# of BM's considered "healthy" or "normal"?

So I'm hearing a lot of conflicting numbers as to how many BM's per day is considered healthy and normal.. What is it? 1-2, 3-4? I always thought 1 was the right number but according to others I'm hearing 2-3, 3-4. If it's a solid BM with no blood then who cares about the number of BM's right?

I think the confusion is partly due to healthy people that have multiple bm's a day as well (considered normal for them). I've heard that for the most part, up to 3 bm's/day is considered normal, and I think to some point it also matters what the bm's are like, if they're all healthy looking then that's a good thing...especially with no blood (given blood for many can usually mean a hemmie is present, in regards to generally healthy people).

My normal used to be one nice normal good sized one a day...oh how I miss those days, with total bowel control (that's key as well), I would think anyone that struggles to hold it in likely has some type of issue.

I count sharts as a bm, anything brown coming out (even if it doesn't land in the toilet, just makes a butt mess counts IMO).

One bm is still considered healthy, it varies for each person what their healthy number is...I sure miss my one-a-day with total control poops!

My hubby has normal healthy colon (no IBD) and goes 3x a day.

Before UC "normal" for me was less than 1 per day, probably 4 per week. I was definitely on the constipation side of normal.
During UC's worst times that number could not be kept track of, over 20/day. The teepee bill as well as water bill were high.

Now in remission my number can range from 0 to 4 and the average day is 2, 95% in the AM.

Everyone has their own "normal" so try and remember what your normal was before UC.
What does a number matter as long as you feel good and UC symptoms such as urgency do not impede your life? (I don't include bleeding in this, if you have blood you need to fix that because inflammation is not good).

Bezzy, numbers still count though...and it's good to have a good idea of what your numbers are so you can let your doc know, they always ask about number of daily bm's, it's one of the first indicators for them as to where you disease activity is hovering around.

Right now I'm ranging from 0 to 4 per day. The day of 4 is almost always after a day or two of not going. All four are solid and normal looking. I used to get upset on a four dump day, thinking I'm getting worse, but then saw the correlation between the days of zero and then making up for it. My husband (normal bowels) has this occasionally too (not every week or every other week like me) so that kinda made me feel better about it. In addition to the number of BMs, the quality, I also record at what intervals. For example, four dumps back to back in 30 minutes is more alarming to me than 4 dumps spaced 4 hours apart. I'm starting to look at my overall number for the week, which right now is about 9-10 per week.

I have read that "normal" for a healthy person often ranges from a few times a week to 3 (or so) times a day. Everyone is different.

FOCUS ON QUALITY OVER QUANTITY!! LOL!

Happy Pooing!

One key thing I haven't heard anyone talk about is how much and what you are eating. The more often you eat the more often you should be having a BM. IF you get crazy and eat some Indian/Thai/etc food then I bet you will go more often as well. You eat a huge steak, then you might be plugged up for a day. There are WAY too many varients to say what you are going to do every single day.

For me I average 2 per day...sometimes 1 or 3 a day.

We are talking normal though, not in a flare. If you are only on liquids and crapping like a horse, you are in a flare.

pb4, maybe it expanded to that through the thread lol. I just thought the OP wanted to know "normal", so that's what I based my post on.

This is a great question and I appreciate reading all the responses. I think that if the generic Colazol didn't cause loose stools I'd be at 1/day, but as it is I'm at 2/day, separated by 12 hours. My wife, with her healthy colon, averages more than I, perhaps 3-4 total. But hers are all in the morning.

Pre UC my normal was twice a week !! Always been a constipated kind of girl, inherited that from my Dad. That definitely has had an impact on my UC, in my first full flare (pre diagnosis, pre drugs) I was hovering near the toilet all day. However, once the drugs kicked in, I was back to once or twice a week pretty quickly but they were horrendous and could take up to four hours to empty my bowels. My GI nurse has told me that their objective is to get me to one well formed bm per day, that's there preferred baseline.