Bowell Movements

I'm currently dieting, I diet 5 out of 7 days each week. Friday and Saturday I cheat. Anyway, Sunday to Friday I don't shit, at all, I never fart or even have a quiver of a hint towards shitting. However, my first cheat day I shit that same day just a couple hours after the first cheat item I eat. I'm wondering how healthy this is, if at all. I mean my diet is solid, plenty of fiber, protein, carbs, vitamins, etc. etc. My cardio is mainly consisted of HIIT followed by some moderate and low intensity exercise.

Theories, suggestions, facts, etc, will all be appreciated.

My theory

your body has gotten into a routine.
There is no correct time you should take between one shit and the next.
However are you drinking enough water? I find that i take long till my next shit when i dont drink enough water and i tend to get a bit constipated... then once i go to sit its like trying to shit out a bowling ball.

If you are eating regularly then you should be shitting regularly.

Take a look at the days you're cheating and what you are eating and drinking. Alcohol? Fatty foods? Anything else? Like Chewie said how is your water intake on those days? Try taking some fibre supps on those days and drinking more water or something, depending upon what you are lacking those couple of days.

I drink enough water a day, maybe not enough though. I'll increase the amount I drink and see how that works.

Days I cheat, I eat whatever I want so yes, the fat content increases substantially. During the week my fat intake is below 40g of fat everyday. Alcohol hasn't been present, I've gone nearly 2 months without it. Even though I cheat Friday and Saturday I still wont drink alcohol on a diet.

I may purchase some Papaya to include into my diet during the week and increase my water intake as well, see where that takes me.

^ I'd say it is the sudden increase in fat intake. Try more fibre or less fat.

Clint said:

I'm currently dieting, I diet 5 out of 7 days each week. Friday and Saturday I cheat. Anyway, Sunday to Friday I don't shit, at all, I never fart or even have a quiver of a hint towards shitting. However, my first cheat day I shit that same day just a couple hours after the first cheat item I eat. I'm wondering how healthy this is, if at all. I mean my diet is solid, plenty of fiber, protein, carbs, vitamins, etc. etc. My cardio is mainly consisted of HIIT followed by some moderate and low intensity exercise.

Theories, suggestions, facts, etc, will all be appreciated.

Click to expand...

I have a couple of suggestions for you. The first thing is a factor that most everyone ignores and assumes will function as normal and does play a huge role in your digestion is bacteria. If you are not having a regular bowel movement or the bowel movements are very small in comparison to what your eating then increasing the amount of the strain bacteria that is already present in your digestive tract can be very helpful to your digestion. You can do this by supplementing a probiotic. Here is a link to some very solid suggestions about the specifics on what type of probiotic to purchase. MOst should cost in the 30$ per month range and unless you have been on antibiotics I would not get dose above 10billion CFU. Take one in the AM and one in the PM.

Here is the link:
Probiotic Buying Guide

Another factor to think about has been mentioned and that is water. If you are taking in higher amounts of protein then your bowel movements can become dry if you do not drink enough water. Your body absorbs water from your digestive tract to use in the body but that also makes the bowel movements more dry and much more difficult to pass.

The last suggestion I have came as a result of my own experience. I eat a couple of lbs of meat a day for the lifting and as a result my bowel movements were not regular. When i did not eat the meat they returned to normal. So what i ended up doing was after each meal i would take 1/4 a cup of uncooked brown rice and chew it. It takes about 20 minutes to eat 1/4cup in my experience, but the result is that the uncooked brown rice acts as the most effective source of insoluble fiber I have ever used to this date. I have regular bowel movements and their is no strain what so ever to pass them. In my experience the combination of eating the uncooked rice and the probiotic is a very effective tool to help with regular bowel movements. DO not cook the rice but do chew it well. You want to have some harder pieces of rice present b/c that is what acts to move everything along. Do not just swallow the rice with out chewing it either bc doing so will most likely cause stomach pains from the rice fermenting in your stomach. Although it is true the less you chew the rice the more effectively it works to help move your bowels, the less you chew the more gas you will have also.

Also, do you take any supplements on a regular basis that contain any of the following:

Caffeine, Methylxanthines, or any ingredients designed to "vasodialate" or give you energy?

Thanks Ben.

I'd like to make it clear that my bowel movements haven't been stressful at all either. There's no strain at all when I do actually shit.

I was on the right track with the papaya then Ben, but instead of Papaya maybe some acidophiles will be more beneficial.

Tim, since I do cheat on the weekends decreasing fat intake may be difficult, but I'll certainly take the advice of more water. Also, I suppose a few more salads (they're hardly salads, lettuce, egg whites, broccoli or cauliflower, psh) wouldn't hurt me either.

Exactly, the acidophiles are excellent! The papaya is definitely not a bad idea, but the acidophilis will actually increase the production of lipase, protease and lactase also. Another benefit is that since the acidophilis colonizes so strongly they will take over the space that any weaker pathogenic bacteria has occupied opportunistically.

Ben could you post some papers about probiotics please.

I've always had this searing question in my head about how you can "supplement" gut bacteria. For me the numbers just don't seem to make sense. Bacterial turnover is measured in hours, adjustment periods in days to weeks, the volume of the intestinal system in litres; yet a couple of millilitres of water with a relative couple of bacteria is supposed to help?? I haven't gone digging for research that has shown the changeover in the gut, but I'd like to see it if it exists.

Tim i will look for some on the net. Most of the info i have on probiotics, and it is not a lot, I have in books. But they address the issues about how the bacteria attaches to the epithelial tissue and how some strains cannot pass stomach acids and how other can. But the supplementing is a daily thing, not just supplement for a while then stop. The idea is to think about probiotics like you would a vitamin.

I will try to see if i can find some information later tonight. The guy has hundreds of studies sourced in the book i will see if i can find some of them online and post them.

The Doctors last name is S.K. Dash he is a Ph.D and pioneer in the probiotics field. I will post more information tonight Tim.

Here you Go Tim, These are a few studies on the most commonly used probiotic strains of bacteria.


The Scientific Basis for Probiotic Strains of Lactobacillus
The Scientific Basis for Probiotic Strains of Lactobacillus

The effect of oral supplementation with Lactobacillus reuteri or tilactase in lactose intolerant patients: randomized trial.
The effect of oral supplementation with Lactobacil... [Eur Rev Med Pharmacol Sci. 2010] - PubMed result


Intestinal and immunological effects of daily oral administration of Lactobacillus salivarius CECT5713 to healthy adults.
Intestinal and immunological effects of daily oral... [Anaerobe. 2010] - PubMed result

The effects of a vegetable-derived probiotic lactic acid bacterium on the immune response.
The effects of a vegetable-derived probiotic lacti... [Microbiol Immunol. 2010] - PubMed result


Effect of probiotics on symptoms in korean adults with irritable bowel syndrome.
Effect of probiotics on symptoms in korean adults ... [Gut Liver. 2009] - PubMed result


Antioxidative effect of intestinal bacteria Bifidobacterium longum ATCC 15708 and Lactobacillus acidophilus ATCC 4356.
Antioxidative effect of intestinal bacteria Bifido... [Dig Dis Sci. 2000] - PubMed result

Thanks Ben. I'll do some more reading this week. That first one (even though it is over a decade old) sort of sums things up nicely (strains can be useful, but at that stage there was a lack of proper trials to confirm, although this is likely to have changed). I'll see if I can't find a recent review as well.

Cool, You probably have access to some journals thatI do not have access to b/c of your field. Id appreciate that!