Ketosis breath

[Jonathan Reik]

A few days into my new diet my wife complained that I now have ketosis breath. Of course, initially, I was excited - I've never been in ketosis before. But eventually, the novelty wore off. My searching on the information superhighway indicates that I'm not getting enough water... but that getting more water doesn't always solve the problem.

So - am I simply not hydrated enough? Beyond taking in more water, are there other things I can do to address this problem?

[Robb Wolf]

Jonathan-
What is your carb intake per day? If you are in ketosis the "fruity" breath thing will decrease with time. Usually takes 2-4 weeks. I don't think hydration is the factor however.

[Stuart Mather]

Ketones on your breath (or in your urine) means that the ketones your liver is producing aren't being used as an energy substrate. You are obviously restricting carbohydrate, or you wouldn't be producing ketones from either dietary fat or body fat. How long have you been restricting carbs? If you carb cycle and eat more fat in you low carb days, you can reduce the ketone breath and pee concentration just by eating less fat. If the fat that is being used to make the ketones is bodyfat, most of them will be used by cell mitochondria.

Long term low carbing (without carb cycling) will encourage cell mitochondria to burn free fatty acids directly, and you won't produce many ketones. But it takes months not weeks for that to happen.

[Jonathan Reik]

Originally Posted by Robb Wolf

Jonathan-
What is your carb intake per day? If you are in ketosis the "fruity" breath thing will decrease with time. Usually takes 2-4 weeks. I don't think hydration is the factor however.

Carb intake was high enough that I didn't think I would be in ketosis - between 100g and 120g per day. Maybe I wasn't... I just figured I was with the breath change. The issue dissipated, so maybe it was something else.

Stuart, thanks for the info.