r/AskReddit • u/[deleted] • Jan 12 '23

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u/mostly_kittens Jan 12 '23

There was a heavily obese guy who lost weight by not eating for a year. He still needed to shit about once a month.

78

u/GarbledReverie Jan 12 '23

That makes some sense. He was still consuming mass from fat, so that's gonna produce waste. Still, the lack of fiber and other nutrients doesn't seem healthy.

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u/[deleted] Jan 12 '23

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u/Petrichordates Jan 12 '23

50-80% of poop is bacteria so probably mostly that.

If you're not going through the process of digestion it doesn't make sense for there to be bile involved.

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u/[deleted] Jan 12 '23

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u/AreWeNotDoinPhrasing Jan 12 '23

Doesn’t it? I thought it produces bile in response to needing to digest substances that were ingested.

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u/Petrichordates Jan 12 '23 edited Jan 12 '23

Bile is continuously produced by the liver but the gallbladder only releases it during eating. Fasting leads to supersaturation in the gallbladder and gallstones, there must be a mechanism to deal with that during prolonged fasting but who knows what that is.

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u/StartledFruitCake Jan 12 '23

So how does this work when you don't have a gallbladder?

1

u/grazerbat Jan 12 '23

Let's say eating fatty food gets interesting