I just got home from my commute by bicycle, about 6 miles. It’s a wet and chilly night so I was pushing pretty hard to get home. When I got back I noticed something I’ve come across before but never given much thought - a distinct smell of ammonia that seemed to come from right inside my nostrils or nasal cavity. It wasn’t coming from sweat or from my skin in general, as far as I could tell, just from my nose!
It only lasted a few minutes, but it was definitely “real”. Just in case I thought I was going crazy, I searched on Google and came up with a few references, e.g. this thread on an exercise-related board, but no really convincing explanations.
So, two questions:
Has anyone else encountered this effect after exercising?
What causes it?
And a bonus question:
Is it anything to worry about?
I was wondering if it might have anything to do with ketones from fat metabolism, seeing as I haven’t really eaten much since lunchtime so my body probably didn’t have a lot of glucose to play with.
Yes. Sometimes after a long run I’ll notice it when I’m taking a shower. Always wondered what was causing it, glad that I’m not the only one.
No idea what causes it.
I haven’t noticed any association of that smell with injury or any other ill effect. I’ve only noticed that smell a few times.
I read your link and FWIW I hydrate quite well, don’t smoke and I don’t use any “supplements” or drugs. Be interested to see what others come up with on this one.
I forget where I read this, but I looked it up when I started exercising a while ago and noticed the same thing. The article I read said it was a sign that your body was digesting proteins for energy. The ammonia was a waste product of amino acid metabolism, which makes sense. It stated that this was often due to not having enough quick energy in your body, and was considered a bad thing, since you want to be building muscle, not digesting it. Anyway, I switched from exercising before breakfast to after breakfast, and it went away, so it seems reasonable to me.
I have been a couple rounds on other threads on this topic. Many people claim this is from when your body is low on energy and begins breaking down protein. But from everything I have read, reaching this state requires a much higher exercise intensity and duration than most people are generally going to muster unless they’re semi-serious athletes. (Like high-intensity exercise for more than an hour). IMO, the more likely culprit is bacteria converting urea in your sweat to ammonia. Over time, garments can accumulate bacteria that don’t wash out, and eventually you can accumulate a pretty good bacterial bloom. About once every 6 weeks I soak my running gear in a Betadine solution to remedy this, otherwise during a run it quickly starts smelling like ammonia and BO.
I understand that the amino acids arginine and ornithine do something to make this effect go away. I realize that doesn’t sound very authoritative, since I cannot recall the exact mechanism whereby this is achieved; however I can also say that I had this problem in a very pronounced way, and taking arginine had an undeniable positive effect.
But I’m pretty sure that the smell wasn’t coming from my sweat or clothes. It seemed to be inside my nose - it’s one of those smells you sense more when breathing out rather than in, if that makes sense. And once the smell had gone, say 15 minutes later, there was no trace of ammonia smell on my sweaty clothes.
It does seem odd, though, that my body would start digesting itself after less than half an hour of hard aerobic exercise, though! (My commute home consists of about 15-20 minutes of fairly gentle cycling, then 40 mins or so on a train, then about 25 mins of more strenuous cycling.)
More carbs, to be exact. The protein you’re burning isn’t necessarily muscle, it could just as easily be dietary protein. If you really are burning protein then what you need to do is fuel up with a dose of carbs maybe 20 minutes before you start exercising. That is what makes this problem go away, if that’s what is going on.
