The KInd Life Community Forum

I know this is an awkward subject, but it's something I've been wondering about for a while now. All my life, I only ever had bowel movements every 2-3 days. I used to be really unhealthy and overweight, so I thought it was just my bad diet. During a period a few years ago when I began to eat healthy and exercise daily, that never changed even though I thought it would. I lost 100 pounds, and I'm now healthier than ever. I still have 40 pounds left to lose. The bathroom thing is just one thing that never changed though.

I just transitioned from vegetarian to vegan almost 3 months ago. Prior to going vegan, I was only vegetarian for about 4 months. During the time I became vegetarian, my bowel movements increased, and for the first time I was going a little more frequently, not a lot more, but maybe once every 1-2 days instead. After a while, this stopped and my bathroom habits returned to how to used to be. Nothing in my diet changed. I ate lots of veggies and fruit, beans, whole grains, and used minimal processed foods and soy. Even as a lacto-ovo vegetarian, I didn't eat a lot of dairy or eggs.

So.. I thought that when I decided to go vegan, everything would change. It hasn't. It's been almost three months, and I'm still only going every 2-3 days. As a vegan now, I eat as clean as possible. I'm getting all the proper nutrition, and eat TONS of fruit and veggies, oatmeal, beans, quinoa, brown rice, sprouted grains, etc. So I don't understand this.

Has anyone else had this same problem, or am I the only one? Will it ever change? Is there anything else I can do? Is it possible that this is due to a slow metabolism/digestion? I do have trouble losing weight, but no thyroid problem.


Note*

-I drink plenty of water (12-18 cups per day)
-I get 30-45+ grams of fiber per day without trying
-I exercise 4-5 days a week
-I don't want to take supplements or anything

Hello Herbivore,

I'm still an omnivore flirting so I think I won't be able to give any tips on the food aspect, BUT I experienced something a few years ago. I had quite irregular bowel movements, not so it was really a problem, it just was that way. Then I attended a yoga week-end. The teacher said that one of the things we would experience from the exercise would be very regular bowel movements, which has to do with that the breathing and movements really massage the intestines. I was very skeptical to this particular statement, but after the weekend I was pooping every morning! And it has stuck! I don't do yoga regularly, maybe a course once a year at the most, and when I eat irregularly it throws of the schedule a bit, but it has always come back eventually. So my tip is to find a yoga work out that has good breathing and focuses on doing the "inner" bit right, with the keeping the inner stomach muscles tight etc. I went to Ashtanga yoga, but there is a lot of different styles out there.

I hope this could be of some help,

An