How much does constipation effect the scale? I'd been constipated for a week, and the scale crept up five pounds!! Today I had a BM and I'm back to 163. I feel like that was kinda extreme.

So there's my embarressing topic. Anyone have any info?

I think a week's worth of POOOOOOOOOOOOOOP could most certainly weigh 5 pounds!!!

You could have been retaining water too, in response to the fecal matter sitting in your bowel for so long.

Glad you were able to go!

(its OK to be embarrassed here, you're among friends)....

but being constipated for a week???? that's a long time, you might want to increase your water and fiber. if you are still eating normally during this problem, that is a lot of *back-up* for your intestines.

I don't think that 5 lbs was all waste, probably some fluid retention also.

Hey, no need for embarrassment at all. We ALL poop, not a one of us s**ts marble!

Yes it can and a easy way to help that is to have a tall bold coffee from star bucks and a red delicous apple. Do not do this unless you are going to go right home or you will be sorry

Fiber One bars, (by the granola bar section) and Fiber One cereal, works wonders. Just eat one everday and you will have regular bm.

I take fiber supplments and drink a ton of water but there have been times I didn't go for a couple of days and then pooped 2 or 3 pounds out.. lol. I have heard stars that "flush their pipes" and easily loose 10 pounds by doing it..

When I was in the hospital earlier this year (on morphine/other painkillers and heavy antibiotics), I was nearly a week and a half with no bm. My doctor prescribed prescription laxatives and NOTHING worked. I was so uncomfortable that I had my mom buy me a bag of sugar free hard candy (I think they were lifesavers). I forced down half the bag, and was all clear within two hours. My nurses were pretty dumbfounded that the fancy laxatives didn't work and a $1.50 bag of sugar free candy did the trick. I sometimes eat very high protein and neglect the carbos and fiber, so if I can't get any movement for a few days, I always turn to SF hard candy (the higher the sugar alcohols, the better it works). It's rare though; I can't imagine that being very gentle on the bowels. I may turn to that a couple of times a year (and I only suggest this in extreme, limited occasions), but when I was very ill, and on tons of painkillers and a killer regimen of antibiotics, I sucked on that SF candy to keep me regular. Nothing else seems to work for me.

Oh, I guess I should answer the question posed. I didn't get weighed when at the hospital, but when I'm a little bound up, the scale does seem to reflect it. Also, even during a normal, every day BM, I notice a difference in the scale before and after (not that I weigh before and after, just generally speaking )

Ouch! that must have been very uncomfortable, 5 days without BM. I absolutely "insist" on a BM every single day. I really hate when somehow things don't work as usual in the morning (at home) and I have to go later in the office or even after I get home from work.

That's may be a problem only every other day though because it is now rare that I can finish my running session on the treadmilll without having to interrupt it and literally RUN to the bathroom. (I am on the treadmill on the other "every other" days). :-)

My body is like clock work now-a-days, but before when I couldn't go, it would get as high as 8-10 pounds.

For some reason now, I can not poop in the morning until I've had my morning protein&fiber shake. Its usually within 5 minutes and everything is good to go. So I weigh my self normally in the morning - lets take this morning for example I weighed in at 279.6. That is after peeing, then I drank my shake - weighed in at 281... Then I went poo and I weighed in at 280.3, so that is 0.7 lbs of poo, gone! So 5 days worth could certainly account for a whole lotta poo.

Since eating lots of fiber, and generally being more consistent in my diet, I'm very regular. I'm afraid to resist the urge if it comes before I finish eating breakfast, 'cause I'm afraid of not being able to go and then weighing more OK, I'm not really *afraid*, it's not that big a deal, but still, I don't take the chance

I have IBS, which tends to create constipation and/or diarrhea. I'm lucky enough to experience both. Actually I'm quite lucky as I can usually control my symptoms mostly through diet.

Even on a high fiber diet, I don't "go" everyday. My husband with clockwork bowels thinks there's something terribly wrong with me (as if a person who didn't poop for two days was going to explode our something).

As a trivia nut, I can say that I saw things on tv that apply here (do not read further if you're easily disturbed).

On a WLS show, one of the patients had "issues" and had to have them resolved before surgery. They did not go into the patient's particular details, but the show states something like an overweight person can have up to x amount of waste in the digestive tract (the person having the surgery was about 375 - 425 lbs). I don't remember the exact number, but it was like 30 to 40. And I think it was the same show that said an "average" weight person would have something like an average of 5 to 25 lbs of poop.

The Mutter museum (a physician's museum in Philladelphia) has a display of a bowel that weighed 80 lbs. According to Ripley's believe it or not, it is estimated that it could easily contain nearly the same weight in "stuff"). Now this is from a man who died from an impacted bowel, so he went alot more than a week without pooping

Now, don't you know a lot more about poop than you ever wanted to?

TOO FUNNY!!! My DH can poop on command. He will decided he can wait until he gets to work rather than stink up the home bathroom.

I have what I semi-jokingly call a "Bashful Bowel". I cannot poop unless I am at home. No amount of fiber, stool softeners, or laxatives can change that. Vacations are usually miserable. I must also "sieze the moment" if I hold it well then I won't be able to for a day or so. It must also be quiet. I can be mid through and one of the kids will scream "MAA-UMM", I am done. Gotta wait until the next day. This is a condition shared by several in my family.

Our last trip WDW was a killer. We were gone for 8 days and no BM the entire time...plus I ate a LOT. Without too many details...once we got home; 2 hours and 4 trips to the bathroom later I had lost 13 pounds.

So yeah I believe a 5 pound poo is possible.

Activia Yogurt! It really does work and the Vanilla flavour sure is yummy! Eat it alone or mix it in with your serving of cereal in the morning. It even comes in "light."

OMG We have the same husband. I have no idea how he does it, but he does.