Bowel Movements While Dieting - Serious Question

[ChickenTikka]

I'm currently doing a fairly severe caloric defecit (-800 calories) and as a result I have very infrequent bowel movements. I sometimes go less than twice a week. When I do, it's usually fairly minimal. In essence my body appears to be holding onto every bit of food I give it burning it up and throwing out only the absolutely unusable bits.

From a fat loss or health perspective should I be concerned with this? There is no pain and I feel just fine, but I wonder if perhaps I would be more successful stimulating BMs with laxatives or fiber?

Please share your thoughts... on this sh*tty subject!

Thanks

[MCrow]

I'm currently doing a fairly severe caloric defecit (-800 calories) and as a result I have very infrequent bowel movements. I sometimes go less than twice a week. When I do, it's usually fairly minimal. In essence my body appears to be holding onto every bit of food I give it burning it up and throwing out only the absolutely unusable bits.

From a fat loss or health perspective should I be concerned with this? There is no pain and I feel just fine, but I wonder if perhaps I would be more successful stimulating BMs with laxatives or fiber?

Please share your thoughts... on this sh*tty subject!

Thanks

Seems sort of infrequent even while on a diet. More important than how many times is how it compares to how things worked before you new diet.

You may need more fiber in your diet. Yes, many people probably experience less poop when they eat less but this seems a little abnormal.

[HydroShake]

get some psyllium husk fiber. when i feel irregular i take like 18-20 grams at around 6-7pm. the next morning, you will have the best **** ever. seriously.

[MCrow]

get some psyllium husk fiber. when i feel irregular i take like 18-20 grams at around 6-7pm. the next morning, you will have the best **** ever. seriously.

20 grams? Haa...that's probably a 3 flusher.

[HydroShake]

20 grams? Haa...that's probably a 3 flusher.

yeah man, my toilet almost gets filled. it gives a bit of stomach discomfort for like 15 minutes and then you just fart it off.

[ChickenTikka]

Fore the record I've never been particularly regular. I've never really been concerned with this.

Normally, If I eat a lot my bowel movements get bigger and a bit more frequent, but usually it happens every day and a half or so.

While dieting, it happens about every 3 days or so - and is usually uneventful.

I've tried laxatives and get the equivalent of "dry heaves." Quite a bit of gas comes but that's about it.

[austin.j.taylor]

i get this same way, try adding a fiber supp and see what it does. I have never noticed any adverse effects form it, other that putrid gas after 4-5 days of not pooping.

[HydroShake]

Fore the record I've never been particularly regular. I've never really been concerned with this.

Normally, If I eat a lot my bowel movements get bigger and a bit more frequent, but usually it happens every day and a half or so.

While dieting, it happens about every 3 days or so - and is usually uneventful.

I've tried laxatives and get the equivalent of "dry heaves." Quite a bit of gas comes but that's about it.

from my experience, if i don't drink enough water while on psyllium husk fiber or any other fiber like inulin or wheat, the excrement is dry. fiber tends to suck up a lot of water and if there is not enough water, it can further your irregularity. as on the bottle of my metamucil, it says to take every serving with at least 8oz of water. i take like 6 servings at once and i just keep taking sips of water every 10-15 minutes.

[NWOBear]

Just eat more fibrous vegetables. It will help out immensely.

When you are on a diet you should have smaller harder Bm's anyway.. Still should be about once a day though for most people. I have about a 1/3 deficit and I still go once and sometimes twice a day.. The harder your crap is the more you are drawing/trying to draw out of it. If you just have some big mushy ones then obviously you aren't eating right or working it off..

[ChickenTikka]

Yep, they are small and hard...

Oh, and before someone else does, I should point out the irony of a white guy, living in India, complaining about having solid ****s and infrequently.

All of my fellow foreign friends here have the opposite problem. Food goes straight through them and is never hard.

[Tiffany_P]

I've wondered about this before, and from the digging around that I did, I couldn't find any evidence that nutrient absorption was affected by either meal size or digestion time. There was a post some time ago when someone wanted to know how many calories were "wasted" during a large binge. I argued with another poster about it for a while, but after some research, I confirmed that none of the calories were wasted. I know it's not exactly what you were asking, but if food quantity doesn't affect absorption, then the length of time it stays in your colon likely doesn't either (of course, if anyone has any real data on this, then please share). In the study I found, absorption rates varied only by 90.1 to 90.6%. Here's the study if you are interested:

jn.nutrition.org/cgi/reprint/101/5/593.pdf

If the study holds true for humans, then unfortunately, you cannot assume that a large portion of any binge gets wasted. From the abstract:

The percentages of ingested calories that were absorbed in each period were 90.6+/-0.5 SEM and 90.2+/-0.3, respectively, a difference attributable to chance (P>0.1). When the same diet was fed ad libitum to 12 rats the percentage of energy absorbed was 90.1+/-0.5. Apparently exceeding stomach capacity by as much as 35% during force-feeding has no effect on the efficiency of calorie absorption.

For your specific situation, I do think you would feel better and possibly lose some "weight" (not fat) if you took a laxative. It's possible you are slowing becoming a bit backed up even if you don't feel like it yet. I don't think you should be worried that lack of waste is slowing your fat loss though.

[Il_Dago]

Yep, they are small and hard...

On topic, is your deficit 800 cals or is your total intake 800?

Apples and coffee always do it for me. Grab an espresso and see what happens. If nothing else, you'll be amped for your workout.

[ChickenTikka]

The percentages of ingested calories that were absorbed in each period were 90.6+/-0.5 SEM and 90.2+/-0.3, respectively, a difference attributable to chance (P>0.1). When the same diet was fed ad libitum to 12 rats the percentage of energy absorbed was 90.1+/-0.5. Apparently exceeding stomach capacity by as much as 35% during force-feeding has no effect on the efficiency of calorie absorption.

Thanks Tiffany,

I've also wondered a lot about this. However, like you, I still have trouble believing it. If anyone else has any more insight on it, I'd be very interested.

[ChickenTikka]

BTW,

I had what I consider a cheat night last night and ate probably about +300 calories on the day (2300 calories total) because it was a special occasion. I was drunk when I got home last night so I decided to try some of these "cheaters" pills.

The Net Affect:

In any case, I woke up hungover and have felt relatively ill all day, which is odd because I never get hangovers (I'm a pretty big drinker usually). I only had about 5 glasses of moet last night which is not a lot for me even if I have not been drinking this past month and eating less.

In addition to that I've been having BMs all day - so Cheaters does appear to help me on that front. Not sure if it blocked any fat or carbs. Oh well, can't disprove it yet.