Are you worried about why your “keto urine smells like meat”? Well, it happens sometimes. There are several reasons behind this meat smell like urine.
Although it is not dangerous, sometimes it may be harmful to your body. At first, you have to follow all the instructions to check the symptom.
If after following all instructions still your urine smells like meat, then you should consult with your physician.
The secret? Our bodies need to break down fat – which is something that we can’t do without the help of another chemical called cortisol or adrenaline.
It’s because they have so much activity in our brain when working with glucose and fats from plants (which takes time). Hence ketones come into effect.
When you are on a keto diet, a massive amount of ketones are produced by your body. The excess ketones are released through your urine.
Whenever your keto urine smells like meat, these ketones are responsible. Also, ketones are the main reason behind keto urine color change. You can easily get rid of ketones urine smell by following some rules.
7 Reasons Why Keto Urine Smells Like Meat(2 Harmful)
A meaty keto pee smell may have several reasons. There may be numerous causes behind your keto pee smelling like meat.
Keto urine strips need to be used to measure your ketosis level first. After confirmation, you should check the top 7 most common reasons given below.
High fiber intake
One source of bad odor comes down due to fiber intake. Individuals who are on a ketogenic diet consume high fiber foods several times.
Our body can not digest fiber. Excess intake of fiber creates pressure on the bladder muscles. Which in turn causes frequent urination within a tiny duration of time.
As a result, your body starts to release more ketones. The high level of ketones that are released through your pee causes your keto urine to smell like meat.
This problem can be easily solved by checking high fiber ketogenic foods like broccoli, avocado, berries, etc. By controlling the intake of these foods, you can omit ketones from urine.
Excess eating of protein rich foods
High protein is another reason behind smelly urine during ketosis. We consume a lot high in protein foods to reach a quick ketosis level.
Our body breaks down this consumed protein and generates ammonia.
The produced ammonia is released with urine along with ketones. Because of these ammonia and ketone bodies, your ketogenic urine smells like meat.
Seafood, chicken, beef, and eggs are high in protein. Sometimes when we are in keto, we eat much more protein rich foods.
If you feel that your keto urine smells like meat then you should limit intake of these high protein foods.
Moreover, you should maintain a proper low carb high protein grocery list to avoid excessive eating of high protein low carb foods.
Consuming more B vitamins
B vitamins can change your urine odor. Excess eating of 2 types of B vitamins is the main reason behind urine smelling like meat.
These are
Vitamin B2 or riboflavin
Vitamin B-1 (thiamin)
Both of these vitamins are found in low carb keto vegetables, eggs, ketogenic diet meats, etc.
Our body can absorb a little amount of vitamin B2 and B1. The additional amount is expelled through urine. When these vitamins exit with ketones during peeing your urine smells like meat.
Keto friendly dairy products like cheese, and yogurt contains riboflavin. Also, this vitamin is found in other ketogenic foods like meats(beef, pork, chicken), keto seafood , eggs, etc.
- Thiamin or vitamin B1 is found in keto nuts and seeds like almonds, macadamia, peanut, brazil nuts, flax seeds & sunflower seeds. Moreover, It’s also present in the famous keto vegetables list like
- Snow peas
- Asparagus
- Brussels sprouts
You should stop overeating these keto type foods to reduce the meaty smelling keto urine effect.
Choline
Choline is not a vitamin. Someone thinks it’s a B vitamin type but actually, choline is a nutrient. Choline is found in our liver (1). Also, several healthy foods contain choline.
The Keto diet asks to eat more high protein and low carb foods. These healthy foods are choline rich. Due to this ketogenic foods may increase choline levels in our body.
Healthy humans naturally excrete a little amount of choline with urine. A Keto diet increases this choline level. That’s why your pee smells meaty when excess choline exits with ketones.
Choline is found in almost every keto food. Some examples are beef, chicken, egg, yogurt, broccoli, brussels sprouts, tuna, broccoli, etc.
Limiting consumption of these foods helps you to get rid of urine odor like meat. Moreover, for some extreme cases, choline promotes trimethylaminuria.
Trimethylaminuria is the main cause behind keto pee smells like tuna.
Dehydration & Urine Concentration
Dehydration creates urine concentration which is the main reason behind strong urine odor. If you are not drinking enough water during the keto meal plan, then urine concentration took place.
The concentrated urine with ketones creates smelly urine. The concentrated urine contains ammonia which is the main culprit behind the meaty urine odor.
Drink more water to solve this issue.
Now we have covered the most common reasons for meaty urine smell. Let’s check what are the harmful reasons for keto urine smells like meat.
You need to be very careful if you observe any of these critical reasons for keto smelly pee.
