Stinko!

Many things change as you lose weight. You're eating fewer calories than before, drinking more liquids to help flush the system, and your entire body is adapting to a different size and shape. The body is an organic whole, not a bunch of loosely coupled pieces Frankenstitched together. When you burn fat, you change the body's centre of gravity, you adopt a different posture to compensate, you reduce the amount of insulation, spurring increased metabolism to maintain your body temperature; these and many other adjustments occur, mostly unnoticed as the pounds peel off.

Cells are torn down and others are built. All this dynamism in your body shifts its normal chemical balance. Some of these changes manifest themselves in odd ways you should be aware of. Remember that ``what goes out'' of the rubber bag isn't entirely a matter of what transpires in the bathroom. A substantial amount of water, for example, transpires through your skin--it is released as water vapour even when you aren't obviously sweating. Additional water is released as moisture in the air you exhale, and still more if you drool.

  The ketones that result from burning fat may show up in your breath as well as your blood. If it starts to seem like Monsanto's moved in among your molars, endure it for the moment--it's a sure sign you're burning fat.

  As your body chemistry adjusts, other curious things may happen. One day, trapped in a tedious meeting, I began to emit an odor evocative of a roadkill skunk marinated in ratpiss. My esteemed colleagues were either too polite to remark upon this phenomenon, or (more likely) unsure of the culprit, so I managed to escape to the open air unfingered as the malodorous miscreant. This situation persisted for about two weeks, after which it disappeared for good as suddenly as its onset.

Should these or other side-effects of losing weight afflict you, take comfort in the knowledge they will pass. In the meanwhile, you can resort to any of the widely marketed remedies for these embarrassing problems. In my experience, they work adequately. You may not, as the advertising suggests, be dragged off to Lovers' Lane, but at least you won't be mistaken for Love Canal.