How long does it take for food to pass through your body on average?
howfatami69
Posts: 11 Member
I am talking an average meal - from the moment of ingesting it to normally pooping it out
Heard that for non-liquid foods as a healthy male it takes about 48 hours
More liquid foods can take about 24 hours of when you sick
Women/unhealthy/etc. can take 72 hours
This correct?
Main concern is to find out how long am I expected to hold the weight post "cheat-day" - trying to estimate what proportion of the weight gain is food (although I also heard it is not that significant and only probably about couple hundreds of grams max and only if given high intake)
Heard that for non-liquid foods as a healthy male it takes about 48 hours
More liquid foods can take about 24 hours of when you sick
Women/unhealthy/etc. can take 72 hours
This correct?
Main concern is to find out how long am I expected to hold the weight post "cheat-day" - trying to estimate what proportion of the weight gain is food (although I also heard it is not that significant and only probably about couple hundreds of grams max and only if given high intake)
6
Replies
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It's a lot more complicated than you're making it, unfortunately.
A simplified explanation:
Food is made up of proteins, carbohydrates, and fats. In the stomach, carbohydrates take 1-4 hours to digest, proteins take roughly 4 hours, and fats can take 8-12 hours, if I recall correctly. However, these macronutrients are FUEL, which is to say, your body breaks them down and absorbs them to use as energy.
Food WASTE, like fiber and other byproducts of digestion that your body can't absorb or use, make their way down into the large intestines to be eliminated as waste. This can take anywhere from a few hours to a few days, depending on your elimination schedule (which can vary widely in people!)
Other things to consider are that for every gram of carbohydrate you ingest, your body has to retain some amount of water to carry those carbohydrates in the blood, causing your weight to rise, so an unusually carbohydrate-rich meal (i.e. a lot more carbs than you would usually put away in a given meal) can cause a fairly large weight fluctuation. Food also contains sodium, which ALSO causes some water retention, but the amount depends on how much sodium you eat in your day-to-day diet and whether the meal you've just eaten contains much more than that.
Short answer: It varies. Don't get too hung up on your day-to-day weight fluctuations, because they'll drive you nuts. Follow the trend of your weight over time instead.11 -
Did you swallow your wedding ring and you are waiting for it to come out?
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@DoubleUbea
I can hold a carb-heavy or salt-heavy day for about three days before my weight settles back down on the scale.
Your mileage may vary.1 -
I am not aware of any gender differences between how long it takes to process food. I'd be curious if you have a reference for that claim as I would be surprised by that.
Also important to note is that food has been processed a good time before you eventually "poop out" the non digetable portion. So timing it as how long it takes you to poop (which has a lot of other unrelated variables) isn't really that relevant to how long it takes to get the nutrition and caloric content from a meal.5 -
There is no passing zone in the digestive system. Eat a lot of corn and you will get your answer...
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It's something like 24-40 hours. Just weigh yourself each day, plot it out, and see how your weight fluctuates depending on what you eat. Don't attempt to create a mathematical formula that determines how much poop is in the chute, so to speak.2
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Aaron_K123 wrote: »I am not aware of any gender differences between how long it takes to process food. I'd be curious if you have a reference for that claim as I would be surprised by that.
Also important to note is that food has been processed a good time before you eventually "poop out" the non digetable portion. So timing it as how long it takes you to poop (which has a lot of other unrelated variables) isn't really that relevant to how long it takes to get the nutrition and caloric content from a meal.
Not a huge study but:
https://www.mayoclinic.org/digestive-system/expert-answers/faq-20058340
"In the 1980s, Mayo Clinic researchers measured digestion time in 21 healthy people. Total transit time, from eating to elimination in stool, averaged 53 hours (although that figure is a little overstated, because the markers used by the researchers passed more slowly through the stomach than actual food). The average transit time through just the large intestine (colon) was 40 hours, with significant difference between men and women: 33 hours for men, 47 hours for women."
1. Metcalf AM, et al. Simplified assessment of segmental colonic transit. Gastroenterology. 1987;92:40.
2. Weaver LT, et al. The bowel habits of young children. Archives of Disease in Childhood. 1984;59:649.
3. Camilleri M, et al. Relationship between impaired gastric emptying and abnormal gastrointestinal motility. Gastroenterology. 1986;91:94.
On a side note: I have a very spicy meal on Saturday like clockwork at around noon (Bonchon Chicken) during a cut and I know from... uh, ... "experience" that it's coming out around 6 am the next morning. That's pretty quick compared to what the study showed. 0 -
Eat something really spicy then time how long it take for the burning to begin in the bathroom.2
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jseams1234 wrote: »Aaron_K123 wrote: »I am not aware of any gender differences between how long it takes to process food. I'd be curious if you have a reference for that claim as I would be surprised by that.
Also important to note is that food has been processed a good time before you eventually "poop out" the non digetable portion. So timing it as how long it takes you to poop (which has a lot of other unrelated variables) isn't really that relevant to how long it takes to get the nutrition and caloric content from a meal.
Not a huge study but:
https://www.mayoclinic.org/digestive-system/expert-answers/faq-20058340
"In the 1980s, Mayo Clinic researchers measured digestion time in 21 healthy people. Total transit time, from eating to elimination in stool, averaged 53 hours (although that figure is a little overstated, because the markers used by the researchers passed more slowly through the stomach than actual food). The average transit time through just the large intestine (colon) was 40 hours, with significant difference between men and women: 33 hours for men, 47 hours for women."
1. Metcalf AM, et al. Simplified assessment of segmental colonic transit. Gastroenterology. 1987;92:40.
2. Weaver LT, et al. The bowel habits of young children. Archives of Disease in Childhood. 1984;59:649.
3. Camilleri M, et al. Relationship between impaired gastric emptying and abnormal gastrointestinal motility. Gastroenterology. 1986;91:94.
On a side note: I have a very spicy meal on Saturday like clockwork at around noon (Bonchon Chicken) during a cut and I know from... uh, ... "experience" that it's coming out around 6 am the next morning. That's pretty quick compared to what the study showed.
...but the large intestine isn't where you absorb nutrients and derive caloric and nutritional content from a meal...that is the small intestine. How long waste sits in your large intestine really has nothing to do with how quickly you derive full nutritive value from a meal.
I mean I think this is pretty obvious when you think about it. Someone could be constipated for many days which can be uncomfortable and not really healthy but that doesn't mean they are somehow not getting calories or nutrition from their meals.
What I'm questioning is if there is a gender difference between the time it takes from eating a meal to the amount of calories and nutrients you absorb. A better study to answer that question would be measuring blood sugar after a meal, not how long it takes to poop.1 -
howfatami69 wrote: »I am talking an average meal - from the moment of ingesting it to normally pooping it out
Heard that for non-liquid foods as a healthy male it takes about 48 hours
More liquid foods can take about 24 hours of when you sick
Women/unhealthy/etc. can take 72 hours
This correct?
Main concern is to find out how long am I expected to hold the weight post "cheat-day" - trying to estimate what proportion of the weight gain is food (although I also heard it is not that significant and only probably about couple hundreds of grams max and only if given high intake)
An easier and probably more accurate estimate comes from logging your so-called cheat day, and logging your intake/exercise/scale weight (and weight trend) meticulously enough on routine days, so that you have a decent ballpark estimate of your calorie deficit.
When I was losing, I got so I could quite accurately estimate how long it would take after an over-goal day to return to my previous low weight, taking into account estimated fat gain, water weight, and temporarily increased digestive contents.
It's a pretty fun adult science fair project, actually . . . but there's math. 2 -
Eat some corn and start a timer. Then wait for your answer.2
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One Mucinex tablet equates to 2 hours for me. 😳 1
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I think this varies greatly on an individual basis.
I have IBS, for example, and it can take just a few hours for something to pass through me if it's irritating.
For someone else, it could take a day or so.1 -
GottaBurnEmAll wrote: »I think this varies greatly on an individual basis.
I have IBS, for example, and it can take just a few hours for something to pass through me if it's irritating.
For someone else, it could take a day or so.
Or a week...
1
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