You poor thing! I had that problem my first couple weeks and Miralax solved my problem. You can take it every day.

I also use Miralax. Though I recently switched to the Costco brand which is much cheaper. 3 bottles for less than what I paid for 2 Miralax. The bottle does say that it might take a few doses before it starts working. I've had great success with it. Prior to that I was adding Benefiber to my beverages but I hated adding in the additional carbs with it and it wasn't effective enough for a low carb food plan.

I ended up doing the magnesium citrate last night. While it seemed to get things going the right direction...I am still feeling very uh full (and by now me and the bathroom are real good friends so I don't see how that is possible) and the scale has. NOT. budged. On top of this I feel like death incarnate...headachey, tired, have a general blah. WI6 is on Thursday...so two days to recuperate and see some kind of normalcy return. Any suggestions? If I show no loss this week that is two in a row (albeit I was having C issues both weeks).... Going to go take a hot shower and make myself a couch nest.

I haven't read other posts, so maybe this has been mentioned but what about psyllium husk capsules? This is what I am contemplating . . .

I have the opposite problem. I have diarrhea everyday since starting this diet.

I use loose leaf tea, so when I brew my morning tea, I add about 1/4 tsp of sentcha (sp) and that keeps me very regular, do not overuse it or you will have a whole different issue

I use Walmart brand Senecot and haven't had much trouble. The past few days have been worse than normal as far as the "full" feeling but I think TOM is coming back so that may be my problem.

Is there any chance that you're lactose intolerant and using whey products that don't have the added digestive enzymes? Sometimes people don't even know it until they start using Whey.

Ok, so after consuming nearly an entire bottle of Phillips Milk of Magnesia in a week + taking the IP enzymes, I am not feeling the general relief I would like. Some days are better than others, but nothing is "smooth sailing". Tonight I ordered Psyllium Husks with Acidopholus (sp?) capsules. I have read good reviews that the combo is very helpful for high protein dieters. I will let you know how it goes!

I'm not sure...maybe. My son is lactose intolerant.

my coach said to use sugar free orange Metamucil. I only had one problem and that did the trick. once in the AM and once in the PM. BTW the label says 100% natural Psyllium

Hi All,
I haven't posted in a while, but here's what I discovered about constipation over my months on and off IP:

Several common ingredients and foods can cause constipation. They include beef and other high iron foods, chocolate, products with gelatin, and other emulsifiers like carageenan gum, guar gum, etc. Avoid these foods/products for a few days and things will usually come right without resorting to laxatives long term.

Some things I find help move things along include coffee, celery and romaine lettuce.

Hope this is useful.

Jackie

It's been two days how are you feeling now?

Hey everyone...thank you so much for your help and especially for checking in on me totally not a sexy issue I have been facing.

well...yeah. It seems that the magnesium citrate bottle I drank ripped a lot out (sorry to be blunt). I am still feeling pseudo-backed up and rather uncomfy from my magnesium citrate adventure. However...I did lose 2lbs this week. Certainly not a great loss considering none last week but it seems I am on the up and up either way.

In the future I am going to try to get some of the products you all so graciously mentioned. I need to find a method that is gentler on the system with the same types of results. I don't think it would be smart to do another "flush" with the mag citrate...much to hard on my insides.

I hope you all have avoided this issue and if anyone comes up with a magical happy cure-all, let me know.

Ok, so I wanted to revive this thread just to let people know what finally worked for me. A little bit of my "C" history problem first:

About 2 weeks into IP I started suffering from constipation. I read and re-read as many threads as I could where people talked about this topic. My clinic doesn't offer novi-lax or any other supplements except cal-mag, potassium and multi-vitamin. Here's a list of things that I tried, and their outcome:

1. CALM - It's a powder that you add to water and makes it fizzy. It contains magnesium, so it is supposed to counter the effects of calcium (calcium could be the culprit for constipation) - It seemed to work a little.. not enough so I kept having more a day until it irritated my stomach.

2. Senna - It works, but it makes me bloated the following day and it could cause dependence, so I decided not to go this route for too long.

3. Magnisium citrate - I took a bottle. It works wonders, as it's supposed to "clean out" people prior to surgery. I would prefer if I never had to do it again though. It was not pleasant.

4. Naturalax 3 (with aloe). It worked really well. No cramping, no bloating. But the bottle say that if used long term it could cause dependency, so I didn't want to use it every day.

5. Novi-Lax. Since my clinic doesn't offer it, I ordered Novi -Lax and the Omega 3 supplements from another clinic. I played with different doses of it, at different times, etc. What seemed to "work" was 2 pills at night. It didn't work completely though. So I would take them for a couple days, and then take Naturalax 3 for a couple of days. I just thought this is how it was going to be for the rest of the time I was on IP for me.

6. Udo's oil 3.6.9 Blend . I read about this supplement in this forum, I think it was Carla who mentioned it several times (Thanks Carla!!)When I finished my bottle of IP Omega-3's I decided to buy this one instead. O M G ever since I started taking them I have been regular. I waited 2 weeks to report the results because I wanted to make sure that it was going to last, and that indeed that's what helped me in the end. I didn't change anything else in my routine and the results have lasted, so I'm attributing it to it.

From reading many many threads on this problem, I know that for some people the CALM will work, for others Novi-lax will do the trick, and yet other people struggle no matter what, so I just wanted to give you guys this little piece of info. Maybe this will help someone else as well.

Good luck everyone!

Oh, I forgot to add, the "recommended dose" of it is 6 pills a day, but I take only 4.