# What's the longest you've gone without pooping?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-longest-youve-gone-without-pooping/240164
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [April 15, 2004, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-longest-youve-gone-without-pooping/240164 "2004-04-15T14:03:25Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Mal\_Adroit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mal_Adroit)
#### Post date: [April 15, 2004, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-longest-youve-gone-without-pooping/240164/1 "2004-04-15T14:03:25Z")
Not a frivolous inquiry, I assure you…
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### Author:  [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)
#### Post date: [April 15, 2004, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-longest-youve-gone-without-pooping/240164/2 "2004-04-15T14:18:48Z")
> [@Moody Bastard](#):
>
> Not a frivolous inquiry, I assure you…
This topic was addressed in some detail on a few occasions
[Chronic Constipation - The truth about impacted feces and severe TMI](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=180616&highlight=bowel+week)
[I’m Scared… IT, won’t come out. Yep, #2](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=30249&highlight=bowel+week)
There was also another thread that was exactly on point, but I can’t seem to locate it. Some female doper said she normally went a week or so between bowel movements.
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### Author:  [@brainfizz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brainfizz)
#### Post date: [April 15, 2004, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-longest-youve-gone-without-pooping/240164/3 "2004-04-15T14:51:17Z")
I average about a week to ten days. The longest it’s ever been is probably just over two weeks. It’s odd, I didn’t realize that most people go once per day until recently! I thought my bowels were perfectly normal!
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### Author:  [@Mal\_Adroit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mal_Adroit)
#### Post date: [April 15, 2004, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-longest-youve-gone-without-pooping/240164/4 "2004-04-15T17:07:48Z")
astro- thanks for searching for those threads
brainfizz- thanks for the reassurance
I’ve actually had moderate success since posting this thread -o lucky board!- just not commesurate with the amount of time it’s been (three days).
Follow-up question: Aren’t apples a good source of fiber too?
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### Author:  [@Uncommon\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uncommon_Sense)
#### Post date: [April 15, 2004, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-longest-youve-gone-without-pooping/240164/5 "2004-04-15T17:11:30Z")
> [@brainfizz](#):
>
> I average about a week to ten days. The longest it’s ever been is probably just over two weeks. It’s odd, I didn’t realize that most people go once per day until recently! I thought my bowels were perfectly normal!
Where the hell`s **lieu**?
Oh, well.
A week to ten days?? - Holy Crap!
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### Author:  [@Tentacle\_Monster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tentacle_Monster)
#### Post date: [April 15, 2004, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-longest-youve-gone-without-pooping/240164/6 "2004-04-15T17:44:17Z")
I usually honk out a dirt snake about twice a day.
The longest I’ve gone without a dump was in Basic. I went a few days when I first got there (probably from the shock, there’s likely an evolutionary advantage to not shitting in hostile areas). Then again in Basic during Warrior Week, I think I went the whole week with just one tiny little dump about the size of a egg. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: A MRE is a bowel plug in a bag.
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### Author:  [@Mr\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Jim)
#### Post date: [April 15, 2004, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-longest-youve-gone-without-pooping/240164/7 "2004-04-15T17:48:57Z")
7 days while camping. I was too scared to stay in the outhouse that long. On the **5 hr** car ride home I was near tears trying to hold it in and when we got got home I burst through the door and locked myself in the bathroom for a good 45 min. That’s how you spell R-E-L-I-E-F.
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### Author:  [@Mithril](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mithril)
#### Post date: [April 15, 2004, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-longest-youve-gone-without-pooping/240164/8 "2004-04-15T18:01:47Z")
I regularly go a week or two without having a movement. The longest I’ve gone is nine weeks. I don’t recommend it. It makes you mean.
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### Author:  [@Dazzling\_White\_Diamonds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dazzling_White_Diamonds)
#### Post date: [April 15, 2004, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-longest-youve-gone-without-pooping/240164/9 "2004-04-15T18:57:52Z")
I just wanted to point out that the OP’er of this thread - **What’s the longest you’ve gone without pooping** - is named **Moody Bastard** , which I find to be quite appropriate.
Carry on.
\*I’d be moody too, if I didn’t go for the periods of time that some of you have or do… goodness! \*
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### Author:  [@Dragwyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dragwyr)
#### Post date: [April 15, 2004, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-longest-youve-gone-without-pooping/240164/10 "2004-04-15T19:33:48Z")
I have to say that I’m in awe here.
I go at least twice per day, sometimes more. I can’t imagine not going at least once per day, let along not going for a week!
The longest I’ve not gone would be 3 days, and that was when I was backpacking.
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### Author:  [@Antigen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antigen)
#### Post date: [April 15, 2004, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-longest-youve-gone-without-pooping/240164/11 "2004-04-15T20:01:11Z")
> [@Tentacle Monster](#):
>
> I usually honk out a dirt snake about twice a day.
Just when you think you’ve heard them all…
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### Author:  [@N.Sane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/N.Sane)
#### Post date: [April 15, 2004, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-longest-youve-gone-without-pooping/240164/12 "2004-04-15T20:08:05Z")
I cannot imagine going that long without pooping! Whoa! :eek:
Anyway, I poop two or three times a day. I also eat lots of fiber.
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### Author:  [@Lady\_Venom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lady_Venom)
#### Post date: [April 15, 2004, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-longest-youve-gone-without-pooping/240164/13 "2004-04-15T20:15:02Z")
I have [IBS](http://www.ibsgroup.org/) so, unfortunately I go a LOT.
A few weeks ago, I went 2 weeks. I was tearing my hair out. I finally got some Correctol. Naaaaaaaaasty, but good results. :eek:
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### Author:  [@yellowval](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yellowval)
#### Post date: [April 15, 2004, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-longest-youve-gone-without-pooping/240164/14 "2004-04-15T20:33:17Z")
My husband and I are both two to three-times-a-day poopers. We laugh in the face of Metamucil. I always go at least once a day. I really don’t know how we do it.
I was constipated once, when I was in seventh grade. It really sucked, but I don’t think it lasted long. Recently, I’d say the longest I’ve gone is two days.
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### Author:  [@flamingbananas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flamingbananas)
#### Post date: [April 15, 2004, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-longest-youve-gone-without-pooping/240164/15 "2004-04-15T20:45:34Z")
9 WEEKS! CRAP! (no pun intended). Normaly I “honk out a dirt snake” once a day. The longest I’ve gone is about 3 days. I guess I get my daily fiber!
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### Author:  [@Giraffe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giraffe)
#### Post date: [April 15, 2004, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-longest-youve-gone-without-pooping/240164/16 "2004-04-15T20:50:44Z")
What is this…pooping? It sounds intriguing. I would like to find out more.
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### Author:  [@Jenaroph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jenaroph)
#### Post date: [April 15, 2004, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-longest-youve-gone-without-pooping/240164/17 "2004-04-15T21:03:33Z")
Giraffe, as a fellow Doper I am please to note your interest in the subject. Allow me to suggest this extremely useful [primer](http://www.masscom.net/~deadfish/poop.htm). It may answer many of your questions.
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### Author:  [@Giraffe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giraffe)
#### Post date: [April 15, 2004, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-longest-youve-gone-without-pooping/240164/18 "2004-04-15T21:17:56Z")
**Jenaroph** , I speak without hyperbole when I say you have changed my life, and that this moment will be the subject of at least a chapter in my autobiography, if not a book of its own.
[sub]OK, maybe a little hyperbole[/sub]
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### Author:  [@Mearl\_Dox](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mearl_Dox)
#### Post date: [April 15, 2004, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-longest-youve-gone-without-pooping/240164/19 "2004-04-15T21:51:46Z")
Never more than two days. Even if I’m on a clear liquid diet, _some_thing comes out.
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### Author:  [@Lobelia\_Overhill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobelia_Overhill)
#### Post date: [April 15, 2004, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-longest-youve-gone-without-pooping/240164/20 "2004-04-15T22:03:40Z")
A couple of weeks ago I went 4 days without doing a jobby (do people still call them jobbies? I love that word _jobby_) anyhoo, I was taking laxatives and they weren’t working, and I couldn’t eat because I was retching (what with it having nowhere to go) 5 days later the heavens opened (so to speak) and I was on the loo 3 or 4 times a day jobbying like there was no tomorrow, to the point where I started to feel faint. Went on bread and water for 2 days, and have been fine since. Did a lovely big jobby this afternoon actually.
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