5 Things to Try Next Time You're Backed Up
Pooping less than usual lately? Let’s figure out what derailed your BMs and get you back to the porcelain throne (without aggravating your gut microbiome).
Written by Megan Falk: Experienced health and wellness journalist and editor. Megan is a graduate of Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in Magazine Journalism and a minor in Food Studies. She’s also a certified personal trainer through the American Council on Exercise.
Reviewed by Jennie O’Grady: Senior SciComms Specialist at Seed Health
Much like showering and flossing, pooping just feels like something you should do every day. So when a day or two goes by without a single BM, you might start to wonder: is something wrong with me?
The short answer is no; bowel frequency varies from person to person, and skipping a day isn’t necessarily cause for concern. Your “regular” schedule may temporarily fluctuate due to various lifestyle factors and physiological changes.
That said, there are simple steps you can take to get your number two schedule back on track (whatever that looks like for you) when you’re feeling backed up.
Here’s why you might be pooping less than normal—plus, how to make your way back to the porcelain throne (without aggravating your gut microbiome).
What to Do When You’re Backed Up
1. Eat plenty of soluble and insoluble fiber.
Skimping on fiber could be making your bowel movements less regular. Fiber is a nondigestible carbohydrate found in plant-based foods like beans, fruits, vegetables, and whole grains. It adds bulk to stool, boosts their softness, and bumps up their weight and size, which ultimately makes them easier to pass. One study found that each gram of cereal fiber can increase stool weight by an impressive 3.7 grams and decrease transit time by nearly an hour.1
The type of fiber you eat matters for your BM. Insoluble fiber (found in wheat bran, whole grains, and veggies) doesn’t ferment in your colon. Instead, it adds bulk to your stool and triggers your digestive lining to secrete more mucus and water. This acts as a natural lubrication, preventing your poop from getting “backed up” and sticking to the sides of the colon.2
The soluble fiber found in psyllium, oat bran, and beans, on the other hand, mixes with water in your gut, helping to soften stool.3
Eating a well-rounded diet with an array of plant foods will help ensure you’re getting enough insoluble and soluble fiber—both of which are essential for easy, regular bowel movements.
EXPLORE FURTHER: What Is the “Best” Diet for Your Gut?
2. Exercise (yes, walking definitely counts!).
Moving your body regularly can help you stay, well, regular. Being sedentary may slow down food’s journey through your intestines, which can lead to delayed bowel movements.
Working out supports the muscles of your digestive tract (and other muscles in your body), allowing them to move food along more quickly and efficiently. Even bouts of short, light exercise, like walking after a meal, have been shown to speed up gastric emptying—the amount of time it takes for the contents of your stomach to move into the duodenum, the first part of the small intestine.4
So go ahead and take that post-breakfast stroll to get things moving (and beat bloating and gas)5.
3. Take probiotics formulated with science-backed strains.
Taking probiotics (live microorganisms that, when administered in adequate amounts, confer health benefits) can also help keep your BMs more consistent and easier to expel.6
Given that there are millions if not billions of types of bacterial strains, every probiotic supplement is different—and they’re not all created equal.7 If pooping daily is your goal, you’ll want to look for one that contains strains that have been clinically shown to support comfortable and regular bowel movements.8
Seed’s DS-01® Daily Synbiotic is formulated with strains such as Bifidobacterium breve BR03 and Bifidobacterium lactis HRVD524, which have been shown to significantly improve metrics like the number of weekly bowel movements, consistency of stool, and ease of expulsion.6 When tested in a recent double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled study—the gold standard of scientific research—the probiotic and prebiotic formula also supported comfortable and regular bowel movements in people with occasional digestive discomforts.*8 Wondering if DS-01® is appropriate for your needs? Take this quiz to find out.
4. Fine-tune your pooping posture.
When you poop with your feet firmly planted on the floor, your “anorectal angle” (the angle between the rectum and anal canal) is around 100 degrees. Sitting in a squatted position with your legs slightly raised off the ground widens that angle to around 126 degrees—which, research shows, can free up more space for stool to exit.9
Using a toilet stool can help you lift your knees and achieve that alignment, potentially reducing straining and making your poops more comfortable and quick.10
5. Stay on top of your fluid intake.
You may not be able to tell once it hits the bowl, but a whopping 75% of your poop is water (here’s what makes up that remaining quarter, if you’re curious).11 When you don’t consume enough fluid throughout the day, your stool can become dehydrated and difficult to pass, affecting your regularity.
In addition to staying hydrated, sipping on a cup of coffee can help get things moving. Java (even decaf) has been found to stimulate colonic motor activity, and caffeinated coffee may lead to stronger contractions of the anal sphincter (the muscle that controls the release of stool).12,13
How Often Should You Be Pooping Anyways?
No one poop schedule is considered the “healthiest”—everybody is different, and what’s typical for you may not be for someone else.
Ask a GI doctor and they’ll likely tell you that a normal frequency is anywhere from three times a day to three times per week, known as the “three and three” metric. This range was created based on the bowel habits of individuals without gastrointestinal disorders, and a whopping 95.9% of people fall somewhere within it according to a 2017 survey of nearly 4,800 adults in the U.S.14
Your exact poop frequency can depend on your sex, age, and other physiological factors. A 2024 analysis found that people with vaginas, young individuals, and those with lower BMIs tended to have fewer bowel movements.15 Lifestyle factors such as diet, physical activity, and stress can also impact how often you visit the bathroom.16,17 And on that note…
Sneaky Reasons You’re Not Regular
If you’re suddenly pooping less than normal, a few factors could be at play.
- First, you could be dehydrated: As food makes the long journey from your stomach, through your intestines, and toward your anus, water is both added and removed as nutrients are absorbed. When there’s not enough water in your large intestine to help with the digestion process, the organ pulls more water out of your stool. This makes your poop dry and more difficult for you to expel.
- If you haven’t eaten much fiber recently, your waste won’t move through your large intestine as quickly or efficiently. This gives the organ even more time to absorb the water in your stool and can ultimately leave you feeling backed up.
- A diet high in ultra-processed foods is linked with reduced bowel movement frequency.18 Swap them out with plants and gut-healthy fermented foods when you can.
- Certain medications and supplements (specifically those high in iron or calcium) can affect your regularity.19,20
- Plus, being sedentary and experiencing stress or anxiety can slow down the movement of food through your intestines, delaying bowel movements.21
- Ignoring the urge to have a bowel movement can impact your schedule, too. The longer you delay your visit to the porcelain throne—and prolong the amount of time stool stays in your colon—the more water is removed from your stool, the harder it becomes, and the more challenging it will be to pass.
If you’re doing everything “right” and still feeling backed up
Even if you feel like none of these apply to you, you may experience irregularity due to hormonal changes. For example, the hormonal fluctuations during pregnancy—a time when your intestines are already under additional pressure (literally)—can slow digestion and make you feel backed up.22 Some people will also experience digestive changes as hormones shift during menopause.23
How Your Gut Microbes Influence Your Stool
Your gut microbiome contains trillions of microorganisms like bacteria, archaea, and fungi. The composition of this microscopic world is reflected in your bowel movements.
At a very high level, some bacteria in the gut microbiome produce neurotransmitters that stimulate muscle contractions, resulting in easier poops.24 Others, like the Bifidobacterium mentioned earlier, can shorten transit time and increase the frequency and volume of bowel movements. People who have trouble passing stool tend to have an imbalanced (dysbiotic) gut microbiome that’s lower in these helpful microbes and higher in bacterial species associated with things like inflammation and weakened immunity.25
It’s unclear if this dysbiosis causes infrequent BMs or the other way around. Luckily, many ways to promote regularity—increasing fiber intake, exercising regularly, taking probiotics, etc.—can also support a balanced microbiome composition.
Just be wary of quick fixes like laxatives, which have been shown to disrupt your all-important microbiome. Since laxatives can cause temporary diarrhea, they can aggravate the mucus barrier of the gut and contribute to dysbiosis.26,27
When to See a Doctor
For long-term relief, you’re best off adopting those aforementioned lifestyle changes—and consulting with a healthcare provider when appropriate. Chat with a professional if you’re feeling backed up and:
- Your symptoms last more than three weeks (even after lifestyle changes)
- You experience excessive abdominal pain, bloating, or cramping
- You notice blood in your stool or rectal bleeding
- You experience unintentional weight loss
- You are unable to pass gas or stool
- You show signs of other illnesses, including fever, nausea, vomiting, or fatigue
- You frequently strain to pass stool or have a feeling of incomplete evacuation
The Key Insight
While pooping anywhere from three times a day to three times a week is considered “healthy,” your dietary habits, movement practices, and hormones can all temporarily throw off your routine—and that’s okay. A few tweaks can help get your poop schedule back on track and make your time on the toilet a bit more pleasant.
Before you flush, don’t forget to take a peek into the porcelain throne—the shape, size, and consistency of your number two can give you even more insight into what’s going on inside your body.
Citations
- de Vries, J., Miller, P. E., & Verbeke, K. (2015). Effects of cereal fiber on bowel function: A systematic review of intervention trials. World Journal of Gastroenterology, 21(29), 8952–8963. https://doi.org/10.3748/wjg.v21.i29.8952
- McRorie, J. W., & McKeown, N. M. (2016). Understanding the physics of functional fibers in the gastrointestinal tract: An evidence-based approach to resolving enduring misconceptions about insoluble and soluble fiber. Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, 117(2), 251–264. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jand.2016.09.021
- Lambeau, K. V., & McRorie, J. W. (2017). Fiber supplements and clinically proven health benefits. Journal of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners, 29(4), 216–223. https://doi.org/10.1002/2327-6924.12447
- Franke, A., Harder, H., Orth, A. K., Zitzmann, S., & Singer, M. V. (2008). Postprandial walking but not consumption of alcoholic digestifs or espresso accelerates gastric emptying in healthy volunteers. Journal of Gastrointestinal and Liver Diseases : JGLD, 17(1), 27–31.
- Hosseini-Asl, M. K., Taherifard, E., & Mousavi, M. R. (2021). The effect of a short-term physical activity after meals on gastrointestinal symptoms in individuals with functional abdominal bloating: A randomized clinical trial. Gastroenterology and Hepatology From Bed to Bench, 14(1), 59–66.
- Del Piano, M., Carmagnola, S., Anderloni, A., Andorno, S., Ballarè, M., Balzarini, M., Montino, F., Orsello, M., Pagliarulo, M., Sartori, M., Tari, R., Sforza, F., & Capurso, L. (2010). The use of probiotics in healthy volunteers with evacuation disorders and hard stools. Journal of Clinical Gastroenterology, 44(Supplement 1), S30–S34. https://doi.org/10.1097/mcg.0b013e3181ee31c3
- Schloss, P. D., & Handelsman, J. (2004). Status of the microbial census. Microbiology and Molecular Biology Reviews, 68(4), 686–691. https://doi.org/10.1128/MMBR.68.4.686-691.2004
- Napier, B. A., Van Den Elzen, C., Al-Ghalith, G. A., Avena, C. V., Gevers, D., Dhir, R., Nee, J., Lembo, A., & Simmons, S. L. (2024). MO1894 A MULTI-SPECIES SYNBIOTIC (DS-01) ALLEVIATES CONSTIPATION AND ABDOMINAL PAIN IN IRRITABLE BOWEL SYNDROME SUBTYPE MIXED (IBS-M) SUBJECTS WHILE BOOSTING SYNBIOTIC SPECIES ASSOCIATED WITH DECREASED SYSTEMIC INFLAMMATION AND NET FORMATION. Gastroenterology, 166(5), S-1164. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0016-5085(24)03133-0
- Sakakibara, R., Tsunoyama, K., Hosoi, H., Takahashi, O., Sugiyama, M., Kishi, M., Ogawa, E., Terada, H., Uchiyama, T., & Yamanishi, T. (2010). Influence of body position on defecation in humans. Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms, 2(1), 16–21. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1757-5672.2009.00057.x
- Modi, R. M., Hinton, A., Pinkhas, D., Groce, R., Meyer, M. M., Balasubramanian, G., Levine, E., & Stanich, P. P. (2019). Implementation of a defecation posture modification device: Impact on bowel movement patterns in healthy subjects. Journal of Clinical Gastroenterology, 53(3), 216–219. https://doi.org/10.1097/MCG.0000000000001143
- Rose, C., Parker, A., Jefferson, B., & Cartmell, E. (2015). The characterization of feces and urine: A review of the literature to inform advanced treatment technology. Critical Reviews in Environmental Science and Technology, 45(17), 1827–1879. https://doi.org/10.1080/10643389.2014.1000761
- Is coffee a colonie stimulant? : European Journal of Gastroenterology & Hepatology. (n.d.). LWW. https://journals.lww.com/eurojgh/abstract/1998/02000/is_coffee_a_colonie_stimulant_.3.aspx
- Lohsiriwat, S., Kongmuang, P., & Leelakusolvong, S. (2008). Effects of caffeine on anorectal manometric findings. Diseases of the Colon & Rectum, 51(6), 928–931. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10350-008-9271-y
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- Mittal, R., Debs, L. H., Patel, A. P., Nguyen, D., Patel, K., O’Connor, G., Grati, M., Mittal, J., Yan, D., Eshraghi, A. A., Deo, S. K., Daunert, S., & Liu, X. Z. (2016). Neurotransmitters:The critical modulators regulating gut–brain axis. Journal of Cellular Physiology, 232(9), 2359–2372. https://doi.org/10.1002/jcp.25518
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