diff --git a/block.c b/block.c
index 3493501..cffac75 100644
--- a/block.c
+++ b/block.c
@@ -1907,7 +1907,7 @@
     }
 
     /* Disable I/O limits and drain all pending throttled requests */
-    if (bs->io_limits_enabled) {
+    if (bs->throttle_state) {
         bdrv_io_limits_disable(bs);
     }
 
@@ -3712,7 +3712,7 @@
         baf->detach_aio_context(baf->opaque);
     }
 
-    if (bs->io_limits_enabled) {
+    if (bs->throttle_state) {
         throttle_timers_detach_aio_context(&bs->throttle_timers);
     }
     if (bs->drv->bdrv_detach_aio_context) {
@@ -3748,7 +3748,7 @@
     if (bs->drv->bdrv_attach_aio_context) {
         bs->drv->bdrv_attach_aio_context(bs, new_context);
     }
-    if (bs->io_limits_enabled) {
+    if (bs->throttle_state) {
         throttle_timers_attach_aio_context(&bs->throttle_timers, new_context);
     }
 
diff --git a/block/qapi.c b/block/qapi.c
index ec0f513..89d4274 100644
--- a/block/qapi.c
+++ b/block/qapi.c
@@ -64,7 +64,7 @@
     info->backing_file_depth = bdrv_get_backing_file_depth(bs);
     info->detect_zeroes = bs->detect_zeroes;
 
-    if (bs->io_limits_enabled) {
+    if (bs->throttle_state) {
         ThrottleConfig cfg;
 
         throttle_group_get_config(bs, &cfg);
diff --git a/blockdev.c b/blockdev.c
index 7645d49..3598b01 100644
--- a/blockdev.c
+++ b/blockdev.c
@@ -2361,14 +2361,14 @@
     if (throttle_enabled(&cfg)) {
         /* Enable I/O limits if they're not enabled yet, otherwise
          * just update the throttling group. */
-        if (!bs->io_limits_enabled) {
+        if (!bs->throttle_state) {
             bdrv_io_limits_enable(bs, has_group ? group : device);
         } else if (has_group) {
             bdrv_io_limits_update_group(bs, group);
         }
         /* Set the new throttling configuration */
         bdrv_set_io_limits(bs, &cfg);
-    } else if (bs->io_limits_enabled) {
+    } else if (bs->throttle_state) {
         /* If all throttling settings are set to 0, disable I/O limits */
         bdrv_io_limits_disable(bs);
     }
diff --git a/include/block/block_int.h b/include/block/block_int.h
index 6a3f64d..603145a 100644
--- a/include/block/block_int.h
+++ b/include/block/block_int.h
@@ -390,7 +390,10 @@
     /* number of in-flight serialising requests */
     unsigned int serialising_in_flight;
 
-    /* I/O throttling */
+    /* I/O throttling.
+     * throttle_state tells us if this BDS has I/O limits configured.
+     * io_limits_enabled tells us if they are currently being
+     * enforced, but it can be temporarily set to false */
     CoQueue      throttled_reqs[2];
     bool         io_limits_enabled;
     /* The following fields are protected by the ThrottleGroup lock.