ammonia smell during workouts?
- Thread starter dmd
- Start date
Sonnenschein
Cathlete
Are you sure its just your sweat? I have a certain pair or exercise shorts that the waistband of them gets an ammonia smell when I sweat in them but it doesn't happen with other clothes. --Karen
Lisa Kalmar
Member
I'm not Cathe....but if you do a google search of this you will find all sorts of info. Here's a sample from a running website:
"Sweat itself can even smell like ammonia if your body starts breaking down protein while you run. Your muscles usually use carbohydrate and fat as fuel. But a few people, especially leaner runners, tap their carbohydrate stores dry during long runs. When that happens, your body turns to amino acids.
As your muscles burn amino acids for energy, they strip off nitrogen from amino-acid molecules and dump it into your bloodstream. Initially, the nitrogen is converted to ammonia as it travels through your blood; then it's converted to urea and voided in your urine.
As a result, if you have ammonia-tainted perspiration, you're running low on carbohydrates. Try drinking a sports drink or eating carbohydrate-rich gels or energy bars during your longer runs."
Hope this helps! Lisa
"Sweat itself can even smell like ammonia if your body starts breaking down protein while you run. Your muscles usually use carbohydrate and fat as fuel. But a few people, especially leaner runners, tap their carbohydrate stores dry during long runs. When that happens, your body turns to amino acids.
As your muscles burn amino acids for energy, they strip off nitrogen from amino-acid molecules and dump it into your bloodstream. Initially, the nitrogen is converted to ammonia as it travels through your blood; then it's converted to urea and voided in your urine.
As a result, if you have ammonia-tainted perspiration, you're running low on carbohydrates. Try drinking a sports drink or eating carbohydrate-rich gels or energy bars during your longer runs."
Hope this helps! Lisa
Cathe Friedrich
Administrator
Hi DMD! The information that Lisa posted is how I always understood to be too. I also noticed that when I eat certain foods, like fish, it seems extra amonia-ish when I sweat. Can't realy say if it is related or not though. Take Care!
