I eat well, drink lots of water, why am I always constipated?!

[Whyconstipation]

I eat lots of fruit and veg and beans and pulses (lots of fibre basically) and I drink lots of water. Yet I’m always constipated!! Why? What could it be?

A drink of fresh orange juice with bits in helps me.

Fruits and Fibres digestive health chewable sis quite good. Take in evening with a pint of water.

I have ibs and can struggle; I take buscopan if things have slowed down, or pepperm oil capsules. I found too that gluten and dairy seem to cause severe problems.

I have prolapses so am supposed to stay regular. So on top of the massive amounts of. Fruit and veg I eat, I now mix in two spoons of flaxseed with some kefire yoghurt in the morning plus a load of water and it works.

How much water is "a lot of water?" To you?

What's your total food intake like - ie are you eating enough?

What does your macro split (carbs / fats / proteins) look like?

What does your fibre intake look like? You listed some high fibre foods but you might need more soluble fibre to keep things moving. Carrots, citrus fruit, oats, avocado, apples... google for a better list 😉

(Recommend recording your food in MyFitnessPal or similar for a week to find out the answers to these if you don't know!)

How often do you exercise?

Do you drink coffee?

These will all give you some strategies to explore 😊

Interesting! I tend to react when I eat lots of dairy - funny rash on my skin - and have been eating a lot of cheese lately! Might cut it down and see if it helps!

This is interesting, thank you! I’m not sure about my calorie intake etc. I think so? I drink a pint when I wake up, and then another couple through the day. But this is all good stuff to explore!

Super interesting stuff here - thank you! A lot for me to consider that I hadn’t before.

And now I’m oddly craving oranges?! Haven’t had one in ages!

Will try the squatting position and the other things people have recommended too!!

I wonder about a probiotic!

Do you eat large portions?

Smaller portions and some kind of exercise really helps me. As well as fresh ginger slices in hot water.

Anything with yeast and also pasta for me. Anything with processed wheat so no bread, pita bread. Fybogel helps as does having a ton of fruit and veg. Weetabix also. And if you get too blocked up then those suppositories are great. I use them all the time begins with a g.. sorry can't remember the exact name.

I'm on a weight reducing diet and been suffering lately. My friend gave me sugar free licorice sweets, took 2 before I went to bed and next morning had a very successful movement!. Sorry if tmi, but it's worth a try.

I'm another rabbit pooer, I drink loads of water and herbal tea, exercise and I'm vegetarian. I tend to go once every 3-5 days. I'll try cutting down dairy.

I've suffered with awful constipation for years thanks to lots of surgical adhesions following 2 emergency C sections. I'm diabetic, and had a bit of a kick up the arse with my last blood tests so am following a lower carb vegetarian diet. Breakfast is greek yogurt with berries, almond butter and milled flaxseed. And weirdly enough, I've gone to the toilet every single day since so I'm fairly convinced it's the flaxseed as I've had the others before.

Hrt actually has the opposite effect -, it bungs you up!

I’ve read this too but I actually have to lean back to poo, having my feet raised does nothing to help. For constipation I have found that flaxseed is amazingly helpful and it’s good for balancing hormones too so great for menopausal oldies like me.

I find that I get like this is I have too much fibre. I also get it terribly when I have a lot of iron.

What do people have flaxseed with? Will get some - not sure what to do with it!

I'm 58 and had been constipated more since my mid 40s. I started taking magnesium supplements this year and don't have any problems now. Didn't take them with me on holiday(big bottle) and went back to being constipated again. Total game changer.

Does flaxseed make you gassy if you take it but don't have time to go?

If you go for flaxseeds, try milled ones - Linwoods do some and are great and you can get them from most supermarkets. If you get whole flaxseeds, they just pass through because your body can’t break them down. Just sprinkle a tablespoon of flaxseeds on your cereal/salad/yogurt. I put them in anything I bake. They also make a great replacement for eggs in baking. Good luck. I would also recommend Inulin fibre - it’s from chicory root. You can get it in syrup form and just mix a teaspoon full in with yogurt. It’s actually a pre-biotic. So probiotic is the actual friendly bacteria. And a pre-biotic is what’s needed to help the probiotics to grow. So I’d say a two pronged approach is best. And start off small with pre-biotics as can make you gassy, (from the bum end).

I’ve always had a really slow bowel (probably stems from issues I had in childhood and is partly psychological in my case I think) but it’s got worse in perimeno. I don’t have the ‘rabbit poo’ issue- the poos are proper but sadly infrequent! I find I have to have LOADS of greens to keep things moving so I have a lot of spinach every day. I add it to smoothies, sandwiches, wraps and have a pile of it with whatever I’m having for dinner.

Is there any chance you might have a bit of a prolapse? This can cause issues too.

Have you always been this way or is it recent? I'm the same as you - eat a high fibre diet but suffer from constipation. For me I've been like this my entire life. I even have memories of sitting on the potty constipated! I think I just have very sluggish bowels. My mum's the same. I've always had to eat All Bran on top of a high fibre diet.
I've recently started taking magnesium at night time (for muscle pain) and I think it has helped the constipation. I'm still not guaranteed a daily bowel movement though!

Super interesting! I am going to get some magnesium too!

I haven’t always been like this - it’s definitely recent the last couple of years. I used to sometimes go twice a day!

I wonder if I do have a bit of a prolapse from all the trying…? Eeek!

Another vote for magnesium here - sorted out my anxiety levels too.

Hmmm. Have also just bought some magnesium on the back of this thread. Since starting HRT a few weeks ago I’m now getting a great nights sleep coz of no hot flushes but feel sluggish in the old bowel dept