I think you'll find quite a few people who have had similar experiences. I
am one of them. More than likely there is nothing wrong with your digestive
system. I probably go about a 1/3 as often as I used to before low carb. As
long as you're not constipated and your waste is a normal color, I wouldn't
worry about it.

Chris

I have the same problems, but I don't give them much thought. When I
have to go I have to go and I go. Simple as that. Doesn't matter if 2 or
3 days pass in between. Less a.s wiping for me. ;)

When I did the Atkins it used to bother me that I didn't go everyday let
alone for 4 days!  I didn't like the thought of food waste being in my
intestines for a while so I went off it as I wasn't losing much weight
anyways... by the way, I only have 10-15 lbs to lose so I just opted for
loads of exercise and low GI carb foods plus lots of protein and enough
unsaturated fats from fish oils.

My advice is to eat plenty of vegetables, not supplements.

i

First of all, let me quote several authorities on "regularity", after
which I have a lengthy canned post about your question.  (The short
answer is that there is a lot less volume of waste on a lowcarb diet.)

 Boston University Medical Center
 http://www.bu.edu/cohis/nutrtion/disease/constptn/whatis.htm
"The frequency of bowel movements among healthy people varies greatly,
ranging from three movements a day to three a week."

 The American Gastroenterological Association
 http://www.gastro.org/constipation.html
"The frequency of bowel movements among healthy people varies from three
movements a day to three a week."

 THE CENTRE FOR DIGESTIVE DISEASES - SYDNEY
 http://www.cdd.com.au/sheets/5_1.htm
"The normal range varies greatly but most people will move their bowels
between 3 times a day and 3 times a week."

 James A. Clifton Ctr for Digestive Diseases, U. Iowa Hospitals and Clinics
 http://www.vh.org/Patients/IHB/IntMed/Gastro/Constipation.html
"Normal bowel habits among healthy people vary greatly from three times a
day to three times a week."

[end quotes]

Studies published within the last year or two have indicated that fiber
does not protect against colon cancer, and the biggest risk factor for
colon cancer is abdominal overweight, combined with high blood glucose
and high levels of insulin.
 See http://www.upmc.edu/newsbureau/science/vatstudy.htm
   regarding these risk factor conclusions.
(I didn't save a link regarding fiber not protecting against colon
cancer, but I'll tack on a saved newspaper article at the end of the
post.)

Some people do get constipated, but more beginners confuse needing to go
less often than they did on a carby diet with constipation.  The medical
definition of constipation is difficult and/or painful elimination.

"Daily regularity" was a phrase made up to sell laxatives, and according
to various gastroenterology association sites, "normal" elimination
is anywhere from 3 times a day to 3 times a week.  Some people become
needlessly alarmed if they don't have the urge to go every day when
starting low carb.  There's less volume of waste in a low carb diet.

Now, this is just my personal opinion, but I think that typical fiber
recommendations for ordinary high carb diets may not be as much needed on
low carb.  High carb diets create a lot of paste-like waste that needs to
be pushed through by fiber.  People who are eating mainly fresh low carb
foods, with little or no lowcarb candy or packaged lowcarb imitations
of carby foods, have often mentioned how, shall we say, quick and clean
elimination is, and pretty much gas free.  (LC products sweetened with
sugar alcohols, though, tend to create gas for most people, and some
ingredients in LC specialty products also create paste-like waste.)

I've been lowcarbing 5 and a half years, (3 and a half years maintaining
goal weight) and I can count on one hand the number of times that I've
needed to take psyllium as a laxative.  But if I decide to have a blender
protein shake as a quickie meal, I'll usually put a rounded teaspoonful of
psyllium in to add fiber and as a thickener, so it's handy to keep around.

I generally get my fiber from lowcarb vegetables and nuts, and a little
ground flax seeds sprinkled on some foods, like salads.  A lot of folks
here enjoy ground flax seed made as a hot cereal.  Personally, I don't
care for flax alone as cereal, but I sometimes make a hot cereal of a
a crushed Wasa brand Fiber Rye cracker or two, some crushed pecans or
almonds and some flax meal, with cinnamon and sweetener.

Flax seed can usually be found in the bulk bin section of supermarkets
and natural foods grocery stores.  You can grind it in a coffee grinder
to make flax meal.  Packaged flax meal, typically "Bob's Red Mill" brand,
can often be found either in the natural foods section of supermarkets
that have an expanded natural foods and supplements section, or sometimes
among the bread mixes and unusual flours in the baking aisle.

(Flax meal has about a half gram of usable carb per tablespoon, and
almost 3 grams of fiber.)

----saved newspaper article------

October 12, 2000
Study: Fiber Doesn't Prevent Cancer

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 7:02 p.m. ET

LONDON (AP) -- Evidence is mounting that fiber might not prevent colon
cancer after all, with a new study suggesting that one type of
supplement might even be bad for the colon.

The theory that a high-fiber diet wards off the second-leading cancer
killer has been around since the 1970s, but the evidence was never
strong. The concept began to crumble last year when the first of three
major U.S. studies found it had no effect.

In the latest study, published this week in The Lancet medical journal,
European researchers found that precancerous growths, or polyps, were
slightly more likely to recur in those taking a certain fiber
supplement.

The findings demonstrate the difficulty of trying to figure out the
relationship between nutrition and disease, said Dr. Michael Thun, who
heads epidemiological research for the American Cancer Society.

Fiber is particularly complicated, he said, because there are various
types and they all could act differently.

``The concept of a healthy diet continues to be the recommendation for
overall health,'' Thun said. ``But the painful process of clarifying
which ingredients in food do what will take us decades to sort out.''

Thun said the American Cancer Society will revisit its recommendations
on fiber and colon cancer in light of the growing body of evidence
eroding support for the theory that it wards off the disease.

Experts recommend a low fat, high-fiber diet rich in fruits and
vegetables and whole grains because it has been shown to reduce the
risk of heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes and some other
cancers.

``There is definitely something dietary going on with bowel cancer, but
we haven't really been able to fix on what it is,'' said Dr. Tim Key, a
cancer researcher at Oxford University who was not connected with the
study. ``The cause of colorectal cancer is very far from understood.''

The latest study, conducted by scientists at the University of
Bourgogne, France, does not address the effect of a high-fiber diet,
but of supplements of one type of fiber -- ispaghula husk, a compound
similar to psyllium that is not part of the average diet.

Psyllium, a grain grown in India, is found in some over-the-counter
laxatives and fiber supplements.

The study, involving 552 Europeans who previously had precancerous
growths in the bowel, found that 29 percent of those receiving the
supplement got at least one new tumor within three years. That compares
with 20 percent of those given fake granules.

The findings may or may not be related to the role fiber in general
plays in bowel cancer but, considered together with other recent
studies, the plausibility of a protective role looks less likely.

``This does produce more evidence for the negative side,'' said Dr.
Lesley Walker, a scientist at the London-based Imperial Cancer Research
Fund, which was not connected to the research.

``But we still haven't got the totality of the evidence we want,''
Walker said. ``There are still some important ongoing studies under way
on the fiber question that should give us some solid answers.''

Sorting out the influence of genes, food, pollutants, living habits and
other factors requires drawing together information from many different
scientific approaches. Those include lab experiments, rat studies,
observations of large groups of people and human experiments.

Information from all of these kinds of science went into the rise and
fall of the idea that fiber prevents colon cancer.

It started when scientists noticed that Westerners get more colon
cancer than poor people in rural Africa. While the differences between
these two populations are too numerous to count, an obvious one was the
Africans' higher consumption of fiber.

Over time, many lines of evidence seemed to support the theory.

People see their risk of colon cancer rise when they move from places
with low rates to areas where it's more common and they adopt the local
eating habits.

Furthermore, the idea made sense. Fiber makes the stool bulkier and
perhaps more likely to dilute cancer-causing substances. It also causes
them to flow more quickly through the digestive system.

The data seemed convincing enough for health agencies to recommend high-
fiber foods as one way of preventing colon cancer.

Then last year, the first major study putting the theory to the test,
in which researchers based at Harvard School of Public Health studied
88,757 nurses for 16 years, concluded fiber doesn't help.

---- end newspaper article ----