I Tracked My Poop For 30 Days: My Shocking Results
It’s never been easier in our society to take part in self-quantification. Seemingly everyone is tracking their steps, food, and sleep. That all makes sense right? If you’re trying to lose weight, it can be helpful to know how many calories and macronutrients you’re eating. If you’re trying to get stronger in the gym, it makes sense to track your workout sessions. And if you’re trying to get more deep sleep, why not put on an Aura Ring or Whoop Band to help tell you what phases of sleep you’re lacking.
But what if there’s something else, that you’re probably not currently tracking, that can give you huge insights into your health. Something that’s been coined as “The Fifth Vital Sign.” You guessed it, poop tracking (Why We Poop). Our most private moments can now become our most informative. With the help of an app called PooKeeper, I tracked my bowel habits for an entire month, and was pretty surprised with my discoveries.
Overall Stats
I averaged around 2–3 bowel movements per day. Typically one in the morning, and another one mid-afternoon. Research shows that 90% of us have between 3–21 bowel movements a week. AKA the average is one every-other-day to 3/day (which is what I lean toward).
How’d my poop look? The Bristol Stool Chart was developed to help judge the type, or the look of poop on a scale of 1–7. 59 (94%) of my bowel movements were rated as type 3 or type 4. Type 3 & 4 are considered normal, while type 1 & 2 are considered more “constipation”, and type 6 & 7 are considered more “diarrhea.” (What Does Your Poop Say About You) I’ll take that as a great month of toilet training!
I had 4 bowel movements that were flagged as “red” for being too slow. Mostly because they were slow moving/I had to push more than normal to get it out. Globally that means only 7% of my total bowel movements were “difficult”, I’ll take that. Why did those happen? Not exactly sure. They could be a result of less water intake the day prior, less activity, more stress, or disrupted sleep. One of them was after a night of having lots of “keto brownies” that were sweetened with erythritol (How Does Diet Soda Affect My Gut). That’s the thing about changes in bowel movements: anything you do that affects your overall health will also likely have an impact on your bowel movements. Who knows, maybe one day poop will actually be considered the fifth vital sign.
48 (76% total poops) were a “normal” amount of stool (normal for me that is). 10 (16%) I described as “monstrous” (larger amounts than normal). I had “monstrous” bowel movements on 3 Wednesdays in a row. My theory has to do with the fact that on Mondays, since it’s an off day from training, my overall calories/carbs are lower. Then on Tuesdays, once I’m back training, I tend to really ramp up the calories/carbs in the form of starchy carbs (and more fiber) which can add to stool bulk and potentially bigger bowel movements. I also had “monstrous” poops on several Saturday mornings. What’s the theory there? Same as the one above. Fridays are typically off days, so I go lower calorie most of the day, then because I tend to workout fasted Saturday morning, I like to have a HUGE meal Friday night. Again, more starchy carbs and fiber making larger, bulkier stools.
General Observations
Exercise
Days where I exercised multiple times/was eating more calories & carbohydrates, I tended to have 3 bowel movements. My body was likely under “higher stress” those days due to exercise, so it makes sense that I’d have more bowel movements. Reminds me of stories I hear where people do phone interviews from their toilets because they get so nervous.
Why does this happen? Two parts: A) Exercise stimulates the muscles in our GI tract, so digestion is sped up. That’s why some people get relief from constipation by increasing their exercise routine. B) Too much exercise (viewed as a stressor like we touched on before) increases how fast our colon works (1). Since poop is formed in the colon, poop gets pushed out faster and more frequent.
Coffee Helps
I’ve written previously about coffee’s impact on bowel habits (Is Coffee Good For My Gut?).
In short, coffee consumption stimulates the gastrocolic reflex. Gastro means stomach, and colic referring to your colon (large intestine). It’s not just the caffeine that does this, as decaf coffee can also help activate this bowel moving reflex.
Sometimes, I’d have to go within 30 minutes of waking up before I’d even had my coffee.
It’s very common for people to go in the morning. Once you wake up and start moving around, the orthocolic reflex is initiated, leading to an urge to use the bathroom.
Timing
Some days, my first bowel movement didn’t happen until after breakfast. This again has to do with food activating the gastrocolic reflex. Makes sense right, once new food enters your stomach, it’s time to get rid of any food leftover in your gut from the night before.
I only had one bowel movement after 6pm. I find this kind of strange, and here’s why: Typically, for me at least, dinner was the largest meal of the day. The health implications of that topic are for another article, but nonetheless that’s how my life works. It’s quite normal for people to have the urge to poop after having a meal. When food enters the stomach, a signal is sent down to the large intestine, causing a movement of fecal material out of the large intestine (gastrocolic reflex),and hopefully into a toilet near you.
Makes sense right, new food comes in, and we have to make room for it, so we get rid of the old stuff. In comes the strange part, if dinner is so large, wouldn’t it send the same signal down to the large intestine, causing me to have another evening, post-dinner bowel movement? Yet, that is rarely the case.
I had a bowel movement EVERYDAY. I know I mentioned previously that having 3 bowel movements a week was considered average, but I personally would not consider that optimal. Pooping plays such a big role in detoxification, that I believe it’s something we should be doing daily.
Smell
Not every poop smells horrible. Actually, foul smelling poop is a sign that something’s going on within your gut. If your poop has that “rotten egg” smell, that’s likely coming from hydrogen sulfide gas being produced by your gut bacteria. Our gut bugs ferment certain foods and create this foul-smelling odor as a by-product (When Good Carbs Go Bad). You might be also passing a large amount of foul-smelling gas, aka social distancing is your friend right now.
Other gases potentially causing the foul smell include methane, nitrogen, and hydrogen. Nitrogen could be a result of your protein not being properly digested. I only had one that I noted as “foul smelling.”
Foods
Not all the “healthy” foods you eat are fully digested. Anytime I’d eat beets, I’d find them in my stool the next day. Now, this isn’t necessarily a problem. It comes from an inability to break down a compound in beets called betanin (compound that gives beets their red color).
Likewise, anytime I’d have some kale or spinach, my stools would turn a tad more green the following day. Again, this isn’t really anything I’m concerned with. This has to do with the chlorophyll that’s in green leafy vegetables, giving them their green color. Remember chlorophyll way back from middle school biology, yea me neither.
Takeaways
Anytime you track something in life, the goal shouldn’t be to tract that particular thing forever, but rather to make you more aware of what you’re tracking. For me, I now know that having different colored stool is likely from a dietary source, monstrous bowel movements after a low calorie day is normal, having slower bowel movements more than once a week is off for me, and not pooping in a day is very abnormal.
If you’re looking for guidance along your stool tracking journey, check out The HIVE Natural Health Center, where we empower you to take back control of your gut health.
I invite you to take part in this same challenge. Though not nearly as sexy as seeing what different phases of sleep you got, or how much your heart rate fluctuates during a workout, knowing your stools is akin to knowing yourself.
As always, Trust in Your Gut.
Disclaimer: The contents of this article are for educational purposes only, and are not intended to diagnose or treat any condition. Do not apply any of the information in this article without first speaking with your doctor.
Text-References
- Chang YM, El-Zaatari M, Kao JY. Does stress induce bowel dysfunction?. Expert Rev Gastroenterol Hepatol. 2014;8(6):583–585. doi:10.1586/17474124.2014.911659
