Day 6? You have a ways to go.

Understand that digestion is dictated by a whole universe of bacteria whose DNA outnumbers your own human DNA. They have a stake in not only your digestive health, but your immune system and neurological functioning. You cannot shift these populations overnight. It may take months or longer to get them operating in an optimal fashion. Any "cheat" will set you back. I speak from experience, having had a weekend away, and while I didn't go totally off the rails, a bunch of small cheats stacked up and I feel awful.

I think the roughage for digestion business is a farce. It is a response to the SAD garbage everyone eats. If you're eating tons of processed foods, the logical answer appears to be roughage, but for Paleo-style diets, I highly doubt it. I've never had constipation eating this way and I don't focus on roughage.

Give it time. And be careful with the water! Make sure you're getting adequate amounts, but you can go overboard and dilute the HCl acid in your stomach, which will have consequences down the line, if you know what I mean.

For more info, I highly recommend Nora Gedgaudas's Primal Body, Primal Mind.

If you haven't already done so, add probiotics to your diet. You can take capsules, but my favorite is raw sauerkraut. Other raw cultured vegetables are fine, too. The results are undeniable as your body adjusts to taking care of its own internal functions, as it was designed to do.

It really works, effortlessly.

In a family of 8, we all poop less on Paleo. I think it's that our bodies actually use the foods that we eat. There is not as much unnecessary waste!

I had this problem too. It only got worse. Be careful as everyone is not the same. Some of us can't take the high amounts of fat/protein. I would ease into Paleo and add Magnesium (helps the elimination process).

Try bone broth, some sweet potatoes, fermented foods (kombatchu, sourkraut, kimchi) and drink more water. Also long walks will help too.

When you think about what poop is (lol)--stuff that your body could not process--you may find your answer there! On a very strict paleo diet, even my multiple-times-a-day-every-day husband goes a few days between BMs(we had a whole discussion about it..romantic, huh?). As long as you are not uncomfortable physically, don't worry about it. It really is much more scary when you do poop after you allow yourself something decidedly unpaleo. Then you think, jeez why am i pooping so much?

Some people are different, but I can say for certainty that in my experience? Yo' mama was wrong.

One of my new years resolutions was to increase my vegetable intake by eating (in addition to my normal amounts of veggies) at least a pound of raw vegetables per day.

As I've mentioned before, for about a week I felt fantastic... I was taking half a pound of kale, cranberries, blueberries, grated carrots, and spirulina and shoving it all into a blender with water and choking it down with breakfast.

After a week, I stopped pooping for a couple of days. When I did finally poop, it was a 1 on the bristol scale (dense, painful little rocks). I drink at a minimum, 3 quarts of water per day, and most days, at least twice that.

I went back to my old standby, about 7-10% carbs from veggies, 55% or more from fat, and the rest protein. And now everything works as it should.

I'm not saying that you will be different, in fact I know for sure you will, but experimentation is key to find out what works for you.

It's a common problem on excessively low carb diets. Add some carbs, along with vitamin C and selenium, and odds are you'll be fine. For more possibilities to troubleshoot, see http://perfecthealthdiet.com/?p=2998.

Since this is a place to be open and frank, I'll share my experience with this subject. Before going to a modified Paleo diet, I was once a day every day, like clockwork. When I made the switch, all of a sudden I didn't have to go as much, and when I did it was like half the volume (sorry if this is to detailed).

I'm not sure why this happens, but it doesn't seem to be a big deal...just the new reality. I also eat as much or more fruit and veggies as before. Could the volume be down because of less indigestible fiber from breads, etc.?

There are lots of things that can cause the symptoms that you are describing. I am on a Paleo diet as well and I love it, but I have had to go through lots of trial and error to find the correct balance of good carbohydrates, proteins & fatty acids to make by digestive system run perfectly. Constipation was the main problem and of course it's hard to lose weight if your your body is not digesting the proteins in the high quantities of meat consumed. The following worked for me:

Betaine Hydrochloride (HLC) tablets - Your stomach mat be underproducing stomach acid. HLC helps to neutralise stomach acid and break down the proteins in your stomach, before they enter the rest of your digestive system. It helps with constipation. Make sure you do the test to see if your stomach is underproducing or over producing BEFORE you launch into this. read this link http://www.modernherbalist.com/betaine.html.

Magnesium supplements - Sleeplessness and muscle cramping are both symptoms of a magnesium deficiency. Go to you local Pharmacy and ask which supplements are the best. Take one a day before bed.

Calcium supplements - Sleeplessness is also a symptom is being low is Calcium. Try a Calcium supplement before bed.

Lastly, you only need one serving of fruit per day and it's best to eat it in the morning. Increase the amount of green leafy vegetables that you are eating, decrease red meats and increase oily fish like salmon, increase your healthy fat intake (avocados, nuts, fish, coconut etc.), don't eat fruit with your meat.

I hope this helps a little :)

WATER WATER WATER !

Also, don't eat as much fruit and see what happens.

Good luck!

Wide legged squat and hold. Lay on a big ball, belly down and make circular movements clockwise. While sitting in the bathroom, add a stool where your feet are, so your knees come up higher than your hips. Last, eat some prunes. Good luck!

try adding in bone broth. spinach always makes me poop.a BIG spinach salad with dinner the night before and I'm definitely having a glorious BM the next morning :)

In addition to all the great suggestions already mentioned I would add that you could take magnesium and if all else fails, try making some bulletproof coffee (either caffeinated or decaf seems to work the same for me) with a tablespoon to two of MCT Oil. That stuff will make you poop like nothing else.

Exercise is a great digestion aid. I've been Paleo for three months now and I noticed I'm not as gassy as I used to be. I like to think that on Paleo, you're eating whole foods as comapred to the processed shit you used to eat, so your body is actually using the food you put into your body (Amazing concept!) as opposed to tabling it and sending it straight through the digestive tract. That's just my theory, though. And I've been known to be a little cray.

When I first started paleo I also didn't "go" for several days, don't remember how long. But it started worrying me because I didn't go for days yet ate large amounts of food, had a flat belly, no pain, no bloating, nothing. It took awhile to normalize and I don't remember if more or less fat or roughage helped. But another thing is that your intestines are the most sensitive or one of the most sensitive parts of your body and react immediately to emotion, stress, change, etc. Have you EVER been seriously frightened to death and within seconds as a consequence not only peed in your pants but also #2 in form of diarrhea? That's not an urban myth but happens more than people will admit to. More common even is for example not going for days after travelling abroad. Not necessarily because of different foods and bacteria but just the stress of change to the body system.

WOW. i think i just had my answer. I am week 3 into going paleo...around 80% if including the cheat meals. Otherwise when its paleo day, im' strictly paleo. My intake has included alot of meat (eg beef, chicken thigh, fish and lamb) with loads and loads of vegetables on the side (celery, squash, cauliflower, eggplant etc). I was experiencing constipation the past 2 weeks and have been wondering why. It's not a new problem though, I've always suffered from poor digestion (especially after eating carbs ie white rice). However, I had salmon for the first time last night and BM was perfect. I might just continue having salmon and more fat (ie avocado)..maybe even include bacon into the diet to see how things go.

These forums on paleohacks have been awesome!!!

Thanks everyone for all the tips!

:D

I have to say with my digestive problems constipation isn't one on paleo, which I'm grateful for

I attribute it to the levels of fat, I know it sounds weird but I kind of think of it as a lubricant :s

My husband had IBS for two+ years. Paleo solved it. No more chronic diarrhea! I used to get constipated sometimes. In the beginning, I was having very oily poops (floaters!) but it wasn't uncomfortable either. I also noticed that I was going less frequently as well.

Lately I've been going like clockwork in the mornings on most mornings, especially after adding more fruit to my diet (in the form of smoothie).

You can also try Tea Yogi makes a "Get Regular" organic tea.

I've been on paleo for 4 months and I'm still having constipation issues. Saw a G.I specialist a month ago about severe constipation and had to take moviprep, which is usually used before a colonoscopy, but because I was that severely constipated I used that. Now im on osmotic laxatives ( they are safe for long term use) if i stop usng them I feel I start to get constipated again. Thank goodness next week I'm seeing the specialist again. I got blood tests for celiac and ill get the results next week, and hopefully some more clear insight into why I STILL have this problem.

All these answers are very useful for me! Thank-you

Well, I think you are LUCKY!! I've been paleo 2.5 years and from week 1, I have had frequent and loose stools. I've tried all sorts - adding potatoes / white rice helped, I've tried probiotics, sauerkraut, diatomaceous earth, iodine - some things help, sone don't, but I actually envy you! If "normal" is going to change - at least you've changed in the right direction!!!

My mom is a nurse who has some knowledge about low carb diets. She says that low carb diets have a diuretic effect. You might notice that you're peeing more often, particularly if you had a high sugar, high refined carb based diet before the shift. The problem is that initially, the stool in your bowels dry up and you start pooping these little pebbles, if anything at all. I just took a huge amount of magnesium citrate and that did the trick. My mom and my boyfriend are also on the diet and experiencing constipation as well.

More starchy veggies like sweet potatoes, bananas and (strangely enough) less green salad works better for me.