# Constipation, fiber, peristalsis and stool softener...POO! **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 11, 2010, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/constipation-fiber-peristalsis-and-stool-softener-poo/553364 "2010-09-11T01:53:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Stoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stoid/32/272_2.png) [@Stoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stoid)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2010, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/constipation-fiber-peristalsis-and-stool-softener-poo/553364/41 "2010-09-16T05:26:01Z")
> [@Gruntled](#): > > You’ve admitted in other threads that you are more obese than ever. Now you have this medical problem. Unrelated? Really? The human body is not designed to try and digest and excrete the huge amounts of food that the obese consume. It’s not suprising that the body eventually can’t handle it. 1. No, I’m not and have not said that I’m more obese than ever. I’m more obese than I was 20 years ago (by 40-50 pounds) and less obese (by 40-50 pounds) than I was 10 years ago. 2. In the same threads you think you remember so clearly but obviously do not, I’ve talked about my weight in the past vs. now in direct relation to the fact that I eat FAR LESS now than I did then. FAR FAR less. So, as previously noted, your assessment of my issue would seem to be an error arising from a faulty understanding of the facts, colored by your well-established bias that everything and anything that is physically wrong with someone who is overweight must be a direct consequence of their excess weight. ---
**Author:** ![Stoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stoid/32/272_2.png) [@Stoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stoid)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2010, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/constipation-fiber-peristalsis-and-stool-softener-poo/553364/42 "2010-09-16T05:27:43Z")
[quote=“Shot\_From\_Guns, post:33, topic:553364”] > [@WhyNot](#): > > Also, for someone who said “Referring to bowel movements and the product thereof using nasty slang just squicks me out” you sure were fast to pull out a variant of the word “shit.” I wasn’t referring to bowel movements. 😃 I don’t mind the word shit or its variants as long as they aren’t used to refer to actual feces. It’s completely bizarre, but it’s just a thing with me. Can’t explain it. ---
**Author:** ![Stoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stoid/32/272_2.png) [@Stoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stoid)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2010, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/constipation-fiber-peristalsis-and-stool-softener-poo/553364/43 "2010-09-16T05:40:07Z")
> [@WhyNot](#): > > Obese people are, indeed, more likely than non-obese people to experience constipation. 8.3% of obese subjects and 1.5% of non-obese subjects are constipated (defined in this study as weekly bowel movements) [in this study](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7337751). I’d guess…and it’s definitely a guess but not without foundation…that it’s not a direct consequence of obesity itself, nor of the presumed diet of the obese, but rather the fact that the obese are more likely to be sedentary than non-obese people and being sedentary in general helps make one’s guts sedentary as well. I know what triggers constipation in myself, my questions were about the nature of constipation and the way the gut works, not reasons for why I might be constipated. I get constipated when I stop paying attention to how much fiber I’m getting, when I’m eating LESS (rather than more), which tends to be when I’m eating more protein and fewer carbs of all kinds, getting less water, being less active, and ignoring my urges. Every time I have found myself noticeably having difficulty, those factors have been at work, almost always all of them at once. I can eat fewer carbs and more protein as long as I’m getting enough water and moving, etc. The only other thing that makes me constipated is Vicodin, which was the primary culprit when I had the weeping on the bathroom floor incident. I’d been taking 3-4 a day for 2-3 days, barely eating or drinking anything at all because I was insanely stressed and anxious (I don’t eat when I’m stressed - I lost 15 pounds in about 2 weeks during the first trial…but I looked like hell, seeing as how I wasn’t sleeping, either) and my whole system just shut down. But nothing like that had ever happened to me in my life before that. The next day I went to the store and loaded up on beans, lentils, bean soup, double fiber bread, veges and berries.. I went a little nuts. But it worked so incredibly well I’ve tried to be very conscious of my fiber intake ever since. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2010, 11:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/constipation-fiber-peristalsis-and-stool-softener-poo/553364/44 "2010-09-16T11:00:28Z")
> [@Stoid](#): > > I’d guess…and it’s definitely a guess but not without foundation…that it’s not a direct consequence of obesity itself, nor of the presumed diet of the obese, but rather the fact that the obese are more likely to be sedentary than non-obese people and being sedentary in general helps make one’s guts sedentary as well. I think that’s actually a really good hypothesis! Please don’t think _I_ was trying to hand wave this away as due to obesity. I’m not, at all. In fact, I’m obese and tend to \*loose \*stools, so I absolutely understand that, at always, statistics tell us about trends in groups of people, and nothing at all about what’s going on with an individual. But the study is there, and it’s one I researched recently for school, so I thought I’d share, since the topic came up. ---
**Author:** ![ladysorrowfree](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dbc845/32.png) [@ladysorrowfree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ladysorrowfree)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2010, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/constipation-fiber-peristalsis-and-stool-softener-poo/553364/45 "2010-09-17T03:38:31Z")
> [@Indistinguishable](#): > > Actually, the whole “Oh, you’re constipated? Eat more fiber, drink more water” thing really annoys me\*, since for a long time, that was the only thing doctors ever said to me, which was frustrating in its not really taking my problem seriously (plus, with my vegetarian diet, I was hardly lacking in fiber to begin with). But, of course, it’s probably foolish to judge its sensibility as general advice based on its not addressing whatever is going on in my particular case. > > \*: Not from you just above, since I know that’s just empathetic, but as medical advice which has often been offered to me well past the point when it was clear my problems were deeper than could be so glibly addressed. \*\* Indistinguishable, \*\* are you on any regular medications? There are a LOT of them which can cause this as a side effect. I speak from long-term (unhappy) experience. ---
**Author:** ![Indistinguishable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/90ced4/32.png) [@Indistinguishable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indistinguishable)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2010, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/constipation-fiber-peristalsis-and-stool-softener-poo/553364/46 "2010-09-17T19:41:16Z")
Alas, nope, I am not. (“Alas” because I wish I knew what the cause _was_…) ---
**Author:** ![pbbth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f9ae1b/32.png) [@pbbth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pbbth)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2010, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/constipation-fiber-peristalsis-and-stool-softener-poo/553364/47 "2010-09-17T21:00:25Z")
> [@WhyNot](#): > > Please don’t think _I_ was trying to hand wave this away as due to obesity. I’m not, at all. In fact, I’m obese and tend to \*loose \*stools, so I absolutely understand that, at always, statistics tell us about trends in groups of people, and nothing at all about what’s going on with an individual. > > But the study is there, and it’s one I researched recently for school, so I thought I’d share, since the topic came up. I tend towards loose stools as well. In fact that has been a big problem for me with weight loss. If I replace so much as a single serving of refined carbohydrates with fresh fruit or vegetables I’m going 3 or 4 times a day. When I go walking for exercise I have to map out ahead of time where the public bathrooms are or I am in trouble. In one horrible instance I cried for a block and a half before I found a gas station where I had to buy something to use their toilet. If I add fiber and exercise to my routine I go so much that my netherbits physically hurt. This time I am trying to make changes very, very, very slowly so that I don’t have to deal with the horribleness that is constant pooping so we will see if it works any better. ---
**Author:** ![Gruntled](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/34f0e0/32.png) [@Gruntled](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gruntled)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2010, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/constipation-fiber-peristalsis-and-stool-softener-poo/553364/48 "2010-09-18T17:04:33Z")
[quote=“pbbth, post:47, topic:553364”] > [@WhyNot](#): > > If I replace so much as a single serving of refined carbohydrates with fresh fruit or vegetables I’m going 3 or 4 times a day. I have an obese cow-orker who mentioned that she normally goes 4 to 6 times a day. :eek: 😕 She didn’t see this as an issue and seemed shocked that most of us normal weight folks only go once a day, usually after coffee. ---
**Author:** ![pbbth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f9ae1b/32.png) [@pbbth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pbbth)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2010, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/constipation-fiber-peristalsis-and-stool-softener-poo/553364/49 "2010-09-18T18:22:51Z")
> [@Gruntled](#): > > I have an obese cow-orker who mentioned that she normally goes 4 to 6 times a day. :eek: 😕 She didn’t see this as an issue and seemed shocked that most of us normal weight folks only go once a day, usually after coffee. I normally only go once a day myself which is why the dramatic increase with dietary changes is problematic, to say the least. I don’t drink coffee though so that has nothing to do with my bathroom habits. Some people are just different. Some people may go 4-6 times a day and that might be normal. Some people, like my mother, may only go once every 3-4 days and that is normal for her. I don’t think obesity levels play into your bowel movements very often. ---
**Author:** ![Green\_Cymbeline](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/green_cymbeline/32/9244_2.png) [@Green\_Cymbeline](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Cymbeline)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2010, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/constipation-fiber-peristalsis-and-stool-softener-poo/553364/50 "2010-09-18T18:25:07Z")
My constipation is a side effect of a medication I take, [cholestyramine](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cholestyramine). I take stool softener, which I suppose helps a little, but my BMs are very hard and pellet-like. It sucks. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2010, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/constipation-fiber-peristalsis-and-stool-softener-poo/553364/51 "2010-09-19T20:39:58Z")
> [@Cub\_Mistress](#): > > I would also recommend walking to stimulate the colon, and making sure to drink enough water. I’m suspecting the “walking” thing has a lot to do with a recent, nearly month-long plague of constipation I had (and am just getting over). My job is kind of seasonal, with July-August being among the slowest months. This job also has me on my feet most of the time. This last July-August, lacking work, I spent most of my time sitting on my butt in front of my computer playing World of Warcraft. OTOH, I drink lots of water. And tea. And energy drinks. I’ve also made some changes to my diet, including taking a fiber supplement, that seem to have helped. And getting back to fairly regular work in September has helped too. > [@Jake](#): > > Yep. Beans for breakfast, water for lunch and swell-up for dinner! [So that’s what Johnny Cash was _really_ singing about](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5utW2K0RFE)! > [@US\_Bureau\_of\_Labor\_Statistics](#): > > I don’t smoke but my friends that do often complain about getting the urge to defecate if they smoke right before an inconvenient time to do so (soccer game, movie, etc). So don’t smoke, but smoking can stimulate BMs, apparently. I remember noticing years ago that I often needed to _urinate_ immediately after smoking, and I read somewhere that nicotine cravings feel much like the first indications of the need to urinate, and smokers sometimes confuse the two - they need to pee, but think they need a cigarette, so they smoke, and by the time they’ve finished the cigarette, the urge to pee has become more pronounced and recognizable for what it was in the first place. Though my recent bout of constipation did begin, interestingly enough, about a month after I stopped smoking. > [@WhyNot](#): > > Obese people are, indeed, more likely than non-obese people to experience constipation. 8.3% of obese subjects and 1.5% of non-obese subjects are constipated (defined in this study as weekly bowel movements) [in this study](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7337751). Hmm. Another problem of mine. I don’t think I qualify as “obese” (male, 5’ 8", 206#), but I am heavier than I used to be. I blame the fact that I finally got a driver’s license again in 2006. I lost it to a DUI back in 1992 and just didn’t got around to reobtaining it, even after I quit drinking, so I spent almost 15 years walking and bicycling everywhere, and during that time I maintained my weight between 165 and 175 pounds. Since I got the license back and started driving again, I’ve gained 30+ pounds. I rarely suffered from constipation during my non-driving years, and when I did it never lasted more than a couple days. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2010, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/constipation-fiber-peristalsis-and-stool-softener-poo/553364/52 "2010-09-19T21:46:48Z")
> [@Mister\_Rik](#): > > Hmm. Another problem of mine. I don’t think I qualify as “obese” (male, 5’ 8", 206#), but I am heavier than I used to be. Congratulations, you’re obese. Technically, anyhow, unless you’re a bodybuilder or have freakishly large bones. Your BMI is 31.3; anything over 30 is medically obese. (Cue the BMI dissenters.) ---
**Author:** ![carnut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnut/32/3531_2.png) [@carnut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnut)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2010, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/constipation-fiber-peristalsis-and-stool-softener-poo/553364/53 "2010-09-19T22:23:59Z")
Take magnesium supplements. They can be very helpful. ---
**Author:** ![Stoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stoid/32/272_2.png) [@Stoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stoid)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2010, 10:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/constipation-fiber-peristalsis-and-stool-softener-poo/553364/54 "2010-09-20T10:09:14Z")
> [@pbbth](#): > > > [@Gruntled](#): > > > > I have an obese cow-orker who mentioned that she normally goes 4 to 6 times a day. :eek: 😕 She didn’t see this as an issue and seemed shocked that most of us normal weight folks only go once a day, usually after coffee. When I was young and deep in the grip of compulsive overeating, overweight but far less so than now, this was true for me as well. I was eating an enormous amount, therefore processing more waste. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/constipation-fiber-peristalsis-and-stool-softener-poo/553364.md?page=2)