In the morning your colon will start contracting to move poop along your intestines, getting you ready to have a bowel movement. Eating can also trigger your colon to contract: Your stomach essentially signals to your colon that food is coming in, and that you need to make room for it by pooping soon after you eat.
The gastrocolic reflex is a normal reaction to food entering the stomach. In most cases, feeling the urge to poop after eating does not warrant a visit to the doctor. However, a person should see their doctor if they experience the following: intense and frequent gastrocolic responses to food.
According to Sauceda, the stomach stretches after eating, which triggers the gastrocolic reflex to push more food out of the colon to make room. “That natural process is you having to poop after you eat,” she says.
Timing of bowel movements
The most normal time to poop is in the morning after your body worked overnight processing your food. But there's nothing wrong with having bowel movements at other times of the day.
The urge to poop after a meal is often called a gastrocolic reflex. In this case a response is triggered in the colons once the food is eaten and it leads to colonic contractions. These colonic contractions following food consumption pushes the digested food in the body toward the rectum for defecation.
Pooping a lot does not necessarily mean fast metabolism, as digestion and metabolism are not as closely correlated as many people think them to be. Many people have a fast metabolism but still do not poop a lot.
After you eat, it takes about six to eight hours for food to pass through your stomach and small intestine. 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.
The ideal frequency of bowel movements is 1 or 2 times per day. The goal is to have bowels completely emptied. Bowel movements should be soft and easy to pass, with no pain, straining or stool leakage. Establish a bowel routine and set aside time to go in private, at the same time every day.
This healthy occurrence is largely due to the gastrocolic reflex, which is most active in the morning. Sleep is essential for supporting regular bowel movements. Additional healthy habits like balanced diet, regular exercise, and even probiotics intake can all help you have healthy poop.
Phelps says that a bowel that regularly moves too quickly needs to be checked by a doctor as there might be a medical cause – for example an allergy, intolerance, IBS, inflammatory bowel disease or long-term infection.
People should pass stool when their body signals the need for a bowel movement. If the timing is inappropriate, they should try to pass stool as soon as possible. There have been reports of extreme cases where withholding stool through constipation or physical effort has resulted in severe complications.
The need to use the bathroom soon after a meal is caused by the gastrocolic reflex. When someone begins eating, the gastrocolic reflex stimulates movement in the GI tract. The gut starts contracting when food hits the stomach, telling the colon to empty, to make room for the food currently being consumed.
When you do pass stool however, the relaxation of the stronger anal sphincter also decreases tension in the weaker urinary sphincter, allowing urine to pass at the same time. But this isn't always the case – it is possible, but difficult, to do one without doing the other.
Why do you poop so much and feel hungry afterward? Quite simply physiology. Poop fills up your intestines which squeezes your stomach. When you poop, your stomach can expand again and you feel empty.
It's normal to have some undigested food in your stool, especially when you eat high-fiber foods. If you don't have any other symptoms, you probably don't need to worry. If you notice undigested food along with these other symptoms, see your doctor: Frequent diarrhea.
Try to sit on the toilet 15 to 20 minutes after breakfast. Do not ignore the call to open your bowels. Putting off the call to go can cause constipation. Try to work with the body's natural rhythm (emptying the bowel first thing in the morning).
The foods with the longest time to digest are bacon, beef, lamb, whole milk hard cheese, and nuts. These foods take an average of about 4 hours for your body to digest. The digestion process still occurs even when asleep. Which means our digestive fluids and the acids in our stomach are active.
The F.D.A. defines an empty stomach as “one hour before eating, or two hours after eating.” The F.D.A.'s two-hour rule is just a rule of thumb; the stomach will probably not be completely empty. The specific definition of an empty stomach varies from drug to drug.