Is this normal

I have multiple intolerances to animal proteins. Not fun. Get tested

Not to take over your thread or anything but I bloat a lot after each meal too and I thought that was normal? Should I actually be getting this looked into... I absolutely hate it.

Food makes your abdomen stick out. It's normal. It's more noticeable when you're on the slimmer side.

First, hugs, and sorry this is happening.

Second, visiting a doctor might help, but you are going to have to plan like there's no tomorrow because honestly, it's really unlikely to be helpful unless you have some concrete facts, and are ready to advocate for yourself in the face of possible bias and just plain crap.

Digestive issues are typically dealt with phenomenally poorly by the medical community, in my experience. You are likely to be told that you need to eat more fiber, or take a laxative, take a probiotic, eat more slowly because you 'must be swallowing air,' stop eating dairy or gluten (sometimes), or - being female presenting - that it's stress or anxiety related and you need to see a psychiatrist/psychologist or just 'stop thinking about your health so much.' You seem a good weight, so you'll likely avoid the 'you just need to lose weight' bias, but you might instead get a 'you just need to gain more weight' bias, so be prepared.

And for folks who haven't been there - I know hundreds of people who have had bloating AND other symptoms to match and have been told one of the above, sometimes by multiple doctors. Gut issues seem to be often written off by a good chunk of the medical community, until they get so bad that they can't be any longer.


So, that said, things that might be helpful.

1. Check to see if your bloating seems gut centered only, or if it's spreading further than that. If it is gut only, that implies that something is happening INSIDE the gut only. But if it's something that seems like it's spreading into the tissues surrounding the gut, that implies that you may be having a reaction of some kind that, even if it originated in the gut, is unlikely to be related to, say, gut bacteria, and might be more of an allergic issue or something else that can trigger other non-gut cells. Also noting down how quickly you react, and how long it takes to get bloated fully, may matter.

3. Taking the photos is a good idea. If you can get more than one set of photos, that happen right before and after a meal, that would be even better, so you can prove that it's not just a change from day to day, but literally before and after meals. Take measurements at the same time.

3. For tracking the bloating, try this: make quite a few very simple, few ingredient mini-meals, and record the amount of bloating that happens afterwards. This can save you a lot of time and effort, and also give you ammunition for any lazy doctoring. (Also, record if you have differences in bloating depending on how MUCH you eat, or not).

Meals I would suggest to try (and make them yourself so you know exactly what is in them): a beef patty with nothing but salt, a plain salad with only veggies and no salad dressing, 1-2 milkshakes or a bunch of cheese, a fruit plate with only fruit, some french bread without butter (if you don't make the bread yourself, try to get some bread with as few ingredients as possible), some homemade refried beans, homemade fried potatoes with salt (I would suggest olive oil to fry in).

The reason for the meals is this: if you are making them out of fresh ingredients, you will be avoiding a lot of preservatives and the odd filler ingredient that can make people react or that muddy the waters when trying to figure out WHAT you are reacting to (like, for example, wheat used as thickeners in many things).

So doing this, you might actually find out what you are reacting to, or at least what you are NOT reacting to.

But if you ARE reacting to everything, the above list can help.
If doctor says it's probably lactose intolerance and you should go dairy free to test that, you can point out that you have tried many dairy free meals and you react exactly the same.
If doctor says it could be fructose malabsorption, you can point out you had foods that don't have fructose (like the beef), and still reacted.
If they say it could be gluten intolerance, again, you tried some non-gluten foods and still reacted. etc... etc...

Because - and I SO wish this wasn't true - you would be surprised at how many doctors will not really pay attention when you say you seem to react to everything. So if you can have hard data to show that you honestly seem to be reacting to EVERYTHING, the above can keep you from having to prove that you don't react to X to the doctors, so they can understand that and you can go further in getting help.


And that said, some things that really can make you react to everything, or what seems to be everything.
1. parasites - gross, but absolutely something that can happen. Many tests may be needed, for different parasites. If you happen to have travelled outside your country sometime before the bloating started, you want to mention that because doctors tend to look at local parasites, primarily. Also, if you happen to eat at any restaurants frequently that require a lot of imported foods that might contain parasites, that's good to mention too.
2. SIBO - bacterial overgrowth. The gut ends up with too many of the 'wrong' kind of bacteria and you tend to have a lot of bloating after eating. a breath test is needed to diagnose this.
3. celiac disease - while this is a disease where the body reacts to gluten, the reaction is one that damages your intestines. It can damage your ability to produce lactase to digest lactose, so you react to both gluten AND dairy. Also, it is so sensitive that you can react to cross-contamination of non-gluten foods, so you can eat foods that don't SEEM to have gluten, but are simply contaminated by food made on the same equipment line in the factory, and you'd have no way of knowing that. It can also damage your ability to digest some sugars, as well, and celiacs often have lower levels of good gut bacteria which can impact your ability to digest food properly too, so even though the initial CAUSE is gluten, it can start making your react to a lot of different foods(it's often good to get tested for this, honestly, as it's tricky to figure out, otherwise - and you have to continue to eat gluten until testing, as the test looks for a reaction TO gluten and gives a false negative if you aren't eating it regularly).