TO wonder if my chronic constipation IS actually my own fault?

[BladdersRoom]

Been chronically constipated for years. A while back, this resulted in me being rushed to hospital in agony with an impacted bowel.

Doctor's have always said I need to eat more fibre and my response was always "I do! That doesn't work for me!"

However I've been following my fibre intake on MFP recently and have realised I NEVER hit target. In fact, the most I've ever managed was 15g one day but most days it's between 2g and 7g

So is this actually the cause of my constipation?? I'm considering going veggie so that my meat substitutes contain so much more fibre but I'm worried that I'm going to end up a bloater.

Is my fibre intake (or lack of) really enough to have caused this long battle with constipation?

maybe. I think lots of people don't have a clear insight into their diets. Just look at secret eaters...

Fluids another big one for constipation. Neither would hurt to try and change

I'm not sure MFP has accurate nutrition breakdowns for each food.
Have you also used another source to check?
You can just google for each food, I've done that in the past.

A high fibre diet probably needs high fibre at each meal, so a high fibre cereal or raspberries for breakfast, bean salad for lunch, loads of veg with dinner.

Plus a few bits of fruit to snack on. Just swapping white bread for brown won't be enough for example.

Wherebouts do you think you currently are on that spectrum?

Eat a bowl of Allbran for breakfast every day for a couple of weeks and drink plenty of fluids. You will soon find out if it is the fault of your diet.

Ok so my typical day would be

Breakfast - protein shake (semi skimmed milk, whey powder) and coffee

Lunch - white pasta, fish and cheese (ok, a ready meal 😁)

Dinner - spaghetti bolognese (white spaghetti, mince and dolmio)

I don't eat fruit unless the grapes in wine count.

My Mum suffers terribly. She is a vegetarian. The hospital told her to eat lots of pulses (lentils etc). She lives on movicol, senokot and stool softeners.

You don't have to go full-on vegetarian (although I'm sure the cows will like it if you will), but using more fibrous protein sources should help.

How many handfuls worth of fruit/vegetables do you eat per day, and what are they?

A good test might be to eat a big packet of dried apricots and see what happens

I can help with fibrous recipes if you want.

Your diet seems very low in fibre to me, I think you have lots of room to make some changes.

That doesn't seem like a great deal of fibre to be honest

Recipe ideas much appreciated!

I've wanted to go vegetarian for a while anyway for animal rights purposes but I do believe it will increase my fibre intake too as quorn contains fibre plus I'll have to "beef" my meals up with beans etc

You don't have any fruit or vegetables?

Do you drink a lot of water?

The only fibre sources in that day seem to be the tomatoes in the bol. and any in the pasta. If it's white pasta that's still not much

That does sound really low in fibre

Swap the white pasta for wholemeal and the protein shake for a bowl of all bran, fruit for snacking

There is hardly any fibre there at all. Short term, use Fybogel twice a day (saved me during pregnancy and post c-section) and try to plan a more balanced diet.

You need loads more green veg and salad and as PP said lots of water.

That is quite a low fibre diet, some people get away with that, but not you clearly! I think you should try to increase it a lot (with lots of fluids, as others have said). I also find scattering some linseed on my breakfast seems to help avoid constipation (some supermarkets, and Amazon sell them).

I drink 1lt water a day and numerous cups of tea. Fybogel makes me balk! Plus I have a tendency to bloat like mad so have to be careful with stuff like that

How did you think you were eating a lot of fibre? You said it never works for you - did you just think you were eating it or were you making changes then to include it?

A handful of flaxseeds in porridge/smoothie is excellent.

Erm, your sample diet is pretty bad. You don't eat like that every day? If so I would say the constipation is absolutely your fault. Eat some fresh food!!!! It makes my eyes water to think about what's going on in your intestines.

That's, like, no fibre. I assumed at least you were eating some All-Bran or something!

Why did you say you are lots of fibre to the doctors but it didn't work, if you have such a low fibre diet?

Woah yep, that seems extremely low in fibre! When you said to the doctor that you were eating a lot of it, what sort of things were you referring to?

You need a LOT more vegetables.

How about this instead

Breakfast - protein shake with raspberries added in and a pear for afters

Lunch - wholemeal roll with quorn chicken burger and salad

Dinner - wholewheat spaghetti with homemade bolognese (so real tomatoes etc)

Why are you eating two dinners a day?