can someone describe "ribbon poop" for me?

(this is a pretty descriptive thread so don't read it if you don't like talking about poop :D )


I heard someone else call it "play-doh poop."

I understand this comes from intestinal inflammation (a narrower intestine diameter means poop becomes thinner).

Exactly how thin of poop are we talking?

This is going to sound really stupid, but I'm not sure I know what poop is "supposed" to look like. The reason I say that is because for the last 6-7 years, I have been on an extremely high calorie diet (I have a very fast metabolism and I lifted weights so I had to eat a lot), probably between 4-6,000 calories a day. When I would poop, they were quite large. I would often have 2 or 3 "sessions" per trip to the bathroom, and each session would produce a large poop, often 2-3" in diameter (I'm not kidding, sometimes I would see it and wonder how the hell my anus stretched to accommodate such volume), and 7-8" long.

So anyway, I'm pretty sure that's not "normal," but then again my diet wasn't exactly "normal", either.

Anyway, since I've been having stomach issues, my poops have been much smaller (then again my diet has been significantly reduced to around 1,000-1,500 calories per day, and I've lost over 30 pounds and I'm looking like a skeleton, but I digress). I just got out of the bathroom and my poop had the diameter of a hot dog (the regular ones, not the Ballpark Franks that "plump when you cook them").

So is that pretty skinny? Or is that "normal"? Is "ribbon poop" *really* thin and ribbon like?

Thanks.

So it's 1" in diameter but still relatively cylindrical? Like a hot dog right?

1 inch poop sounds pretty normal
the last time I had a stool sample done I had 1 piece of solid poop that was 4 1/2 inches long and about a half cm thick according to the lab report this is ribbon poop

if you have a hot dog poop that is actually pretty healthy

My apologies i'm from Australia and got confused, 1cm is what i meant and it is flat looking. Ha Ha i just spent 10 mins looking for a tape measure because i knew my poop wasn't any form of normal...

copy/paste my reply from another thread:

IMO, I think ribbon poop is formed as it exits the body, not in the intestines or colon. The poop is soft and easily malleable to any shape and a tight sphincter is going to shape it like a ribbon when it is in that type of soft consistency since it isn't having to 'open wide' for a proper turd, whose mass would force the anus opening to that width.
heidi

think of how fun this forum would be if you could attach pictures!