How long to poop food

Food then enters your large intestine colon for further digestion, absorption of water and, finally, elimination of undigested food. It takes about 36 hours for food to move through the entire colon. All in all, the whole process — from the time you swallow food to the time it leaves your body as feces — takes about two to five days, depending on the individual. There is a problem with information submitted for this request.

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Advertising revenue supports our not-for-profit mission. Any use of this site constitutes your agreement to the Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy linked below. Mayo Clinic is a nonprofit organization and proceeds from Web advertising help support our mission. Sheth has seen patients get full work-ups for bright red stool that turned out to be nothing more than the passing of beets.

Leafy vegetables can cause green stool, while certain medications can make your poop look white or clay-colored. Look out for jet- black stool. Though it could be from something as harmless as iron supplements or black licorice , the color could be a sign of bleeding in the upper gastrointestinal tract. Oz Show , who explained during a now-famous appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show that the perfect poop is log-like and S-shaped, not broken up into pieces. Part of getting that log-style shape, compared with poop that comes out more pebbly-looking, comes from eating fiber , which lends bulk to stool and acts as a glue to keep the poop stuck together as it exits your body.

Pencil-thin poops, on the other hand, can be a sign of rectal cancer , which narrows the opening through which stool passes, according to Sheth.

Terrible-smelling poops are a signature side effect of one stomach bug caused by the parasite giardia, ingested most often by swimming in fresh water lakes. It could also suggest a more serious digestive condition such as ulcerative colitis , Crohn's disease , or celiac disease. Do you hit the bathroom at the same exact time every morning, or can you go days before you need to poop? Other factors affecting poop output — either a decrease or an increase — are gastrointestinal disorders, an overactive thyroid , or colon cancer.

Cultural differences play a role too. Sheth notes in his book that South Asians unload nearly three times as much stool as British people do, a difference he explains is largely due to the higher fiber content in the average Indian diet.

According to Sheth, on his website DrStool. Diarrhea is the result of your poop passing too quickly through the large intestine, where most of the water content is absorbed. Constipation, on the other hand, is when it takes too long for stool to pass through.

Loose stools can be due to many factors, including stomach viruses and food-borne illness. They can also result from food allergies or intolerances, like lactose intolerance , or from other digestive issues. Listen for the sound of your poop stool as it hits the water in the toilet. When your poop stool floats, it is associated with celiac disease or chronic pancreatitis. Incidents of flatulence are embarrassing, at least for some, but this result of harmless bacteria breaking down food in the large intestine is completely healthy.

Your colon is filled with bacteria that release gas as a by-product of digesting the food you eat. Your body absorbs some of it into the bloodstream, which you breathe out through your lungs, and expels the rest out of your other end.

Fecal microbiota transplants are real — and they work. Such transplants have also effectively treated inflammatory bowel disease IBD. Your age, sex, and any health conditions you may have also affects digestion. Generally, it takes about 2 to 5 days from eating for food to pass through your body as stool, estimates the Mayo Clinic.

Women also tend to digest their food slower than men. The entire digestive system can be up to 30 feet long in adults — much too long for food to pass right through you. The gastrocolic reflex is a normal reaction the body has to eating food in varying intensities.

When food hits your stomach, your body releases certain hormones. These hormones tell your colon to contract to move food through your colon and out of your body. This makes room for more food. The effects of this reflex can be mild, moderate, or severe. They can also vary from person to person. Research has shown that certain digestive disorders, such as irritable bowel syndrome IBS , speed up the movement of food through the colon after eating.

Certain foods and digestive disorders may trigger particularly strong or long lasting effects of gastrocolic reflex. These include:. This could be the case when you have diarrhea. Usually, diarrhea lasts just a few days. When it lasts for weeks, it could be a sign of an infection or digestive disorder.

Common causes of diarrhea include:. Fecal incontinence can also cause an urgent need to poop. Sometimes stool leaks from the rectum with little to no warning.