Bowel Movements, Constipation, and Fat Loss
It’s a messy topic, and it’s one that must be brought to the surface if either health or weight-loss is the goal.
In this post I’m going to discuss something near and dear to my heart - bowel movements. Frankly, I think poop should be talked about more often. Perhaps then we could move beyond the messiness and consider the health and fitness connection with issues like constipation, diarrhea, and ugly looking stools.
You can tell a lot from your bowel movements. Consider the above image. Each bowel movement (BM) represents clues of what’s occurring with your digestion. For example, the 2nd from the left is a clue that you’re not digesting fats very well. This poop is known as the “Olympic swimmer” (because it doesn’t flush easily). Fat malabsorption can lead to a bunch of problems such as fatigue, vitamin and mineral deficiencies, excessive gas, poor immunity, and other things.
How aware of your bowel movements are you? When you remove yourself from the toilet, do you look in and see what you left? What do you observe? Ask yourself…
What’s the consistency?
What color is it?
How do my bowel movements change based on what I eat and drink?
How to they change based on the drugs I take?
Does the smell of my BMs send others in the household running for their life?
How have they changed over the years?
How often do I have a bowel movement?
Do I notice a connection between constipation and bloat?
How you answer these questions can provide insight into how well you’re treating yourself – meaning how well you’re eating, how well you’re hydrating, the degree of stress in your life, the amount of ‘space’ you allow in your life, and also your breathing patterns. If you don’t know the answers to most of the above questions, and you give a shit, it’s probably time to start paying attention.
Constipation & Struggling to Lose Fat
For proper elimination, ideally you’ll have at least one BM per day, and it should feel like a full elimination. If you’re not eliminating enough, something called autointoxication can occur, which literally means self-poisoning. This is when toxins from your colon make their way back into the body. In order to avoid this, it’s important that waste is removed in a timely manner, but when your BMs aren’t frequent enough and these toxins make their way back into your system through the permeable colon wall, your body has to process these toxins again through the detoxification organs. Your liver is one of your body’s major detoxification organs, which you’re probably already aware of. However, what isn’t commonly known, is that it’s also a major organ involved in losing fat. Let’s take a brief look at how this works.
Adipose tissue (body fat) stores toxins, and when you embark on a weight loss program the toxins stored in that tissue needs to be processed for safe elimination from your body. As mentioned earlier, your liver is one of your primary organs for filtering toxins, but keep in mind that it’s only capable of filtering a certain amount. There’s a limit to what it can handle, and if it has to provide extra bandwidth to process toxins coming from your colon (because of constipation) your liver may no longer have the capacity to deal with the toxins from your adipose tissue. This is when fat loss can slow down or halt altogether, and the reason for this is because the body preferentially processes the toxins from the constipated colon, rather than from the adipose tissue. That’s’ because adipose tissue is a relatively safe storage place for toxins, and the toxins released from the colon wall is a more immediate and urgent concern. Therefore, if the body can’t process the toxins from the adipose tissue, the body will make the safe decision to hang on to its fat!
A word of caution. It’s not recommended to try to force weight off with exercise and calorie restriction. It NEVER works long-term. Many have tried this, including myself. You ultimately end up feeling exhausted, potentially depressed, and regaining the weight with a few extra pounds to boot. For long-term weight-loss you MUST consider health, and gastrointestinal health is paramount.
Here are a few potential remedies to consider if constipated:
Poor hydration: Strive for drinking half your bodyweight in ounces per day.
A diet too low in fats and oils: A low fat / low oil diet can be a contributor. Inspect your diet to assure you’re eating adequate amounts.
Lack of movement: A sluggish body can sometimes lead to sluggish bowels.
Lack of torso deformation: This means lack of exposure to bending and twisting. The colon uses muscular contractions to move waste through and out of the body, but it requires physical movement for optimal functioning. Movements like sit-ups, side bending, squatting, deadlifts, and torso rotations all provide a compression/decompression action for the abdominal organs. Yoga institutes all of these movements.
Tightening of your abdomen / breath holding: This is common with anxiety and chronic stress where you might unconsciously tense your abdomen and subsequently shallow breathe, or hold your breath. Take note if you’re frequently sighing, as this is a sign that you’re improperly breathing. Various mindfulness techniques, therapy, and structuring your life towards more space can help.
If you need to go, go! Resisting the urge to have a bowel movement can train the colon towards constipation.
There are certainly more reasons for constipation, but the above suggestions are a good place to start and can help in many cases. If you’re brave enough, please share any thoughts or remedies you’ve found helpful. Social links are below.