What's that smell?

Every time I am talking around my 5 year old son, that is what he asks!! My breath is TERRIBLE! I know the ketosis can make your breath smell... is there any way to get over that outside of gum and mints? Even after brushing my teeth, my breath is just bad. 

I can't be the only one.... 

Hi Jen!

Good news is you are burning fat and are in ketosis!

This is common and expected. Best things to do is drink lots of water, and hit the probiotics. Yougurt is a natural way to help it as well.

If you gp to the search button and look for "bad breath" you'll find more WLS folks with this and lots of chatter about it.

Keep doing what you're doing...you're doing fabulous!!!

Peace

~Deb

Thanks Deb! I do need to get some probiotics... pre-op I LOVED yogurt... especially greek... now... sadly... I can't stand it.  It is way too sour. However, that means it will continue to be a good sour cream sub! I will make sure I get some probiotics soon. I remembered reading years ago (from a medical article) that when you slip into ketosis you can begin to smell, especially your breath. I am drinking as much water as I can and trying to increase it! We shall see how this all works out... haha

As soon as I saw the title of your post I thought to my self "that smell?  why, its my breath!"  My husband had never heard of ketosis....he thought I had a terrible mouth infection/absess!  I had to show him a number of articles to prove to him that I am "normal". 

Anne

LOL I am so glad you knew where I was coming from! I am not even trying to be in ketosis, but I am early out, so I think it is only natural to be in ketosis this early. My husband thought I wasn't brushing my teeth. lol Oye...

Listerine helped mine!  :O)

Plus drinking lots of water.

Mouth wash seems to only work for about 30 minutes or so before its back. The water, I agree, will help... increasing tha****er!

I broke the rules and chewed sugarless gum and sugarfree mints. Just make sure not to swallow if you do.

I have chewed gum as well and have some tiny altoids for emergencies. I can't see a client or meet with my boss with stanky breath! I also break the straw rule too because I KNOW I wont get more than 16 ounces in without a straw. The straw hasn't bothered me either. In fact, the straw helps me to drink more at a time because the stream of water from the straw is similar to the size of my sleeve. I had pain drinking water from a bottle... once I used my straw cup (and I have many! love them!) it didn't hurt anymore and I was about to drink much more water. 

Fortunately, one does not need to be "in ketosis" to burn fat  - that's just marketing fluff from the purveyors of ketone strips and other high margin ketogenic diet products to keep people buying their stuff when confronted with the unpleasant side effects. It is simply the effect of your diet being overly low in carbs and it will work out as you progress and get more variety in your diet, but you may be stuck with it for a little while depending upon how restrictive your dietary progression is.