More or Less Bowel Movements? page 4

[canuck416]

On a 90% primal diet I now only go once every 2 or 3 days. One much appreciated benefit is that when I go for a run I no longer have to find some bushes to squat down behind after a couple of miles!

[Chris_H]

Less for me as well, both volume and frequency

[phigment]

it hasn't really hasn't changed for me yet. 3 to 5 x a day and all over the bristol chart. :C

[catholicchick]

Less for me (frequency and amount). I usually am more predictable now though. Since giving up sodas, much less gas as well.

[merryish]

Count another for a significant decrease in trips to the bathroom. Basically every other day. I've been assuming it's the switch to real nutrition.

Adding any grain in, even polished white rice in a tiny amount, results in, uh, instantaneous transit of all shipped goods.

[Energy!]

Drastic reduction once grains were gone...ate a third of a corn cob for dinner one night which turned up the volume again, temporarily. Way less gas, too...yay!

[magicmerl]

Less for me.

Unless I've been on a fruit binge...

[Neckhammer]

I don't worry about frequency really....If I'm eating a very meat dense diet then I assume that I will go less frequently and have less volume. This is completely normal. If you eat tons of sweet potatos for instance you will notice more frequent and increased volume. Again, completely normal. You can not dictate to your body that "I need to go every X often". Just doesn't work that way.

[SarahW]

Went over to Gut Sense and maybe found the science behind all this:

Stage 4. Treatment of constipation with fiber
Medical professionals and Dr. Moms alike recommend dietary fiber and fiber laxatives to “naturally” alleviate hardness, particularly when stools are small and dry. Fiber bulks up (enlarges) and moisturizes stools by either retaining water, blocking water absorption, or both.

The most apparent damage from fiber in enlarged stools are mechanical, related to its sheer physical bulk. Fiber is the only commonly consumed nutrient that reaches the large intestine undigested and expanded up to five times (500%) its original weight. On the other hand, proteins, carbohydrates, and fats leave behind less than 5% of undigested solids.

Here is the same math in weight units: once in the colon, 100 g of fiber turns into 500 g of undigested residue, while 100 g of proteins, fats, and carbohydrates digest down to less than 5 g of solids. Thus, per unit of weight, undigested fiber is 100 times more dense than all other nutrients (500 g / 5 g = 100 ). That's why doctors refer to fiber-free diet as low density, and a high-fiber—as a high bulk diet or roughage.

Historically, indigenous diets, even plant-based, were low-density. That‘s because prehistoric people didn't have the means and skills to grow, process, and prepare high-fiber food. For these evolutionary reasons, human digestive organs haven‘t adapted to high-bulk diets, and remain as vulnerable today as they did millennia ago.

Unfortunately, enlarged stools require straining, particularly as you get older. Welcome to Stage 5.

Gut Sense: Irritable Bowel Syndrome Recovery

There's a big difference between 500 and 5 grams.

[gopintos]

So I dont have to strive for the whole soft(ish) "S" poop anymore, that is good cuz it ain't happening anymore.