Just hear me out. We all noticed that if we combine certain foods, or if we eat certain stuff like fruits, we tend to visit the bathroom more often.
Is there any study or theory that supports doing this as a way to lose weight or is it just complete nonsense? I myself am going through a bad stomach phase because of fruits, yoghurt and what-not, causing whole sorts of bathroom breaks and it got me wondering.
Making yourself sick is not a good way to lose weight or be healthy. That said, visiting the bathroom more often isn’t necessarily an indication of illness, especially if doing so is a result of eating more fruit and yogurt. Do you feel nauseous when you eat these foods? Or do you just find yourself on the toilet a little more frequently?
While it seems intuitive that you would have weight loss if your body isn’t getting the right nutrients, that isn’t necessarily what happens. I found a study about weight loss and gut issues from 2004. Heavier patients actually tended to be more likely to have gastrointestinal issues. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1542356505006968
I wasn’t able to identify a direct source, but multiple articles discussed how IBS patients (a good example of gut issues) can actually weigh more as they are more likely to binge eat. In those articles it was predicted to be because their body is deprived of needed nutrients so it’s forcing them to eat as many calories as possible to recover the nutritional losses.
However, a study which focused on binge eating also found a link with IBS and suggested that the binge eating may be what actually causes IBS because it messes with your microbiome. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3817501/
I went through some awful digestive issues last year and am still not entirely sure what foods were the culprit although I believe it was lentils and maybe plant based milks. It lasted almost 8 months and I lost weight while feeling “sick” all of the time. Had many tests done to no avail and it eventually cleared up after me doing a reset diet. I think a person would have to have some other issues going on to ever self induce something like that for the sake of losing weight.
My understanding (pros - correct me if I’m wrong) is that the body absorbs calories most in the stomach and uses the rest of your gut to further break down food and absorb nutrients. So rushing the food through will just limit nutrient absorption but not calories. Also, diarrhea might cause dehydration and an electrolyte imbalance.
Good luck figuring out your tummy trouble. Oatmeal was a godsend for me.
No. Eat foods you know you’ll digest well
The mechanism by which weight loss occurs, is a calorie deficit. You want to figure out approximately how many calories you burn a day, and eat less than that.