor is the Epsom salt bath. Bathing has certain physical effects on the body. Bathing removes dirt, bacteria, and dead cells from the body.
The hot water helps relieve tension.
Epsom salt is known as magnesium sulfate. An important mineral that your body lacks on the keto diet. Combine it with Himalayan salt and your favorite essential oils and you have a spa at home.
Epsom bath recipe:
- 60 ml Epsom salt
- 60 ml Himalayan salt
- 60 ml baking powder
- 75 ml apple cider vinegar
- 10–15 drops of lavender essential oil (use the oil or oils you like most)
Dissolve Epsom salt and Himalayan salt together with baking powder in boiling water. Fill your tub with hot water and add apple cider vinegar and the salt mixture. Finally, add 10–15 drops of your preferred essential oils.
This bath will make you tired, so don’t do it if you’re home alone or if you have to go somewhere afterward.
Cause # 3: protein
The keto diet is low in carbohydrates, low in protein, and high in fat. If you don’t eat enough protein, you can lose muscle mass when you lose weight. Ingesting too much protein can cause your body to convert excess protein into glucose, keeping you away from ketosis.
So protein balance during the ketogenic diet is important.
The excess protein in your body during the ketogenic diet can lead to ammonia odor. Ammonia is the by-product of protein breakdown. In most cases, your body should break down and remove ammonia from body. However, when ammonia builds up in the body, it creates an unpleasant odor that is excreted through the skin.
How does it smell
Well, that smell is hard to describe, but it is sometimes described as old urine, or the smell of CD cover plastic, a chemical smell. Some even say that ammonia reminds them of cat urine.
It is excreted through the skin, under the armpits, in the genital area, and even in your breath.
What to do?
This is probably one of the easiest problems to fix. Just reduce your protein intake.
Remember, the ketogenic diet is low in protein. It is not a high protein diet. Simply reduce your protein intake to 10–15% of your total caloric intake and increase your fat intake.
Don’t forget to add high-fiber vegetables and leafy greens to your diet. They play an important role in your diet.
If you’re struggling to increase your fat intake, one of the easiest and most delicious ways, for example, to make a ketogenic-friendly coffee, is by adding MCT oil. It’s quick, tastes good, and gives your morning a real kick.
Bottom line: why is your awful body odor a good thing?
Body odor is definitely a discreet topic. When you’re struggling with an unpleasant smell, it’s hard to see the positive in it, but that doesn’t mean everything is negative.
If you’re detoxing your body and it smells like ketones, then it’s a good sign. This means that you have removed carbohydrates from your diet and eaten enough fat to start producing ketones. And that in turn means that you are well on your way to ketosis.
The unpleasant smell is just one of the temporary side effects of the keto diet. It doesn’t last forever.
The only thing you can do to combat keto body odor is to adjust to keto as soon as possible. This will be the magic cure for most of the uncomfortable phenomena associated with the keto diet.
The easiest way to achieve this is to remove ALL carbohydrates from the menu, eat LOTS of fats, drink lots of water, and monitor your electrolytes.
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