Does anyone else have this disgusting tasting (and I'm assuming) just as smelly breath? My mouth feels and tastes disgusting and when I try brushing my tongue - I gag....doesn't help the stoma at all! :phanvan

Hi Ann, I went through this stage too. It was gross, but it passes. Just drink lots of water, that seems to help. Good luck!

You are in what is know as kestosis (sp?) it is when the body is burning fat or sugar that is stored rather than what is being taken in. Are you on a very low cal pre-op diet or post op diet? I know I had it when I was pre-op and it got better as I added real food. Also if you are on liquids there are no solid foods scraping off the dead cells on your tongue so they smell and the tongue will sometimes turn white or grey. ~Mandy

Unfortunately I get this too. I think it may also be caused by stomach acid that's coming up. It seems to happen when I haven't eaten much.

:bananajump:breath mints! breath mints!:bananajump::bananajump:

I try to keep them with me (I hate gum) because I know what you are talking about and when I feel that way I definitely don't want to smell that way. I used to have a friend I adored but couldn't stand that her breath was always terrible and never did figure out how to tell her ...

hang in there, I do think this will pass when your eating gets more normal

My hubby gets the ketosis breath when he works long shifts and has gone 18-20 hours without any food or calories at all. He has water at work and that's about it. He carries mints, but they don't help. When I was in ketosis, I had a weird sweet taste in my mouth all the time, but my breath was rancid. I bet I brushed my teeth 20 times a day pre-op and post-op, it didn't help for long. When I called and ask about the breath and if it was band related (I was thinking stomach infection) the nurse told me that was a good sign that I was following the diet. ~Mandy

That's refreshing to hear all of you. Problems with gas AND bad breath....oh how fun surgery is! :girl_hug:

That's refreshing to hear all of you. Problems with gas AND bad breath....oh how fun surgery is! :girl_hug:

Yep, we get skinny and have the energy to go out and make friends and the we smell, bad breath and gas. Lovely huh? ~Mandy

the bad breath does suck, but what drives me crazy is the nasty film on my teeth ALL THE TIME. i am obsessive about oral hygiene so that is driving me up a wall!!! i'm driving hubby nuts b/c if i wake up in the middle of the night, i make him get up so i can go brush my teeth. LOL.:heh:

One of the better treatments (or rather, disguises) for ketosis breath is parsley. But who wants to chew up a bunch of raw parsley?

the bad breath does suck, but what drives me crazy is the nasty film on my teeth ALL THE TIME. i am obsessive about oral hygiene so that is driving me up a wall!!! i'm driving hubby nuts b/c if i wake up in the middle of the night, i make him get up so i can go brush my teeth. LOL.:heh:

Why does your hubby have to get up for you to brush your teeth???? :girl_hug:

My hubby would strangle me if I said, huney we have to get up now, I gotta bursh my teeth.....:faint: ~Mandy

Why does your hubby have to get up for you to brush your teeth????

My hubby would strangle me if I said, huney we have to get up now, I gotta bursh my teeth.....:faint: ~Mandy

LOL. he is a VERY LIGHT sleeper and i sleep against the wall. the dog sleeps at his feet, so i can't slip out of bed without knocking the dog off the bed or crawling over john. so now i just wake him up when i need to get out of bed. he falls asleep in 2 seconds, so he doesn't mind. plus he's just the nicest person EVER.

thanks for the info. I am post op five days and can't stand this taste in my mouth.

i have been experiencing the nastiest smelly breath. I can smell my breath when I open my mouth. I am three days post op and it is really discusting. I am embarrassed to talk to anyone. I was told it would taper off after eating normal food again.Leeta

i have been experiencing the nastiest smelly breath. I can smell my breath when I open my mouth. I am three days post op and it is really discusting. I am embarrassed to talk to anyone. I was told it would taper off after eating normal food again.Leeta

If it doesn't subside take a trip to the dentist and be sure you don't have an underlining infection or a tooth that needs attention.

I guess I will be carrying around a travel bottle of mouthwash in my near future! LOL... altoids anyone!

The bad breath is indeed from the body's switch from an ATP-based metabolism to a ketone-based metabolism. It sucks in the short term but it is a good thing! This means your pre-op diet is being followed properly and that your body is being starved of carbs and is consuming the energy stored up in your liver and shrinking it. Often you can also smell the difference when you pee as it will be darker and will have a funky smell. Drink lots of Water and have mints & gum handy to help tackle the bad breath. In the first couple of days of ketosis you will probably have to pee like the dickens because it takes a huge amount of water to store ketones in the body and when you burn the ketones, you ditch the water. This is also why you tend not to lose weight right after surgery: you're switching back to an ATP-based diet and gaining water weight as you store energy again. So many people get really excited that they're losing huge amounts of weight before the surgery but you have to realise that it's not all fat you're losing so much as water and emergency energy reserves. Don't get discouraged immediately after the surgery when your weight doesn't continue to drop like a rock because you're not gaining back fat, just water and emergency reserves again. Modern man didn't evolve hand in hand with drive-through windows... we need those emergency reserves just in case we have to go out and hunt something to survive (such as an antelope or the perfect pair of shoes).

This assumes you are not diabetic. Ketosis in a diabetic is not so much a good thing as insulin is an important factor in processing ketones. Diabetics need to be under very close medical supervision if they are going to send themselves into ketosis because it can result in some serious medical problems such as the kidneys shutting down. A lot of people who are diabetics and don't know it report having problems with bad breath and the truth is they are sliding into ketosis and can't read the signs. Apparent drunkeness without actually having consumed any alcohol is also a sign of ketosis in a diabetic person and that person needs to be fed.

This concludes your public service announcement on ketosis.