Hi,

I have lost over 90 pounds since last September and have been exercising (cardio) everyday as of 2/28/09. I am now up to 110 minutes of cardio a day, but for the past few weeks my sweat has been smelling like ammonia about 50 minutes into my workout and I haven't lost any weight in a month. I have a lunch with a mix of protein, fat and good carbohydrates about 30 minutes before I workout. I have read a few of the post about ammonia smelling sweat, but that happens to athletes that start burning muscle. But the problem is I still have well over 60 pounds to lose so my body shouldn't be burning muscle but fat reserves, RIGHT? What is going on?

I eat 1500 calories a day, 34 years old, 5'8 and weigh 200 lbs. I had blood tests done and my liver funtion is great.

Thank you

if you're not eating enough, you could be burning muscle.

I know I'm not qualified to give advice on this one, but you need to consider that even with weight to lose, you CAN still burn muscle if you're not eating enough. I don't know what kind of cardio you're doing, but if you're doing 110 minutes of cardio seven days a week, you could be burning 1000 calories daily through exercise, and 1500 calories daily intake is likely not enough. MY OPINION, which is not a professional's, is that your body is trying to tell you something.

Thanks, someone just sent me a private message and said I am overtraining, I need to eat more and break the workout up into two sessions.

Possibly you are not drinking enough water OR you need to eat more carbs. I believe the smell is burning protein, which can be protein you eat or can be muscle. Just because you have fat to lose does not mean the body will burn the fat first (it would be nice if it did, but we know that's not true because we often lose muscle mass when we lose weight). Here is an explanation:
http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/cm...?articleid=326

I was wondering where I can get one of those weight lose trackers that you have when you posted a message on my question. It tells what you starting weight was and where you are at and what your goal is.

Thanks kate

kate, you need to have 20 posts and 20 days since membership--then you can get a tracker.

Jay

Thank you.

The website Stumptuous.com says weight training is more important than cardio at losing weight and not losing muscle mass. Following is a cut and paste from http://www.stumptuous.com/no-fat-chicks:

Any loss of bodyweight involves a loss of both fat and muscle. The key is to maximize the fat loss and minimize the muscle loss. You do this through both your diet and your training. In terms of training, cardio alone doesn’t cut it.

Extended bouts of cardio are catabolic to muscle, which means they contribute to muscle mass loss. So you might lose some fat, but in the long term, your metabolism is compromised because you’ve lost muscle too. For long term body recomposition, nothing seems to get results that measure up to weight training combined with other activity (if desired) and sensible nutrition.

Congrats on your weight loss so far but IMHO you are doing way too much cardio. 110 minutes a day?? My advice would be to trim down your cardio and start doing some resistance training instead. One day cardio, one day weight resistance. You must have lost a lot LBM through the cardio and that is not a good thing. When you are doing cardio, I would suggest you do HIIT so that you don't spend nearly 2 hours a day on cardio.

Try upping your calories and see if that helps!

Greetings!

Good luck with your problem, if you aren't sure and this is abnormal, I strongly suggest seeing a health specialist, preferably a sports doctor, and asking for their input. Something of this nature could be a signal from your body that you are doing something that is not good for your health. I'm not qualified to make any guesses on what it could be, but that sounds like an excessively high amount of cardio to do in one burst. You may want to have a sports therapist have a look at your muscle structure and your diet and have them tell you the best way to plan your exercises.

Good luck, and I hope you find a resolution to the smell.

I wish I could afford a sports doctor and a trainer for that matter, but because I can't I am going to try some of the things suggested in this thread. It’s not the ammonia smell that bugs me, it’s not being sure what it means….. As I am trying to get as fit and healthy as I possible can and doing it on my own by reading everything I can get my hands on and also trading advice with fellow path member. I only wish I had access to sports doctor and a trainer. Thanks