The ugly question that must be asked

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terence
terence Posts: 119
in Food and Nutrition
I've never read anything about this topic and, yet, it must play a critical part in one's weight loss. If you are feint of heart, suffer from apoplexy, loss of visual purple, or similar ailments, please read no further >>>>>>>>>>>> :noway:

Question 1: What part does the volume/weight of our excreta play in weight loss?

Question 2: Is the volume/weight of said excrement fixed in relation to calorie input and energy output.

Question 3: Are some types of food more efficient in processing our general intake, thereby expelling a greater proportion of that intake as excreta?

In Question 3, I am thinking of fiber, however there may be other food groups that are more expropriate (my word).

Last week, I did a test. I partook of a high-fiber diet for four days. I ate high-fiber cereal for two meals each day except for one day when the cereal represented all three main meals. Apart from that, I ate fruit and little else.

Except for a little wind pain on the first and second days, nothing extraordinary happened until Day 4. Then, over a period of 30 hours, there were six separate evacuations (No ... not from my building as a result of the wind! :embarassed: ). All but one of those events was of reasonable volume. I should mention that I was unaware that there had been any prior storage as I had been as regular as the taxman before and during my research. I should also add that this was not diarrhea, nor was it unpleasant in any way - just good, old-fashioned bowel movements. And that leads to ...

Question 4: Was this just happenstance or have I unwittingly stumbled upon a fairly basic phenomenon?

Question 5: My waist measurement decreased by almost an inch during the week. Coincidence? (Queue: 'Twilight Zone' theme)

Apologies, again, to the sensitive and expressionable (mine again) among us, but I find this fascinating and I'm seriously interested in the answers. I've never seen this discussed.
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Replies

  • chrissyh
    chrissyh Posts: 8,235 Member
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    Bumping to see responses.
  • KatWood
    KatWood Posts: 1,135 Member
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    OMG chrissy that has to be the cutest dog ever. What breed is he/she? Boxer?
  • Zara11
    Zara11 Posts: 1,247 Member
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    Ummm... no idea. All I can really think of as a response is that I don't want to rely on bowel movements to account for losing weight. I don't want to "lose" calories - I know I can burn them with exercise. I don't [ideally] care about losing pounds, I care about losing inches. I'm sure bowel movements cause you to lose inches. My question is, can you keep up this high-fiber diet and bowel movements for the rest of your life? Or once you're done with all of your weight/inches lost, will you just bloom up again if you ease up on the fiber?

    Someone below mentioned those cleansing things, and I agree. This seem more momentary than long-termed. Unless, of course, you combine it with exercise and proper diet, perhaps... but really, I've no medical knowledge to base this on, so I'm really just thinking out loud.
  • DeeDeeLHF
    DeeDeeLHF Posts: 2,301 Member
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    Interesting...I am curious what the more learned among us have to say. Ever read any of the colon cleansing info?
  • hasiangirl
    hasiangirl Posts: 1,613
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    i call this cleansing...those inches are probably bloated inches...and i used to do a cleansing once a month where i would eat nothing but fruits, veggies and nuts for a few days...now i just incorporate 3 fruits and 3 veggies into my diet... drinking water also helps and deff any wheat greats with fiber in them is going to help u poo.....but what works the best for me are the fruits and veggies....:bigsmile:
    p.s. the cleansing will only bring u down a certain amount and i personally believe that certain amount is what u technically weigh anyway because i dont count poo as a person and our weight lmao...but u cant just cleanse ur way to all the way skinny
  • andlofly
    andlofly Posts: 62 Member
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    interesting... how much "leftovers" we are lugging around inside our bodies!!
  • hasiangirl
    hasiangirl Posts: 1,613
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    interesting... how much "leftovers" we are lugging around inside our bodies!!
    depends on how long u've been eating nothing but junk....a person who has been doing pretty much clean eating for a while will have less waste of course than a person eating junk 24/7
  • jenn_in_sj
    jenn_in_sj Posts: 25 Member
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    I have read in Prevention and Health magazine that for every gram of fiber you ingest you are tying up 7 calories. ... So if you eat 30 g of fiber - you will excrete 210 calories. Not sure how acurate this is but I read it from farily credible magazines.
  • Foxy_Brown
    Foxy_Brown Posts: 5
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    Excellent questions for I've always wondered that myself. I do know that when I adhere to sensible eating with the recommended daily fiber intake, exercise a minimum of 30-40 mins/day six days a week, and drink plenty of water, within three days things begin to happen very regularly. There is always left over in our body (spakle or paste as the medical community calls it) so continually eating healthly and exercising will assure a healthy rotation and the release of any overflow.
  • Melther
    Melther Posts: 1
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    This goes along with all of the colon cleansing/body cleansing theories out there. However, it can't be considered real weight loss. If you go back to eating minimal fiber you'd most likely get back the bloat you lost. You ingested more fiber-a laxative, so of course you're going to have more bowel movements. Fiber is actually a bulk laxative, so the fact that your stools weren't loose is par for the course. That said, imagine how good you would feel if you incorporated more fiber/fruit into your daily diet (not as a test)! In fact there is a diet called The Fiber 35 (or something like that) dedicated to this very subject. Hope this helps.
  • terence
    terence Posts: 119
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    My question is, can you keep up this high-fiber diet and bowel movements for the rest of your life? Or once you're done with all of your weight/inches lost, will you just bloom up again if you ease up on the fiber?

    Yes, I'd like to know that too.
  • terence
    terence Posts: 119
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    I have read in Prevention and Health magazine that for every gram of fiber you ingest you are tying up 7 calories. ... So if you eat 30 g of fiber - you will excrete 210 calories. Not sure how acurate this is but I read it from farily credible magazines.

    You mean "tying up" as in "little parcels"? That was the way I understood it. So, within certain limits, one would assume that eating lots of fiber would parcel it up and send it out before it has a chance to take up residence. Oui?

    [What will those people at UPS in their lovely brown uniforms think of next?]
  • Scubachick
    Scubachick Posts: 54
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    Thanks for posting these interesting questions, and in a lighthearted manner. PML at some of it...!
    six separate evacuations (No ... not from my building as a result of the wind! :embarassed: ).

    I'm no expert here, but in my humbel opinion I reckon that seeing as you were putting so much fibre into your body that fibre had to come out again. There is usually a delay with the digestive system, which explains why it didn't happen during the experiment. The inch loss could be attributed to the fact you weren't eating other higher cal foods while on this experiment.

    Are or will the results be published on the net? I would be interested in reading it.
  • SHBoss1673
    SHBoss1673 Posts: 7,161 Member
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    Melther was pretty much right on the money.

    At any given time, there's quite a bit of partially digested food in our system. Call it waste, or what ever, it's basically what's left over after the nutrients have been sucked out of food, and it also incorporates some of the toxins that our liver and kidneys expel.

    Eating a good amount of fiber can help keep this process moving, and every once in a while it's not a bad Idea to help the process along with extra fiber, but in general it doesn't help you to constantly be pushing waste out of your system faster than normal. Obviously if you have BM issues, then fiber can be a big help, but for people who have 1 to 2 normal BM's a day, it shouldn't be necessary. If you feel bloated or "backed up" then yeah, add a little fiber, that may help, or it could be caused by other issues too. Generally speaking the body knows how to efficiently remove waste, as long as you eat a relatively healthy diet, you shouldn't need to help the process by ingesting high volumes of fiber.
    Some people don't digest certain food types very well, this is something you should talk over with your doctor and have tested if you feel like you have a problem with certain food types (bloating, pain, discomfort in the intestines), it may be an alergy, or a deficiency in intestinal bacteria, or some other "plumbing problem". Otherwise, having all that waste in there is natural, very safe, and shouldn't be considered a bad thing.
  • hasiangirl
    hasiangirl Posts: 1,613
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    talking of bowel movements......how come a 9month old has about 5-7BMS a day?
  • terence
    terence Posts: 119
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    That said, imagine how good you would feel if you incorporated more fiber/fruit into your daily diet (not as a test)!

    Yes, that was the plan if the test worked. But I wasn't sure whether or not my results were due to the fiber variable.
  • TankLily
    TankLily Posts: 34
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    wooooo

    Hold on guys your getting yourselves VERY confused. Let me break this down.

    1. Food goes into the stomach, passess throught the colon, the ONLY thing that enters the Colon is water.

    2. there are only 2 ways to loose fat.
    a. Sweat
    b. Urin

    How does Fat come out of your urin???!!??!?!?!
    I've never had greasy pee... LOL
    Actually Fat is Metabolised by your cells, the Waste from that is cleaned out of your blood by your liver, then transfered into your bladder and out your body in your urin.
    So no you don't have greasy pee, but you do have that strong smelling dark pee.

    But wait... what about the fat in my stool?
    That fat was never actually digested. it just passed through.

    SO how does Fiber get rid of fat?
    Fiber doesn't.
    It pushes fat that you ate through your intesten before you candigest it.

    Am I storing waste in my intestines.
    NO There is NO scientific reason why you would ever have to "cleanse" your intestine.
    Infact it could be harmfull. You have lots of GOOD bacteria in your guts that you need to digest products. it's best to keep them happy and inside.

    HEY but I increased my fiber intake and lost 5 lbs!!!
    Yes you did, but you didn't loose fat. you lost water, remember how I said that the only thing that enters the stomach (besides digestive fluids) is water. Well Fiber needs lots of water in it to be digested... So water rushes into your digestive tract, and comes out in your stool.... did you loose weight? Sure, but it's just water weight.
  • terence
    terence Posts: 119
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    Thanks for posting these interesting questions, and in a lighthearted manner. PML at some of it...!

    I'm so glad that I fixed your problem at the same time, Scubachick. :laugh:
  • soup78
    soup78 Posts: 667 Member
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    Melther was pretty much right on the money.

    At any given time, there's quite a bit of partially digested food in our system. Call it waste, or what ever, it's basically what's left over after the nutrients have been sucked out of food, and it also incorporates some of the toxins that our liver and kidneys expel.

    Eating a good amount of fiber can help keep this process moving, and every once in a while it's not a bad Idea to help the process along with extra fiber, but in general it doesn't help you to constantly be pushing waste out of your system faster than normal. Obviously if you have BM issues, then fiber can be a big help, but for people who have 1 to 2 normal BM's a day, it shouldn't be necessary. If you feel bloated or "backed up" then yeah, add a little fiber, that may help, or it could be caused by other issues too. Generally speaking the body knows how to efficiently remove waste, as long as you eat a relatively healthy diet, you shouldn't need to help the process by ingesting high volumes of fiber.
    Some people don't digest certain food types very well, this is something you should talk over with your doctor and have tested if you feel like you have a problem with certain food types (bloating, pain, discomfort in the intestines), it may be an alergy, or a deficiency in intestinal bacteria, or some other "plumbing problem". Otherwise, having all that waste in there is natural, very safe, and shouldn't be considered a bad thing.

    I knew Superman would save the day! :flowerforyou:

    *fist bump*
  • terence
    terence Posts: 119
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    I'm afraid that you've confused me, Tanklily.
    1. Food goes into the stomach, passess throught the colon, the ONLY thing that enters the Colon is water.

    I can't get beyond the contradiction in this sentence. What did you mean to say?
    SO how does Fiber get rid of fat?
    Fiber doesn't. It pushes fat that you ate through your intesten before you can eat it.

    Did you mean to say "before you can absorb it" or perhaps "before you can store it"?
    And if it does that, aren't you saying that fiber does get rid of it?
    I'm afraid I don't understand what you mean. Can you reword it?
    HEY but I increased my fiber intake and lost 5 lbs!!!
    Yes you did, but you didn't loose fat. you lost water, remember how I said that the only thing that enters the stomach (besides digestive fluids) is water.

    In fact, you said "the colon". But I can't understand how you can say this either. The only thing that enters the stomach is water and digestive fluids? I must have some fundamental reading problem here. That just sounds incredible.

    I'd appreciate it if you could clarify your meaning for me. I just don't understand it.

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