Trying an experiment. 8oz water every awake hour for 2 days.

They say constipation is from lack of water or so I hear. I can only drink so much water but I can try. Since too much water is bad I will do it thought out the day. This is 1 gallon of water a day, 1 cup every hour for 16 hours repeated for 2 days. I've noticed my pee turning yellow when I have constipation so I think it is related.

Day 1 starts tomorrow morning. I doubt it's this easy to cure but here we go. Tonight I took a laxative so I should start off regular.

[crystalfresh]

I should have results Saturday. This was harder than I thought. Emergency pee stops all day every hour. Headachs since the water tied up most of the room in my belly leaving less room for needed food. My pee is now almost clear. So I know I am properly hydrated. I didn't take any laxatives. So lets see if Saturday brings constipation.

[crystalfresh]

Drinking more than a gallon a day is very hard for a person of 135 lbs. I had I think 1 gallon and 2 cups of water total.

[pollyhurting]

That's too much water!
A clear liquid diet abouti 6x a day is a good cleanser (applejuice,beef/ch boullion,jello,cranberry juice) for several days.

[crystalfresh]

I can't do this again after today. Yes too much water. Just waiting to see if I have a normal bowl movement from all this extra water. Desperate for a reason why I am always so constipated. If the water helped I should have one in 2 hours. If the water didn't help I won't have one for 2 days. Stay tuned.

[crystalfresh]

WOW. I just had a loose bowl movement. I am not jumping for joy yet. Could be left over laxative from the day before. I guess this test goes on anther day. My whole life I eat first then drink. Could I have been doing this all to my self? So now I drink 8oz on an empty stomach 5 minutes before I eat. Then more water after the meal. It can't be this easy to cure severe chronic constipation. I need to cut back on the water, it is hurting to drink this much. My pee also turned more clear.

If this is true drink more / eat less I run in to another problem. Weight loss. I barely can keep at a stable weight now but maybe if I can stop the constipation I can eat higher calorie more solid foods to keep my weight up.

Just a little excitement, but really I need to see what happens over days before I can except that this extra water before meals is doing it.

Just to let you all know I had an alarm clock going off every hour to drink 8oz of water like clock work. Anymore water and I could not swallow it because I could not pee it out as fast as I was drinking it.

Stay tuned.

[crystalfresh]

I started slacking off so I left a water bottle on my desk with my computer. And guess what. With out forcing my self to drink I subconsciously started reaching for the water out of thirst just because it was there. Normally I'd keep working and ignore my thirst.

[crystalfresh]

Had constipation tonight but not terrible. So I guess tomorrow will be the determining day. I picked up my water intake again. Last night before bed I ate a lot of food. So maybe eating before bed constipates me too. Stay tuned.

[ggreg]

Good for you trying out your hydration experiment, but hon, no need to drink gallons!  You'll indeed be peeing for the rest of your life at that rate!  Ha!  Me, I'm 150 pounds, and long time ago I tried the "recommended" eight glasses of water daily, and it near bout drowned me.  So, I drink about four extra glasses a day, and I stay well-hydrated.  Besides, too much water in a smaller personage, well, it can wash away the "good" electrolytes and throw off the pH and other little stuff like that.

Yes, if your urine was a strong color before, that is a sure sign of not being well hydrated.  It should have a very, very pale color to it.  Sometimes what we consume will de-hydrate us.  I drink no-salt diet sodas, since I like sodas.  Regular sodas have too much salt and sugar, both of which have a drying effect.  So, in general, watch your salt and sugar.  Also, any food eaten out will have lots of salt in it, so that should be done in moderation.  Too much juice will dry out a person, so 4 oz daily is fine.

Eating a bunch before bedtime will not only goof up your sleep, but it will change regularity in bowel movements, too.  It's okay to have one bite of a cookie and a swallow of milk, but no more!  Also, eating lighter meals more often, at least three times a day with an afternoon snack, will make food easier to digest.  Also, avoid big heavy meals.

Stuff that helps digestion move along better are salads, spagetti, all wheat bread, cheerios.  Regular exercise helps a whole lot, too.  And of course guzzle your water, but throw the timer out the window... just whenever you're standing in front of you sink, keep a cup there, so you can grab you a glass.

[crystalfresh]

I would love to drink water from the tap. Were we live in my state we have to drink bottled water.

Up all night peeing no sleep. Peeing every 20-30 minutes about. This experiment ends today. I had over 18 cups of water easily over a day. Can't handle the peeing. Lucky I am a man because I went for a walk with my dog and half way through the walk a pee emergency hit. Could not make it home, found a hidden bush in my community were I live. So today will be the true results. Still haven't gone but lets give it a few more hours.

[crystalfresh]

Experiment is complete. I am constipated as usual again. The normal bowl movement was from left over laxative in my system. Drinking over a gallon a day before and after each meal had no affect on my constipation. :( I can not find a single reason why I am constipated? I get constipated on greasy french fries, salad, fiber, bran. So confused. Doctors don't know how to fix me. Maybe removing a chunk of my colon and small intestine would fix the problem, but that seems kinds harsh and dangerous. But anyway this test was a flop. Extra water made no difference.

[ggreg]

Crystal, re-read the last two paragraphs in my above post on June 8.  Eat breakfast when you get up, eat lunch at noon, and eat dinner about 6 p.m., have a healthy snack somewhere in between there, like trail mix or an apple or icecream.  Don't be overly active for the hour after you eat, don't eat snacks late at night, don't eat so much fast-food or at restaurants.  You should eat from the main food groups each time you have a meal:  Protein and milk products, vegies and fruits, and grains.  Also, get enough exercise and get enough rest.  Keep in mind that some medications will cause constipation.  If you have to, try some enemas to loosen up any empaction going on and eat Activia yogurt to help break down waste.  Eventually, if all else fails, go to a nutritionist or ask your regular doctor for help in establishing good eating habits.

[boron]

Houston to crystalfresh: do you read me, do you read me? Stay tuned :)))

If they found water on the Mars, you don't need to drink it all.

Ggreg above probably have more insight in appropriate meals composition, but I only want to comment one of your other posts. Below is a copy-paste of what you've said you eat.

breads
chicken
peanuts or P&J ****
egg whites
waffles (whole weat) sometimes
bagels
sometimes low fat pizza (ellois from the food store light on cheese)
baked chips from time to time ****
granola bars low fat
lots of fruit of all kinds ****
Centrum multivitamin, extra calcium from Tums **** sometimes
water only
very rare but pork, turkey
sometimes pasta boiled for 45 minutes to mush **
sometimes brown rice boiled for 45 minutes to mush
NEVER Beef

****Peanuts and chips are low fiber and "energy dense foods", which tend to constipate you.
****Calcium from tums, even if not scientifically proven, is reported by many to constipate. There's also no reason for "extra calcium". Calcium is practically in every food, if you eat it in excess, it is simply excreted...like water.
****Lot's of fruits....I don't want to fight with anyone...but sugar from all this fruits may again constipate you. You may consider to eat some vegetables instead of fruits. Prune or apricot juice was reported to help speed peristalsis by some people though. You may want to try vegetable juices without sugar. But if you are "on bottled water" this is just fine. At my place a mineral water with magnesium (which triggers peristalsis somewhat) exist.

HIGH CALORY FOODS are NOT good for constpation.
Having a bottle of water on the reach of the hand is very practical, I can confirm that. Having clear urine, but not waking at night to pee, is a good measure of appropriate amount of water intake.
REGULAR meals are the MUST in constipation.

[crystalfresh]

Thanks. I see that I am making some mistakes. My diet is so completely messed up and I eat things thinking they will help me gain weight and at that same time help my constipation. I think it is safe for me to say I need to stop trying to eat properly and have a nutritionist design and lay out my meals. Just to get me started. I stay away from so many foods because I can't digest them. Like veggies. They make me sick because I can't digest them. I'm going to be tested for crohns too and food allergies. Thank you for your help. I am going to back away from the sugars, stop the tums. The chips super high in salt(bad) actually had more fiber than almost everything else that I eat.(That's probably bad) I eat baked Ruffles. I am finding a nutritionist either today or tomorrow to schedule some apps to discuss my problem and see if together we can find foods that I can eat, and maybe they can help heal the burning, cramping, and irritation I feel all the time digesting my foods. My doctors have not been successful in helping me yet. I also found out yesterday that narrowings run in my family, sister needed surgery to open, dad needed surgery, so this is very likely I am having trouble passing foods. I will take all this with me and print this out for my nutritionist when I find one. Thank you all for your help. When I decided to change my eating habits from junk to healthy my problem got a lot worst over the years. I know I have a medical problem but I see now that I am adding to this problem with my diet. Thank you. :)

[boron]

You maybe know what was the exact diagnosis of this narrowing in your family? Systemic sclerosis or some other systemic or autoimmune disease? This is important info, you have.
Your water experiment showed that water helps to hydrate you, and taht excess water doesn't help. You can accept the habit of "having water on the reach of the hand".

More than exact recipes, you need to understand main principles of constipation, which are:

1. HARD STOOL (lack of water or fibers in food)
2. SLOW PERISTALSIS (SKIPPING MEALS, stress, non-activity, or organic disorder)

You skip meals to avoid constipation and you enter in vicious circle.

Be hydrated to have a clear urine, and find foods which will result in soft stools. Rather than calory dense foods, regular meals can help you gain weight.

[crystalfresh]

I am going for a test to see if my colon is working properly called bio feedback, sounds really gross!

I started today a diary of every single meal, liquid, drug that goes in my mouth to bring with me to a nutritionist.

For the moment I am taking milk of magnesia every night to stop the constipation. It is the only thing that works and works really well.

My current way of controlling my constipation daily.
Currently I take 2-6 pills of Citrucel (no problems but constipate if too many)
Currently I take 2-4 tablets of Fiber Choice (more hurts IBS too much)
Currently I take 1 tbsp of Milk of magnesia before bed.

It is interesting because as long as I control the constipation with milk of magnesia I can eat things that normally would cause so much pain for so many hours like eggs. Eggs were a terrible nightmare in my stomach. But if I take milk of magnesia each night I can eat all the eggwhites I want and not get any upset stomach. Eggs and constipation result in days of burning, cramping, gas, pain, ect... This doesn't make any sense to me but when things flow normally nothing seems to hurt. When things stop flowing just veggies will make me puke.

The restrictions my family had were just the way they were born, no disease that I know of. I also have a urine restriction that I was born with that eventually will need to be opened. So maybe now that I learned my families history this all makes more sense. My mother and sister suffer from constipation I just learned. No one as bad as I though. Not even close. But there is more info to share with my doc next time I see him. Enemas do absolutely nothing for me and come out clean water.

[boron]

PROTEINS (eggs, meat, fish, dairy, beans, nuts, soy) have to stay in the stomach for several hours in order to be digested. They trigger secretion of acid, which is needed for their digesting. So, avoiding proteins (or reduce their amount) simply speeds up gastric emptying and prevent burning feeling. So, with reducing proteins helps to reduce burning and constipation - at least a little.

MAGNESIUM works just the opposite as calcium. Magnesium speeds up and calcium slows down the peristalsis. A lot of calcium is in the dairy and in calcium tums.

[ggreg]

Boron,
Just gotta tell you, you put a smile on my face, many times in these things.  You are one cool cat.
GG

[boron]

borons are cats? I once thought they are trees, and then found out they are chemical elements, what really wasn't ment so.

[crystalfresh]

Thank boron! I am learning and trying to fix my eating. These posts help.