Not for the faint-hearted

(Omar) #1

What color is your poop ?

mine is whitish peige and greasy

never was like this until after I started keto.

Sorry for this but I think color and nature of poops has been a health marker for thousands of years.

(LeeAnn Brooks) #2

Nope, nothing like that.

#3

Steatorrhea - otherwise known as fatty stools.
I bet is smells a bit, too.

It reflects a high fat intake and the pale colour means there is inadequate bile to colour the amount of fat in the stool (brown colour in poo comes from the pigment in bile which is actually made from the pigment in broken down old red blood cells)

Have you had your gall bladder removed?
Get gallstones?
Some other malabsorption syndromes can cause this too, along with pancreatic problems.

Maybe back off your fat intake a little until the stool colour normalises and then increase to tolerance.
If you have any pain in your upper abdomen after eating fat then need to see the doc.

Just my advice as an old nurse/paramedic.
Not a doctor

(Omar) #4

many thanks Jenny

The stool does not smell if any it is less smelling than normal.

My gallbladder is ok and never had any stones and do not have pain from eating fatty food. Maybe once every 2 months or longer I get strong pain in the upper abdomen. It lasts few minutes then goes away. But this is very rare. maybe I have it couple of times since the begging of the year.

When I posted my question, I thought I am sure everybody has the same color or close.

Now I got worried. I will mention it to the doctor in my next visit.

I really appreciate your reply.

thanks

(Rocky B) #5

I experienced something very similar plus a bit of mucous a couple weeks after starting keto but before I had entered ketosis. Once I was in ketosis things normalized. The stool is still not as dark or as large as when I ate the SAD and less frequent but I think it is pretty normal for keto.

(Doug) #6

While not sure this is applicable in Omar’s case, I think it’s right on as far as the amount of bile and the color of stool - during both my gall bladder attacks (the second of which resulted in it being removed) the light color (or “clay-colored”) is certainly true.

#7

Apparently I have a fainter heart than I realized. Seriously, you can google for stool color to get various charts prior to your doctor’s visit.

#8

A nice milk chocolate colour, think Cadbury’s dairy milk chocolate.

Although, after extended fasting I get diarrhoea the day after refeeding. The colour stays the same but it changes from a solid chocolate to a milkshake consistency. The process starts with stabbing pains in my stomach early in the day, then progresses to a bubbling stomach, followed by the most thorough cleaning out of my bowels. I’m not sure if it’s just the change in diet to Keto–I’m only a month in–or, I have a sneaking suspicion it may be the sweetener I use for my fat bombs. I might try phasing the sweeteners out.

ETA it smells as you can imagine.

(Omar) #9

I suspect maybe you consuming too much magnesium.

#10

Oh really? What makes you say that?

(Omar) #11

When I consume too much magnesium I get diarrhoea.

#12

Is there a specific food that contains more magnesium than one requires?

(Omar) #13

No

what I meant is that you are taking magnesium supplements.

If you are not taking hi does of magnesium supplements please ignore my comments about magnesium.

#14

I am taking a multivitamin which contains magnesium 47.16mg (from magnesium oxide - heavy 81.46) so it’s entirely possible. Thanks for alerting me to this, although the amount doesn’t exceed the recommended limit of 320 mgs for women per day and I’m not experiencing diarrhoea everyday just after extended fasting.

(Jennibc) #15

I am wondering what your doctor said about this. This has just happened to me. I just started adding magnesium citrate to my water and I wonder if that’s the cause. To complicate matters I have been taking close to the maximum amount of tylenol for about a month (recovering from spine surgery) so I am worried about a liver issue. I have pad periodic abdominal discomfort for years so that wouldn’t be related to keto.

(Brian) #16

I don’t generally take supplements. And I pretty much eat real food. Can’t say they look or smell that different than before keto. Maybe not as big or fluffy since I don’t eat as much fiber and maybe not quite as often. But still regular, and usually well formed and colored appropriately.

It took my body a while to figure keto out and the initial range of constipation / diarrhea was all over the place for a month or two. But my body did figure it all out and got into a regular rhythm.

I still do notice changes if my eating patterns change, such as visiting family in another state for an extended visit or going out to eat in a place where more carbs are difficult to avoid, or fasting for a day or two… stuff like that. Mostly, it’s all back to “normal” within a day or two of resuming normal keto eating.

(Omar) #17

I am positive this has to do with bile production which in turn require stomach acid .

If the loose light color is intermittent ( does not persist) you need to increase stomach acid by taking ACV and digestive enzymes with meals.

if ACV makes your stomach comfortable or baking powder makes you bloat, it is more likely you have low stomach acid.

if you are confident that you do not have low stomach acid , then you may want to investigate bile ducts plugage by performing ultra sound.

if you do not have pain in the right upper side of you abdomin most likely your bladder is OK.

in my case the combination of fat and coffee is a killer for digestion. since I can not stop fat, I had to quit coffee to get my stool dark and normal.

in summary, stomach acid, or/and coffee could be the culprit. Second possibility gall bladder .

you also can do two days fast on leafy greens ( still keto friendly ) to stimulate bile production/unplugging of bile ducts ( people call it liver detoxifying but there is no science to back it up.

I hope you find my reply of any value.

(Jennibc) #18

Thanks! This is good info! I got in to see my doctor yesterday. She did a liver panel and a cbc. She did press on the gall bladder and the liver and there was no pain so she said she’s not terribly worried and it might be nothing to worry about but is running the test just the same.

What’s interesting is that if anything I feel like my stomach acid is too high! If fact, I switched out coffee for tea a few weeks ago because I felt like it was too acidic. This is after years of drinking it. But then I just didn’t like tea as much so this week I fired up the old espresso maker (because I remembered from days at Starbucks back in 1990, when they actually taught you about coffee because they sold so many varietals of whole beans) that espresso has less caffeine and less acid than drip coffee. The water goes through the grounds so quickly it doesn’t extract as much as when it sits for a bit dripping through a basket of grounds. Maybe I need to go back to regular drip.