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Anyone who has cats is more than familiar with ammonia odour that comes from the litter box.
If you occasionally detect the same kind of “kitty litter smell” from your sweaty clothes, shoes or a trip to the bathroom, it is likely caused because, as a diabetic, you are “successfully” following a Low Carb diet.
Our bodies want to burn carbohydrates (converted to blood sugar) for fuel because they are the “easiest” (thing) to metabolize into sugar.
But particularly if we eat low carb and are… read more
My doc told me i had too much protein in my blood test and i should cut back. Dont forget the body must have carbohydrates for brain function.
@A DiabetesTeam Member Dark Urine is often a sign of "protein in the urine" which is quite different from ammonia in the urine from burning protein as fuel.
If you are "burning protein" to produce blood glucose, that protein is now "converted" and does not show up as protein in urine because it's gone.
Muscle damage (or burn out from strenuous activity) produces a "waste material" (called albumin - which is one of the things tested for when you do a urine test to check kidney function).
If it passes the kidneys to form dark urine that could mean "either" you have an excess of albumin in your blood due to muscle loss, damage, after a surgery, dehydration or a few other reasons, and the concentration is so high that the kidneys just have to pass some of it "unprocessed" OR
It could also mean that your kidneys are not functioning properly - so Dark Urine "should be investigated" by a Doc - a combination blood and urine test for kidney function can at least rule out a Kidney Issue as the reason (which is really the only reason you should need to worry about).
In the summer months dark urine is most often a sign that you are not hydrating well enough - it's just telling you to drink more water
@A DiabetesTeam Member burning protein is NOT the same a Ketones.
Ketones are the result of burning "stored body fat" (initially) and then later "dietary fat" particularly in those that follow KETO diets - which is the goal - burn "fat".
It is much more difficult for our metabolism/system to burn fat naturally but it will do so "before" it burns "muscle tissue".
(big subject) - the protein I was referring to in my above post is more precisely "free protein" that has not yet been used/assigned after initial digestion.
When we consume protein it remains in a free state for "a while" before it's either converted to muscle tissue or burned off as body heat (it's our sole source of body heat "fuel").
So when the metabolism is trying to produce "fuel" it will first go for "carbs" because they are the easiest to convert followed by free protein (if all the carbs get burned up), then body fat and when "all of that" is gone then it will start converting muscle to blood sugar.
And in fact that is seen when someone starves to death. They ultimately die of heart failure because in a last attempt to provide sugar for the brain your body will "eat your own heart" to convert the heart muscle into sugar for the brain.
So, short answer - No, not the same as ketones and NO you won't loose muscle if you burn the free protein but doing so could "prevent" further building of muscle mass.
useful info thank you for sharing.
Haven’t had that happen yet but now I know what to look out for in the future. Thanks so much for the information!
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