How does my body actually keep the calories?

weeblex
weeblex Posts: 412 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
This is a little indelicate, but I am so curious I have to ask and Google is letting me down.

I used to be a once a day bathroom visitor. Since I've been eating healthier and drinking more water I seem to be in there with a number 2 a couple of hours after every meal.

If my body is turning over food that quickly, how can it retain the calories, or does it just metabolize everything faster?

Any brainiac biologists know the answer?

Replies

  • its_betty
    its_betty Posts: 104 Member
    I'm not a scientist or nutritionist or doctor, so I may not have the details exactly right, but the key is that you are "eating healthier."

    That likely means that you are eating more fruits and vegetables and whole grains: foods that have a higher percentage of fiber. Not all fiber is digested by the body: some of it is insoluble and passes right through. Even soluble fiber bulks up as it is digested. So you feel fuller with fewer calories and (ahem) have to go more.
  • weeblex
    weeblex Posts: 412 Member
    I agree, there is probably more fiber in there which is probably enabling the speed.

    But if it takes time to metabolize and that time is now shorter shouldn't there be a lower "residual" calorie count.

    Actaully that is a good point.

    Coke - Bad example but there is a full can sitting on my desk taunting me.

    Does your body get the 140 calories the instant it gets drunk or does it take time, lets say, 1 calorie a minute. So if I drank the coke, then 2 bottles of water and had to pee in 10 minutes, would I have got less than the 140 calories that I'd have got if I didn't have to pee for 2 hours?

    None of this is going to affect my counting, but I am curious.
  • yarwell
    yarwell Posts: 10,477 Member
    plug flow - you push something in a pipe at one end and something comes out the other. The 2 hour delay from eating to pooping isn't the total residence time, it's the reaction time from eating to defecating.

    The glucose from your coke would appear in your bloodstream pretty quick - been and gone in two hours maximum. Look up glycemic response curves.
  • mcarter99
    mcarter99 Posts: 1,666 Member
    I think digestion starts in the mouth and continues all along the way. Some things like alcohol and probably sugar in coke don't take long to absorb.

    I think it's possible that when you drink a coke and then pee 30 minutes later, what you're peeing isn't necessarily THAT coke, and same for the food. There is fluid in your bladder and food matter in your digestive tract from prior meals and drinks and that last intake just tipped the scales for some elimination, possibly. So when you think you're removing the remains of dinner at 9pm it might be breakfast. And dinner's hanging out til 10am. Maybe. I think our bodies digest rather slowly. I have some exotic pets that do have a short digestive time span, of several hours. But it's an adaptive thing, for eating carb-less and bacteria-laden food in the wild.

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