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?

Yes. Too much coffee will harden your stools.

Berries and cherries are comparatively low in sugar and should help.

Lemon juice in hot water first thing in the morning should help too.

Wow OP, I am shocked at your diet! And obviously you have some serious issues with food/weight. I hope your GP is helping you and has referred you for some counselling to help you more long term.

In the meantime, make sure you drink lots of water (2-3 litres a day). No calories in water so nothing to worry about there. Try to eat green (and/or cruciferous) veg with every meal. This will help with the fibre shortage and veg are low calorie. Trust me, you will not be able to eat enough veg to put any weight on from eating veg!! Try to cut out the refined carbs (white pasta, etc) as these will make you feel bloated. Some fruit is good but too much brings the issue of too much sugar (although better you OD on sugar from fruit than you OD on sugar from ready meals). It's better to eat fruit (for the fibre content) than drink fruit juice.

To help with the constipation, drink (proper) coffee. Very few calories in black coffee (it's the milk/cream etc that adds the calories).

Hope this helps. Just trying to suggest small changes you can make that will actually reduce your calories intake (rather than increase it) since that seems to be your biggest concern.

If you can't stomach breakfast, how about a smoothie?
Recipe example for sweeter tooth:

1/3 large banana
Handful berries
Apple or cucumber if can eat less sweet
Raw egg (preferably organic and fresh, definitely with lion snark if not)

The protein in the egg stops the body from processing the sugar too quickly and converting excess to fat.

I've set out using your plan what I would imagine you need to eat just to get your 5 a day (as someone else said it should be 10).

Breakfast: allbran. Piece of fruit.

Lunch: Quorn/chicken/salmon burger in bun or not with mixed vegetables. Pick at least two, preferably not peas or sweet corn.

Dinner: homemade spaghetti bolognese with diced carrot, onion, courgette, spinach and tomatoes in the sauce. Think no more then 50% meat. Side salad and small portion of pasta.

Lion snark = lion mark

Fybogel is the spawn of the devil. Makes me retch!
I'd up the veggies. Keep the water consumption high. Personally I'm unconvinced of the benefits of wholegrains and bran things - seem to make me worse not better (this is all post-operatively, I don't otherwise suffer). But a daily dose of prunes does help to keep things moving.

Your diet is too low in fibre, too high in protein and, using so many ready meals, likely to be too high in salt.

You don't have to eat breakfast if you don't feel hungry in the morning, the whole "most important meal of the day" thing was clever advertising by cereal manufacturers.

Eat only when you are hungry, forget official meal times.
Eat real food, mainly plants.
Keep refined carbs (white rice, flour etc) for rare treats, make wholemeal your default.

I think Quorn is the food of the gods, love the stuff, but try substituting beans / lentils / nuts for Quorn in some meals. E.g. We do a spag Bol with 1/2 Quorn mince and 1/2 whole brown lentils. Lots of other veg added, carrot, onion, peppers etc as well as the tins of tomatoes.

If it all seems too much to take on at once then start with cutting out refined carbs for a week, get used to wholemeal, then start adding more veg.

Fibre has the opposite effect to putting on weight - it's the bits of the plant that we can't digest and so they pass right through the system. They absorb water along the way making for larger, looser, softer stools.

Go veggie. Add golden linseeds to breakfast. And start running or fast walking.

You could mix stuff with your protein shake if you have a blender? Frozen banana makes it like a milkshake, or you can blend some oats in too

Part of what you might be up against OP is that having had a persistence low motility and impaction you may have a degree of spasticity in your colon so instead of it working like a well tuned muscle, it's a bit flabby and inefficient. I am currently aware of my gut because I am laid up. I have upped my dried fruit consumption and have been soaking cheap and cheerful dried peas over night and eating them raw as a snack. I am also eating redskin peanuts and the higher fibre versions of everything else I normally have. I actually feel really well in myself as a result. I take a dump three times a day now

Coton isn't a laxative it's taken to maintain a healthy colon which is often the cause of constipation. Laxatives just irritate the colon which is why you shouldn't take them long term and the reason why you feel so wretched taking them. Coton a honestly is definitely worth a try.

Oh, OP, that's an absolutely awful diet, both of the examples you've given are just a diet problem waiting to happen.. I'd be in pieces.

LapinR0se has given some good inspiration, but I'm basically posting to flag something about one of your posts about breakfast...

Cereal doesn't have to be all sugar and chemical!
What about shreddies? All wheat. Or even just bran flakes with real fruit, maybe some yummy yoghurt?
Or oats - porridge is fantastic and you have a range of stuff to add into/onto it too.

You also don't have to have your "three meals a day" at set times if you find it doesn't suit your lifestyle/appetite... I, for example, don't eat breakfast, but I have a large lunch, afternoon snack, and very late evening meal, that's all probably like 3 meals in total, but I definitely don't fancy anything in the mornings. So if you don't fancy anything in thr morning but want to ditch the drinks then just experiment with meal times to see what works for you.

The ready meal in the day will have no end of salt and sugar in it probably too (although how bad depends on what one you're eating). Please listen to the other posters who've given some good ideas on how to improve your diet!

Go veggie

Good idea as long as your diet actually contains vegetables
I see too many 'vegetarian' students people whose diet solely consists of cheese on toast and Jaegerbombs.

Dolmio has loads of sugar in it.

"Yes. Too much coffee will harden your stools."

Erm, it does the opposite to me.

True Pacific

Rye toast in the morning?

Just to add another thought into the mix, OP, although I'm a bit scared to do so as you seem to already have a very disordered relationship with food - I had IBS and other digestive issues, including ongoing constipation (although never to the point of needing medical intervention, thank goodness) and my parents made me eat weetabix, shredded wheat, all bran etc. - all to no avail. Turns out I'm wheat intolerant, and they were all making it MUCH worse. Since cutting the wheat out, IBS/constipation/acid reflux etc. all gone.

BUT you are genuinely not eating much in the way of fibre at all, so I would only look at the possibility of wheat intolerance IF you find that eating high levels of wheat bran doesn't actually help.
You could instead try eating oats/oatbran/porridge/ricebran if the wheat bran doesn't cut it for you.

I'm veggie and I agree with Pacific, I know a few vegetarians with appalling unhealthy diets!

I agree you should probably speak to your GP, given you have food related anxieties it might warrant referral to a dieteician as it is clearly a source of anxiety for you to change things in your diet even though logically you know that you need to in order to improve your bowel health.

One really easy thing to swap is swap all your breads from white to wholemeal/brown, white rice swap to brown rice, white pasta swap to brown pasta, white spaghetti...yeah you get the gist . It's an easy way to get much more fibre in your diet with zero effort on your part.

The key to fibre though is fruit and vegetables. Try and hit your 5 a day target as it doesn't seem like you are doing that at present. I struggle with this too, and I'm a vegetarian . But I try to keep it in mind. I snack a lot and you don't seem to, that's the main way I get fruit in my diet is by snacking on it when I'm hungry in-between meals, or as dessert after dinner. Vegetables mostly I get in my evening meal by cooking various meals from scratch with lots of vegetables in e.g. soups, curries, stews, pasta/spaghetti sauces, roasting vegetables etc.

Eat real food! Ditch the protein shakes!
Fibre is in food from plants, it is the cell wall in the plant. Anything from a plant has fibre but the fibre can be removed in processing, so sweetcorn is high in fibre but cornflakes have hardly any fibre left unless you eat the box.
Nuts, beans, pulses are high fibre sources of protein, but it's easier to get protein from animal food and accompany it with plenty of fibre.
For carbs - brown rice, baked potatoes in the skin, bananas, peas, sweetcorn all sources of fibre and carbs. You can get wholemeal pasta but it tastes horrible.
Wholemeal bread is better than white because they leave in the fibrous part of the grain, same with brown vs white rice.

E.g
Breakfast porridge, egg for protein but make sure you have wholemeal toast or fruit as well, or fruit/berry salad and yoghurt is lovely
Lunch wholemeal salad sandwich (with chicken or cheese for protein, but emphasise the salad)
Evening baked potato and beans with grated cheese, or vegetable curry, or stir fry chicken, peppers and onions in a wrap.

Quick salad: handful of spinach leaves, chopped beetroot, chopped cucumber and tomatoes, half a tin of chick peas, sweetcorn, a few chopped nuts, two teaspoons of mixed seeds, add a dash of balsamic vinegar dressing.

Just fill the fridge with salad ingredients so no room for processed foods.

OP, just adding fibre won't help if you are under eating or underweight. Your bowel gets lazy and flaccid and needs regular work (ie being fed 6 x daily, enough variety and big enough portions) before it gets better. Can you speak to your doc about your food issues?

Prune juice dude ... a half pint every morning and I'm like clockwork ( it tastes gross at first but I grew to love it lol x)

@BladdersRoom the whole point of fibre itself is that much of it is indigestible and passes through you. Carbs and protein are more likely to add weight than fibre x

Look up weekly meal prep ideas on YouTube. You don't have to cook for the whole week in one go yourself, but the meals are easy, basic and cover a good range of macros. Look up vegan meal prep as well for vegetable based ideas which you can incorporate into your weekly meals even if you don't eat vegan full time.

Also look up vegan overnight oats on YouTube - healthy and full of protein, usually with natural sugars from a banana.
I do:
40g oats
300ml of non dairy milk and water (halves)
1 tea spoon of chia seeds
1 table spoon of flax seeds
Mix
Mash 1/2 banana and mix it in
Add frozen berries
Put in fridge overnight

I also do a great lentil bolognese:
1/2 cup black lentils, cooked
Any vegetables I have neglected in the fridge - carrot, celery, aubergine, cauliflower, peppers - literally anything
Garlic
One onion
Add pepper and Italian spice mix, fry for a minute then add
1 tin chopped tomatoes (don't get the basic tins, buy a good brand in bulk when they're on sale)
Allow to simmer

And then you can have that with white pasta and it won't matter because there is a lot of fiber and nutrients in the bolognese itself.

And finally as an aside - if you're worried about animal welfare then vegan is the best option given the state of the dairy and egg industries. A lot of veggies I know become very reliant on cheese, which isn't good for you in vast quantities either.

What's your exercise like?

The weather's going to be gorgeous this weekend, go out for some long walks and get that bowel moving.

And DO NOT have smoothies for breakfast ffs. The blending process destroys the natural fiber and you're left with a sugary soup!