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Comment by drpoop | Hacker News Reader

You should eat regular meals so you poop at the same time each day. Meals trigger mass peristalsis which helps cause a bowel movement. When you start messing with this you start causing constipation, which then leads to haemorrhoids. If you are 30yo+ you know that you cannot rely on nice soft stool anymore by just doing whatever you want with your diet. I really think people don't talk about this enough.

It's funny that these studies don't address any kind of side-effects like this.

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If you intermittent fast on a regular schedule, then your meals will still be regular.

I did a two day fast and it took a few weeks to get back to normal. Weirdly cutting out carbohydrates also seems to lead to constipation. The current view seems to be fiber = pooping well, but that has not really played out in my experience.

Cutting out carbs will drop a lot of water from your system (from my layman's perspective). Drinking more water won't fully replace it b/c of loss of sodium (again, from a speculative standpoint).

Note that most dietary fiber comes from carbohydrates (fruits, vegetables, grains, legumes, seeds). Fiber is largely carbohydrates (and some proteins) you can't digest. Focus on soluble fiber. You could try a Phyllium supplement. Also important to feed the bacteria in your gut - they need carbs.

How did you get enough fiber without carbs? That seems contradictory.

Not poster, but chia seeds, ground flax meal, unsweetened coconut and cocoa powder are super high fiber sources that are low in net carbs.

I can easily get 40g of fiber with close to zero net carbs per day eating this type of stuff...

black coffee and water in the morning can solve the constipation issue.

Drpoop, don't forget about Drsleep. People have a troubles sleeping when fasting too. I find eating 500 cals per day on a "fasting" day prevents gut and sleep issues. Especially if the 500 cals are from oatmeal and a banana.

I get the opposite problem, when I do things like IF and longer fasts I am on the other end of the bristol scale

I’ve been doing OMAD for two years and I can’t remember the last time I’ve been constipated.

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