Pooping! :(

I think a lot of women have these issues. What works for me is a good 12-15 cups of water per day, plus a minimum of 30 grams of fiber per day along with exercising. If I sit on my butt for two or more days in a row, and don't have adequate intake of the other two, it's a bad thing!

Edit: I also add 1 tsp of Chia seeds to my water, and make sure I've gotten them all down by the end of the day. They turn into gel.

Yes it is very important to be regular. Lots of water, fruit and vegs. Limit your caffeine! If you intake caffeine make sure you drink a cup of water for every cup of caffeineted beverage.

The caffeine helps me go in the morning. Haha

Eat a lot of fruit and vegetable, leave the skin on whenever possible. Grind up flax seed and add it to meals that it will blend into. Put chia seeds into a water or juice and eat that. Caffeine is a diuretic but not enough to eliminate all the water in the beverage that acted as its delivery system. And a strong cup of coffee with definitely get things moving. Finally, yogurt. All yogurt helps you poo. Activia is not special.

I have always had issues with constipation even as a child, which turned into IBS-C which I can control now with magnesium and Ester C. Since I have totally revamped my diet and am eating healthy it hasn't changed my constipation problem. I try and drink my 8 glasses of water (very difficult) I was surprised this didn't improve my situation. So what I do that helps me go is take 2000mgs of Ester C, and 750mgs of magnesium oxide. This keeps things soft and moving fairly regularly, regularly for me that is! I've done the fiber thing etc with no help at all!

My morning coffee helps me with this!

But during the time when I swore off all caffeine products (lasted about one miserable month, don't know what I was thinking), drinking a lot of water and making sure I got my 25 grams of fiber.

Another thing that gets me going is exercise, especially a moderate - high intensity cardio workout. I guess all that jumping around does something to my GI tract! It's part of the reason why I prefer to do cardio DVDs at home. I can just pause and go haha

I'm hoping to find some resolve for this as well.

I constantly feel/am constipated. I spoke with a dietitian a few years ago and her only recommendation was "more fibre." I talked to a pharmacist tonight, and her first question was "Are you getting enough fibre?"

My answer is yes. Sure, I could up the salads, but my diet consists of mainly beans, legumes and green/root vegetables. And I drink a *kitten* tonne of water. Daily.

The dietitian I spoke to advised that everyone has their own "normal," which I don't disagree with. However, I go, on average, once or twice a week, and before today, it had been 5 days since my last BM. In the time that passes between them I feel heavy, my abdomen is distended, and if I try to go it is not without strain. To me, this is not "normal." It doesn't feel right.

One of my MFP friends was nice enough to UPS me some all-natural tea that promotes...going. So, tonight I drank a mug of that with some Restoralax and have gone twice, but I still don't feel....relieved?

I'm considering getting a colonic and I plan to talk more about this to my doctor early next month.

I know that none of the above is a permanent fix and I do NOT want to rely on the assistance of any sort of laxative/softener for any length of time.

If you find something that works, please do let me know ... I'm open to suggestions and information!

Good luck

Don't avoid fat! Healthy fats are essential to many things, digestive health being one of them. I've found that not only are water and fiber important to keep things moving, healthy fats in the diet are key as well. Nuts, nut butters, avocado, olive & coconut oils are all a part of my diet and have made a difference for me (along with exercise, water and fiber, etc, etc).

I have this proplem too and frankly is sucks. I go on average once, maybe twice a week, sometimes not at all. And then BAM, I'll go 4-5 times in a day. It's embarassing really. It definately plays a toll on my weight loss too. The adding extra fiber hasn't helped me at all either.

Chia seeds are tasty to add to yogurt!

Lots of fiber. My coffee in the morning helps sometimes. When all else fails I do what I did this week. I hadnt gone in a few days, had 2 pieces of pizza from Pizza Hut and I was good to go a few hours later.

Sooooo, to add onto this question: Should you poo before you weigh in?? I won't weigh myself unless it's in the morning and right after i let everything out and before putting anything back in... Am I being crazy?!?

Usually my coffee helps rev me up in the mornnings, lol.

Phillips caplets (fairly new) (not the liquid Milk of Magnesia). Believe me - that will do the trick.

Or, regular magnesium supplements. I take 2 every other day or so.

Ok, and to add to this. I do love my coffee but I aim to get 1 and a HALF cups of water in for every cup of coffee - that's the exchange rate so to speak of what coffee does to your hydration.

Secondly, find a good protiotic that's in a soft gel - I used to have the hard tablets, but I find the soft gel so much better.

Yes, keep up on the fiber and fats, but stay within moderation - don't go crazy!!