Your Most Burning Poop Questions, Answered

The color, texture, and smell of poop can offer important insight into your overall health.

Like it or not, everybody has to poop. It's part of being human, but talking about it is embarrassing for some. Here's the thing, though: Our poop — its color, shape, and even smell — can tell us a lot about our health.

So what does healthy poop look like? It would contain some fluids, undigested food — mostly in the form of fiber — and dead cells that have been shed from the lining of your intestines. Ideally, stool should be well-formed, tube-shaped, and brown in color, though the hue varies from person to person.

While changes in poop's color, consistency, frequency, and even smell can very well indicate a digestive problem, it can just as easily be a false alarm. "Sometimes it's just something they ate," says Edward Loftus, MD, a professor of gastroenterology at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. "You don't want to react too much to one single change. But if it's been going on for longer than a week and you don't have a good explanation, you should tell your doctor about it."

Here's what you should know about human poop, what's considered a normal bowel movement, and when you should see a doctor.

How often you go No. 2 is determined by the amount of fiber you eat and fluid you drink. Exercise, general activity, and hydration all play a role in encouraging healthy bowel movements. This means the frequency of bowel movements can vary quite a bit and still be considered normal, ranging from three bowel movements a day to three a week, according to the Cleveland Clinic. The important thing to know is what's normal for you and to pay attention to any notable changes.

If you’re straining or having difficulty passing stool, you might have constipation, which is defined simply as fewer bowel movements than usual. Left untreated, severe constipation may lead to fecal impaction, according to MedlinePlus. This is when stool is hard and dry and you’re unable to pass it. Back and stomach pain are other signs of fecal impaction. It often occurs when people take prescription painkillers or if they’ve been sedentary for long periods of time. Abusing high doses of laxatives can also lead to fecal impaction. An enema can be used to treat the problem if necessary.

On the flip side, diarrhea is stool that's more loose and watery and frequent than normal. Diarrhea is likely to be caused by an infection, a food intolerance, or a side effect of certain medications like antibiotics, per the Mayo Clinic. These conditions can alternate or be persistent and include other symptoms, such as belly pain and bloating, which may indicate an underlying health issue like irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), according to Johns Hopkins Medicine.

The brown color of a healthy stool comes from the bile released by the liver, which changes colors as it travels through your intestines. Poop that's a color other than brown could point to a health issue.

While stools aren't one-size-fits-all, changes in shape and consistency can offer clues to the state of your digestive health. There's even a diagnostic scale to help you tell what's normal and what's not.

The Bristol Stool Chart classifies feces into seven categories:

Types 3 and 4 are optimal, according to the Cleveland Clinic, while type 5 indicates a lack of fiber. People who are constipated typically experience types 1 and 2, and types 6 and 7 are indicative of diarrhea.

Normally, your stool should sink to the bottom of the toilet. This is because the contents of feces are typically denser than water. An intestinal infection or changes in your diet that introduce more gas into your digestive system, such as a high-fiber or high-fat diet, can cause stools to float, says MedlinePlus. People with digestive conditions that affect fat absorption, such as celiac disease or Crohn's disease, often have floating stools.

It's perfectly normal for poop to have an unpleasant odor. The smell comes from bacteria in the colon that break down food during digestion. Poop may smell different because of changes in your diet. But very foul-smelling feces can be a sign of a serious medical condition, such as:

Bowel movements should pass easily with little strain. There are a number of reasons why it could be uncomfortable. The most likely explanation is that you're not eating enough fiber.

According to the USDA Dietary Guidelines for Americans, the recommended daily fiber intake for women is 25 to 28 grams (g); for men it's 31 to 34 g. After age 50, though, fiber intake recommendations decrease to 22 g for women and 28 g for men.

Difficulty pooping could also be the result anal fissures, tears in the anus, as well as hemorrhoids. Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis, and other conditions that trigger inflammation along the digestive tract can also lead to painful bowel movements. Pain that's severe can be a sign that a tumor is blocking the anus or rectum.

It's important to let your doctor know if you have blood in your stool, black stool, pale stool, fever, cramps, mucus in your stool, pain, floating stool, or weight loss. Knowing the facts about poop is no joke!

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