You know that feeling when you take a massive dump and your body just feels ten tons lighter?
You’ve probably even weighed yourself before and after, just to see the difference (no judgment here).
With all the laxative ‘teatox’ kits around that apparently help you lose weight by making you shit your insides out, it’s about time some science told us whether it can actually help.
It turns out that the average stool weighs between 2.5oz and 1lb, with Western poo being lighter (3-4oz) because of our poor-fibre diets, a study shows.
What about farts I hear you ask? Well it turns out that farts actually weigh quite a lot, with the average gas man letting out between 16 and 50oz of wind a day.
The science also showed that women fart just as much as men, so let’s expel that rumour (she’s been holding them in).
Adina Pearson, a dietitian, said to Thrillist:
Yes, if you weighed yourself before and after a bowel movement, you would weigh less after.
Unfortunately, you won’t be slimmer or have less mass on your visible body.
Though technically you do lose physical weight, it is a bad idea to lose weight through taking laxatives because they do not alter your body composition or muscle percentage.
So you’re not going to be able to just excrete your Christmas weight out… looks like diet and exercise are still the number one solution.
I’ll be counting the ounces every time I fart now.
