Do more BMs mean faster metabolism?

NHchick27

Hi. This is kind of gross, but I need some advice.
I weigh 165 pounds, looking to lose about 10 pounds. I had been eating 1200 calories a day, plus exercising about 3 times a week. Using this method I lost no weight, and I was only pooping every 2-3 days. I've abandoned that strategy and and have recently started eating my goal weight maintenance calories. I haven't seen any weight loss yet (it's only been about a week), but I am noticing a sharp increase in BMs. Now 1-2 times per day. Does this mean that my metabolism is speeding up? Or am I eating too much and my body is getting rid of it?

Lynn_babcock

Dang.. was really hoping somebody would answer this one.. because I have a similar question. I used to work in a long term care facility.. so maybe that's why I notice more. But seriously... how long does your body take to process a meal?? I think my average is 19 hours from intake to 'output' on a meal. Is that normal? Fast? .. can't imagine it would be slow. I assume the faster it moves through the less your body takes from your food.. or maybe it just does it faster and equally efficiently.. or maybe it means that the nutritional % of minerals you consume has to go up. Would be good to know.

Don't know how long? Eat a meal that includes whole corn... that's an easy one to see.

nanainkent

A persons activity level will sometimes effect this like exercising vigorously. Any medications you may be taking can change how well your digestive system works, like many prescriptions for pain such as Oxycontin, hydrocodone, morphine, all slow down the digestive system, while certain antibiotics like Biaxin, Zithromax, Amoxicillin, and others can cause diarrhea and speed up the passage of food through the intestines. The amount of fluid intake can also have a bearing on how quickly food is digested the more fluid you drink while eating, the longer it takes to digest food because it dilutes the digestive enzymes. Certain foods take longer than others to digest and some eating customs and certain foods affect the digestion. When you begin to chew food (called mastication) this is actually when digestion actually begins. The more you chew, with the added enzymes that are in your saliva (which help in breaking food down) the less time it will take to pass through the rest of your system.

typically it takes between 24-72 hours. Fiberous foods also pass through the system faster. So if you have increased your fiber intake that may account for the multiple BMs per day.

Hendrix7

Does this mean that my metabolism is speeding up?

If by that you mean metabolic rate, then no.

Mokey41

Think about it. What is poop? Digested food waste. The more you eat, the more you poop. Your body doesn't manufacture poop out of nothing.

The whole idea of speeding up or slowing down metabolism is based in absolutely no fact. 99.9% of the population have a metabolism so close to each other it's almost unmeasurable. You have to be in real starvation mode (think starving child in Africa not eating under 1200 calories a few days) to decrease your metabolism or be one of the very rare few who burn significantly more naturally.

If you want to "speed up" your metabolism you need to build a lot of muscle which isn't actually speeding it up but just requiring more energy to feed the muscle.

heybales

If your body was underfed for the amount of activity you were doing, the body will try to balance things out so the base metabolism receives the minimum calories it really needs, that would be a suppressed BMR.

It does that by slowing the RMR and higher energy using system down even more. A suppressed TDEE.
That's why many will report stopped hair and nail growth, or falling out or dry.

There are calories expended to process food of course. If that has been slowed down too, then it takes longer to process it. Less frequent need to get rid of it besides it being less food too.

But as you've discovered, it's not like you are eating twice as much, right, but sounds like the body feels much less threatened and is processing your food better.

So were probably getting less than 1200 out of those meals actually after some time.

You should also start measuring, that's likely where you'll see the biggest improvement first, clothes fitting better, before scale move fast. Especially this close to goal weight.

jayraycee

I am not replying, I just wanted to see my ticker lol

heybales

Showing the predicted changes in metabolic rates decline sharply in individuals undergoing adaptive thermogenesis which does lead to plateauing. ie suppressed BMR, slower metabolism, ect. 4th one down shows eating more again speeds it back up.

Christian Weyer, Roy L Walford, Inge T Harper, Mike Milner, Taber MacCallum, P Antonio Tataranni and Eric Ravussin, "Energy metabolism after 2 y of energy restriction: the Biosphere 2 experiment", American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol. 72, No. 4, 946-953, October 2000. Free Full Text

Friedlander AL, et al. "Three weeks of caloric restriction alters protein metabolism in normal-weight, young men" Am J Physiol Endocrinol Metab., 2005 Sep;289(3):E446-55. Epub 2005 May 3. PMID: 15870104

Keys A, Brozek J, Henschel A, Mickelsen O, Taylor HL. "The biology of human starvation", Minneapolis: University of Minneapolis Press, 1950.

Welle SL, Seaton TB, Campbell RG. "Some metabolic effects of overeating in man", Am J Clin Nutr. 1986 Dec;44(6):718-24. PMID: 3538842

Martin CK, Heilbronn LK, de Jonge L, Delany JP, Volaufova J, Anton SD, Redman LM, Smith SR, Ravussin E. "Effect of calorie restriction on resting metabolic rate and spontaneous physical activity", Obesity (Silver Spring). 2007 Dec;15(12):2964-73. PMID: 18198305

Rosenbaum M, Hirsch J, Gallagher DA, Leibel RL., Long-term persistence of adaptive thermogenesis in subjects who have maintained a reduced body weight. Am J Clin Nutr., 2008 Oct;88(4):906-12. PMID: 18842775