Embarrassing bathroom question - PaleoHacks.com

Embarrassing bathroom question

2012-05-02T19:54:18Z

I'm doing the 30 Paleo challenge and am 17 days in. I have a couple of questions but the first is the embarrassing one. I have not had a solid poop since I started. Every trip to the bathroom has been diarrhea. I'm just wondering if anyone else has experienced this and what they did.

My second question is how long did it take you to feel the "good effects" of eating paleo? I'm so tired and can barely get through my workouts at the end of the day.

Answer by eric for Embarrassing bathroom question

2012-05-02T20:00:57Z

Could you be more specific as to what exactly you are eating? My personal experience on a switch to paleo was the opposite: severe constipation, until my body caught on how to move food thru without tons of fiber and carb thingies.

Answer by greymouser for Embarrassing bathroom question

2012-05-02T20:01:33Z

Non-solid is not necessarily diarrhea.

Type 5-6 isn't ideal, and 6-7 can be considered diarrhea.

What does your diet currently look like? If you are eating only roughage (insoluable fiber) -- i.e. only veggies and generally leaves -- and no soluable fiber, your stool will tend towards shapeless.

Answer by mars for Embarrassing bathroom question

2012-05-02T20:09:23Z

17 days in.. you are experiencing the carb flu.. will go away soon, stick with it!

Answer by Eric for Embarrassing bathroom question

2012-05-02T20:12:27Z

As to your second question, I would encourage you to go easy on workouts (or skip them altogether) if you are struggling to make it through because of being tired. It is not benefitting your body to workout when you are already feeling too beat up to handle it. Not knowing what your diet consists of, it's hard to make specific recommendations; however, play around with your macronutrient ratios. A lot of people do well on low carb, a lot of people do not - maybe you need to increase healthy carb intake (sweet potatoes, starchy vegetables, limited amounts of fruit). People experience different lengths of feeling poorly when transitioning to paleo, based on their body and their nutrition prior to switching to paleo.

As to the first question, that has--thankfully--not been my experience on paleo.

Answer by Kelly for Embarrassing bathroom question

2012-05-02T20:24:32Z

YES I'm familiar! For me the answer was too much fat, my body couldn't handle it so that was the result.

I then started tapering back my fat% (from 75% at that time down to 55-65% max per day). That seemed to help, but some days I still have to be careful.

Could be carb flu or die off, who knows, try adjusting the fat and see if that helps.

Are you taking any probiotics or adding fermented foods? that could cause die off. Same with if you started using coconut oil, it can also cause die off (while doing good but sometimes you need to go easy so you don't pay the price). Start analyzing whats new in your diet, including supplements etc.
Any changes can have an effect.

hope this helps!

Answer by MotoMoto for Embarrassing bathroom question

2012-05-02T21:16:29Z

Could be gallbladder too (one of many symptoms for GB problems). Just sayin. Really, it could be a number of things. Just change it up for a few days and see what happens (food wise that is).

Answer by trwolfe for Embarrassing bathroom question

2012-05-02T21:25:09Z

Are you adequately washing your veggies? Some of the chemicals on produce can wreck your innards...

Answer by Judi for Embarrassing bathroom question

2012-05-02T22:10:53Z

Can't help you with the first question, but it took me a good 3 weeks before my workouts were back, (and now they're better than ever!) but with what you're experiencing digestively I could see it taking longer. Hope you feel better soon :-)

Answer by jake for Embarrassing bathroom question

2012-05-03T02:09:26Z

maybe you got a mild case of food poisoning... think back to any food that could have been contaminated around the time your problem started

Answer by MLyon for Embarrassing bathroom question

2012-05-04T15:56:51Z

I have been Paleo for over 2 years and still have # 6 or 7 bm's. I was just the opposite before Paleo. :(

Answer by Christopher Gagnon for Embarrassing bathroom question

2012-05-04T16:36:57Z

I read somewhere once that something like 80% of your stool is the remains of the gut microbes digesting your food. When you change your diet suddenly, the microbes in your gut are not adapted to the new diet. They may be used to more carbohydrate-rich foods, and poorly adapted to high fat/protein.

When I had the same problem, I introduced probiotic foods (sauerkraut and kefir) and took a probiotic supplement. I was prepared to add a non-digestible carbohydrate (like psyllium husk) to feed the microbes, but my situation cleared up before that was necessary.

Also, I found that adding rice to my diet resolves the problem whenever it comes back. Maybe that's not a solution for you right now if you're motivated to complete your 30 days, but adding a safe starch might help, or at least be informative, once you make it through this period.