Help! Akward topic...diarrhea

[katelynb708]

I am on Day 29 (!!!) of my first Whole30, and I have to say that I've never felt better in my life. I have so much energy, I sleep better, my muscles don't hurt, my mood is stable, all of that great stuff. The only complaint I have is this: I've had either diarrhea or generally messy stool for the last 15 days. More TMI to follow, sorry.

 

It is mushy, doesn't come out clean, smells very bad and is off-color (yellowish, sometimes greenish). At the start of this issue 15 days ago I had pseudodiarrhea 5 or 6 times a day; this lasted about a week. Bowel movements have slowed down to 2-3 times, but has never fully gotten back to normal. Has this happened to anyone else??

 

Before my Whole30 I suffered from stomach & abdominal discomfort, gas & nausea almost constantly. All of that stopped once my body got on board with the diet change, but the diarrhea is still around. I don't know why or what I might be doing wrong. I thought at first I was eating too much fruit (summertime fruit is too hard to resist!), so I've cut back on that significantly. I probably have two servings a day at this point. For breakfast I usually have either a banana with almond butter, or more often 4 eggs hard boiled or scrambled. Lunch I'll have a salad with chicken or fish, or leftover dinner. I try to get as much variety in my dinner as possible and try new veggie combos every night. For protein I mainly use fish, chicken, beef or turkey. Snacks consist of cashews, pistachios and raisins. I cook mostly with coconut or olive oil, and dress salads with balsamic.

 

Any thoughts on why this might be happening?

[Carlaccini]

Sorry to hear about your troubles.

 

Think about cutting out the fruit and the nuts.for a bit.  They have been know to cause a lot of diggestive distress for many (including me)

 

Also remember raw veggies (aka salads) some people have some diggestive issues.  For instance my body cannot break down raw carrots.  They come out the same way they went in (Sorry for my TMI). 

 

That doesn't mean I don't eat salads or raw carrots.  I do - just not everyday.  I also find I have to consume a huge salad (think entire salad bowl) in order to keep satiated for hours.

[Tom Denham]

I have loose stools or diarrhea a lot. Sometimes I go weeks with solid stools, but sometimes I spend a lot of time with looseness. I have come to accept it as a normal part of life. If I have real diarrhea, I try to remember to take OTC meds and one dose usually tightens things up. I probably take meds less than once per month. I should probably take something a little more often, but I forget. This is really different from when I ate 3-4 bowls of Fiber One cereal with soy milk per day. I am much, much healthier nowadays than I was back then, but my bowels behave differently on veggies and fruits. 

[Carlaccini]

Sorry I wanted to clarify by saying dried fruit. 

[EmayPA]

Could you be slightly intolerant of eggs (if you're eating them a lot)?  or something else you're eating?

 

I'm beginning to think I might be a bit so with eggs, hard-boiled affecting me more than fried or scrambled for some weird reason.

 

Good luck - fabulous that you're feeling great otherwise!

[Tanya K]

I am paleo for the past 10 weeks. Although I must mention that I am only on day 2 of the whole 30, but pretty much no difference with the exception now I am not allowing treats say like coconut cream and strawberries. Anyway, for 6 weeks out the first 10 my bowel movements were a disgrace! It is only now that everything is normal! I didn't stop eating anything at all I just waited until it passed. Although if it had gone on any longer than 8 weeks I would have had to address it I think. But my feeling is don't worry! Drink loads of water perhaps there are s backlog of toxins there or something?

[Tina R]

When your body detoxes it dumps the junk from your cells into your intestines. Some people get constipated some get diarrhea. Better out than in. Stay hydrated and it should get better soon.

[eldandning]

I´m no expert at this, but I can also have fast bowel sometimes, (especially in the morning and that´s the time that body "clean" itself) and maybe the diarrhea is a sign of the diet changing and completely normal but when you say the color I´ve read and learned that yellowish can be a sign of problem with breaking down fat. Maybe you didn't eat that much fat before? And I know for sure from a lot of people that fat can be used for getting the bowel going - if it´s too fast =diarrhea. (especially coconut-oil can be laxative)

So maybe take less fat and let your bowel get used to it! Just take very little coconut-oil to start with. Maybe you can find good-bacteria supplement, I have ones that slows down the bowel, and you can also find enzymes and HCL supplements that can help break down fat.

[Whole30Sarah]

I too am experiencing this. i am on day 22 an in all honesty fed up with it. 

But I know I am eating to the book so am hoping it just passes soon. 

I have a competitive run and a crossfit competition this and next week so may have to medicate even though I hate to do so!

 

Any advice welcome here too  

[frantastic]

I am having an opposite experience, and it's blowing my mind! I have an inflammatory bowel disease...loose stools several times a day are my norm. I'm on day 16 and while I would term myself as constipated (I have no difficulty going, and it's not painful) my stools are hard and kind of rabbit-like, but person-sized (this is the thread for TMI, so I'm jumping in!). And I only go once a day. And not even every day!  

 

Is this because my food is less garbage-y and my body is actually USING the fuel I put into it? (kind of like my dog's all-organic food is "low residue"?)

[Bricka]

When your body detoxes it dumps the junk from your cells into your intestines. Some people get constipated some get diarrhea. Better out than in. Stay hydrated and it should get better soon.

---- I agree with Tina R. It could be that as your body soaks up most of the nutrition in your stool, your bowel is finally cleansing itself. Possible a month long, natural colonic?

[Lisaj]

I've done a Whole60, took 4 days off for a quick vacation and now I'm about 1/3 of the way into a Whole100.  Prior to any of this my bowel movements occured about once, maybe twice, a week but multiple times that day.  One of my hopes with W30 is that they would become more regular.  I now go about every 3rd or 4th day, a few times a day.  Very loose and messy as one stated above.  I'm wondering if this is what my "normal" really is?  Since I've been doing this for quite a while I'd think my body would have had time to regulate better but maybe this is what I'm stuck with? 

[decker_bear]

I am so glad to see this question asked. I started reading It Starts with Food a couple of days ago (can't put it down!) and I remember reading in there that diarrhea and constipation are normal like in week 2 or 3 (or something - can't remember exactly off hand). I haven't quite jumped in to the Whole 30 yet (wanted to finish the book first and I'm almost there), but I realized in reading it that I've been darn near a Whole30 for about two weeks, and I've been full paleo for over a month (no grains, legumes, etc - biggest offender was added sweetener). Literally the only things I've used in two weeks that are off-plan are cooking spray (regularly), liquid smoke (on occasion), and alcohol (two glasses of port and one beer over the past week and a half). Everything else is Whole30 compliant. That makes me think/hope the full transition won't be as scary as I've always imagined.

 

Anyway...

 

I've been sleeping better, had more energy, and some other positive things that come from a Whole30, but the diarrhea over the past 3 or 4 days is all but unbearable. Is it possible I'm feeling the effects of a Whole30 without strict compliance? Or could there be something else going on? I have diagnosed food allergies, and the symptoms are identical, even though I haven't consumed any of my off-limit foods. I just hope I'm not developing allergies to other foods.

 

My fruit intake is limited (no more than two pieces per day at most), my nuts/seeds are limited (but on-plan), and my primary focus is on veggies, proteins and fats (mostly duck fat, coconut oil, olive oil and avocados). I saw above someone mentioned coconut oil had a laxative effect, maybe lay off that? I use 1-2 T. per day depending on what I'm cooking. Anyone have thoughts? Or should I revisit this once I jump into the Whole30 "for real" and get rid of my little offenders?

[Reddoerr]

I'm three days into a Whole9 but eat a clean, 90% paleo diet when I'm not doing that. I have a question about diarrhea and a Whole 9 / Whole30.  

My issues all started when my son (age 6) and I both had ongoing diarrhea around Thanksgiving 2015. He was eventually diagnosed w/ Norovirus (cruise ship bug) and me with Rotavirus (regular old stomach bug). His eventually resolved but took 6 months. Mine is still going 14 months later. I've been tested for everything under the sun and had a colonoscopy - nothing is medically wrong with me (good news I guess). I started eating paleo to try to heal my digestive tract and the Whole9 I thought would boost it even further. Things have been worse than ever however and I'm getting frustrated.  I seem to see improvements when I eat crap (think regular old white bun, pizza, pretzels, etc.). Do I need more fiber? Less fiber? More water? Digestive enzymes? Any thoughts?

[kater98]

I am on Day 29 and I am having the same problem.  This morning I ate an amazing breakfast of fried eggs over easy/medium, spinach and some hash browns.  But abut 2 hours later I was in the bathroom.  Then another 2 hours later I had to go again.   The first time it was a brown color (TMI, I am sorry).  The second time it was a green color.  This happened to me yesterday too after breakfast.  I ate bacon, fried eggs- over easy, tomato slices and some fruit.  I think it might be the fried eggs.  It doesn't seem to happen when I eat scrambled eggs.   I love fried eggs! 

[kater98]

This is what I had for breakfast today.   It was so good!  I don't know why my body didn't like it.  

[Guest]

I have had stomach problems for years, it's one of the reasons I'm doing a w30 to try and heal my gut.  I've had diarrhea pretty consistently so far (on day 8) but I was a mess before starting too so it's not really new to the diet.  I've noticed that I do tend to 'go' after I've had a fatty meal, something like fried eggs (I drown them in butter and bacon fat to fry them) will trigger a BM.  For now I'm just keepin' on and hoping my gut heals eventually.

Your eggs look delicious @kater98, I hope it works out that you can eat them without discomfort. 

[Kmac56]

I've done two rounds.  Both times I had diarrhea fro about day 11 on.  Nothing helped and was so bad I really couldn't leave house most days.  Missed funerals, birthdays, social outings.  After recurring the second round I have decided that the whole 30 diet just makes me feel miserable and is not worth it

[Guest]

Try eliminating eggs. I had the same problem, it didn't occur to me it might be eggs until my mom said she has an intolerance to eggs as well. Within 48 hours of eliminating eggs, I was diarrhea free for the first time in years. I reintroduced eggs at the end of my Whole30 and had fewer issues but confirmed I'm intolerant. 

[sweetpotato94]

I am at least encouraged that I am not alone with this problem. I'm on day 18 and I've had loose/irregular stool since I started this journey, but today was worse than ever. I'm upset because before I started Whole30 my BM were extremely healthy and regular. I'm really unsure what is causing this, but from reading some of the other comments I may try to cut back on eggs. I've been eating eggs every day for breakfast, and today I had some for lunch as well so maybe that triggered my diarrhea. REALLY excited for these 30 days to be over and getting my GI system regular again. 

[KathrynPenguin]

I came looking for some answers as today I've had explosive diarrhea, not something I ever normally suffer from.  Its been a good week since I had eggs and if I cut down on nuts and fruit I'll be even more lacking in nutrients.  Nuts are my main source of protein as a veggie and have been in a lot of my meals, fruit I already limit to one or 2 pieces a day.

Not feeling the love TBH as seem to be getting MORE health problems, yesterday I started a bout of cystitis, something that I get every 6 weeks or so, my arthritis and skin problems also seem worse.

[slc_melissa]

If you're eating nuts as your primary protein source, I think you'll be lacking a lot of protein. Nuts can be very hard on the digestive system, are recommended as a handful every other day at most, and don't have great omega 3/ omega 6 ratios. Anecdotally, nuts have been a factor in a lot of people's skin problems on the forum.

[s2hrbail]

So, I have found a canned tuna in olive oil (the cans that say "packed in water" have vegetable broth which also contains soy). I researched if I could share it with my cat, as olive oil is not traditionally cat food. For cats, they recommend not more than a teaspoon, and not often because it can have a laxative affect. I use olive oil for everything now, so I believe maybe, just maybe it is the excessive use of olive oil is the problem. (my other oil is coconut but I only like it with plantains, as its flavor is sweet to me.) I too love the results of this diet, but this has been a daily problem for me too. http://www.med-health.net/Natural-Laxatives.html

[RckyMtnAngL]

Severe diahrrea! I’m on R1D26, no real cravings so far, blood sugar is amazingly stable, no/little weight loss. But because NSV’s are huge (I’ve been in metabolic syndrome for years and trying to avoid Diabetes 2), I want to continue W30. I have no gallbladder and had a colon resection 4 years ago. Since on W30, I've suffered 5 bouts with severe diahrrea (each with 4-6 bathroom trips in an hour). I take a daily probiotic. I’m leaving on an 8 day trip (flying) in 5 days and VERY concerned! My chiropractor said I could still be detoxing. Help me please! I’m afraid to fly now and be trapped, with bathrooms not always immediately available.. Can someone please advise? Thanks!

[jmcbn]

4 hours ago, RckyMtnAngL said:

Can someone please advise? Thanks!

Can you give us a run down of what the last say 3-4 days of food/liquid intake have looked like for you? That way we'll be better equipped to help...