I thought it took at least 12 hours, but I had some spicy chicken wings today for lunch at around 1 PM. I went to the bathroom at around 3PM. I knew it was the wings because I “felt the pain” when I went to the bathroom and I didn’t eat anything spicy over the past couple of days. So is it possible that my body completely processed the food in 2 hours?
My observation has been that it’s more like 3 days. But that’s anecdotal, I’ll wait for someone to come through with some scientific data.
I have had arguments about this with my wife for a while now. She insists that it takes food a long time to pass through the body. I’m convinced it only takes a few hours for the first bits to reach the finish line.
I’ve had the “Spicy Wing” experience, too :o
No clue as to what the objective truth is concerning this matter, though
Well, in biology class today we took notes that approximated the time for the stomach to become empty after a meal at 2-6 hours, depending on the food. For example, starches like a potato would be at the low end, while tough meats and such would take longer. In addition, the small intestine absorbs the nutrients of the food in about 4-6 hours. I would assume that excretion (through the rectum and anus, hehehe) would occur not long after. However, I am certain someone else can assuage our curiosity pains more deftly than I. I am just happy to attempt a coherent response using my incoherent bio notes. 
According to WellnessWeb, it takes food about four hours to get through the stomach, three to six hours to get through the small intestine, and 12-24 hours to get through the large intestine.
I can eat a fast food burger and it makes me go within an hour. normal food sometimes does this to me also.
Anything between once every three days and three times a day is considered normal regularity.
Eating food can indeed “make you go” a couple hours later, but it’s not the food that you just ate (unless it’s tainted…that sometimes causes diarrhea. But even that takes quite a few hours. And usually you would start puking first to get out the bad stuff). Eating the food (like the the fast food burger, the coated-with-hellfire chicken wings) will stimulate peristalsis…that wiggly mixing motion in your intestines, and make you poop stuff that has already formed. In my experience, the more high fat or spicy a food is, the sooner I, um, “go” afterwards. I think it just stimulates faster peristalsis in my intestines. Most definitely not pleasant. And I can always depend on coffee to do the trick, if it’s needed. I know, too much information. But oh well.
Lorie
My SO went into emergency about 10 weeks ago with bleeding and had to have an endoscopy exam. He hadn’t eaten anything in at least two days and very little for several days; nothing at the hospital of course. He had to drink about 3 gallons of that stuff they give you to clean you out and I was sure there wouldn’t be anything, but there was plenty of matter still in his digestive tract, even with no food in 3-4 days. You know how a baby poops as soon as you feed them? Well, when you have to go right away it’s just your bowels emptying to make room for what’s coming down the pike. It made me realize that there is probably yuck! old food in our digestive tracts for days.
I think that some things can get through quicker. If I drink Jagged Ice Powerade (which is a dark blue color) I shit green as soon as 3 or 4 hours after drinking it, but that might be related to my diet (which I will go into before).
I think the speed also varies depending on the person and their diet. If I eat a lot of roughage and not much meat I’ve seen things I ate only a few hours before in my stool.
Read that taking a dump every 1 to 3 days is not the norm for most of the world, just for high meat, high starch diets like eaten in Europe. I read that people who eat East Asian cuisine exclusively often have bowel movements 6 or 8 times a day. I eat a lot of fiber myself and limited meat and usually go at least once a day, usually twice or more.
On foods that make you take a dump soon after, I too have noticed that it’s often spicey or greasy foods. I think maybe irritation of the gastrointestinal tract may cause your intestines to release more water into the bowels, and maybe the greases slow it’s reabsorption.
I think that small or soluble things that don’t need digestion, like spices, probably zip on through much faster than solid matter, so that’s possibly another reason why the burning sensation happens so fast.
I’ve noticed that when I go on a diet that it takes about three days for my body to feel really “clean” inside, meaning that all the gunk has passed through, and mostly just the healthy stuff remains.
Well, if we don’t limit ourselves to solids, and look at urinary phenomena, things are much quicker. I can eat asparagus and be offending people in about an hour.
I’ve timed my own transit interval at 23 hours, using corn kernels as the indicator. (Ever notice how those things can go through your digestive system and remain intact? Does that make them, ahem, “recyclable?” :eek: )
I command everyone to try this experiment and report the results.
I eat a lot of fiber: wheat germ, salads, seeds, nuts, whole wheat flour-baked pancakes, etc. As a result, I have a fast transit time. Stuff I ate for dinner will be excreted when I arise in the morning. I have at least 6-8 bm’s a day (unfortunately). I think I have so many bm’s is due to the fiber plus my exercising. I’ve mentioned this to several doctors. They don’t know. I know that the morning of a race, it would not be unusual for me to have over half a dozen before the race. This is obviously part nervousness. I had a sonogram of my intestines, etc., with no positive findings. I’ve had barium enemas done. All negative.
So if you want fast and frequent bm’s, eat plenty of fiber and exercise.
For me it depends on what I’ve eaten: as little as 1 hour, or as long as 24 hours - or more.
Liquids like coffee and espresso take about an hour. My colon is apparently sensitive to particular brands of bean, and so I know this timing pretty well.
Also, I had an upper GI done about 10 years ago. You know, where they feed you gallons of barium solution, and then watch it as it passes thru your gut? Anyway, after flirting with the nurse and asking her out for lunch (she declined and hustled me out the door with a hearty laugh and a glint in her eye), I pulled out of the hospital parking lot just in time to be assaulted by the barium solution demanding to depart. Elapsed time, 45 minutes. Once I got home, I spent the next 8 hours within 10 meters of a toilet. No wonder the nurse was so amused at my proposition…
Undigestible solids (seeds, kernels) seem to take only 4 to 8 hours, regardless of what else they were consumed with. Thus, corn and peanuts arnen’t necessarily good markers. What comes out with the corn may not be what went in with the corn.
High fiber meals generally take 8 or 12 hours. Authentic mexican tamales are my favorite high fiber meal, but felafel and tabouli are good too and easier to find.
Low fiber meals like steak and potatoes, or pasta and cheese, can take days. But typically, I believe it’s more like 24 hours on average.