Does everyone know their transit time? Does it change for you depending on what you eat? Sometimes I feel like stuff goes right through me and other times it feels like it's a long time. I think they say 6 hours and it just doesn't seem like it's that long.
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I don't know who you are referring to that says it's 6 hours, in most cases it is 3 to 4 hours and this study of 21 J pouch patients who ate omelletes found it was 189 minutes which is 3 hours 9 minutes:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4728466/
Of course you can take imodium or antispasmodics which will slow down the bowels, or opiods, and you can easily stretch it out to 6 hours or more by messing around with peristalsis. That's fairly easy to do.
In my own case I am going to say 3.5 - 4 hours.
This study shows that Pouch maturity in transit time matters. They came up with 4.1 hours overall but 3.1 hours in pouches that were 6-41 months old and 5.4 hours in pouches over 41 months old. This kind of furthers my theory that peristalsis relaxes as you get further removed from surgery, consistent with my own case in which I had to use antispasmodics in the years right after surgery and never since:
https://europepmc.org/article/med/11742166
A lot of people who come on the board want instant results and are not prepared to allow time to pass and allow their pouches to mature, but this study kind of proves you should wait at least 3.5 years to assess transit times and frequency.
That seems about right. I thought my surgeon said 6 hours, but I could be wrong. I just realized a few weeks ago that I just had my 10 year anniversary so maybe it's more than 4 hours now.
My boyfriend works in the Pacific Time Zone and lives in the Eastern Time Zone so we usually eat fairly late. Luckily I can go right before bed then either wait until morning or visit the bathroom only once. I'm trying to figure out how transit time affects when I eat and what I eat. Even after 10 years I'm still learning!
Mine is anywhere between 1-4 hours 
Just to give you an idea of how it works, each food group has its own digestive time. All are based on the time it takes for the food to digest on an empty stomach, alone without another food group mixed it.
Fruits: about 20-40mins
Starches like breads, pasta, rice, potatoes etc: 2-3hrs
Soft cheeses and simple dairy products: 2-3hrs (sometimes less if it is plain yogurt)
Hard cheeses: 4-6hrs
Animal proteins: eggs, fish and seafood: 2-4 hrs
Red meats: 6 hrs
This is the time it takes to digest the food correctly in Your Stomach...this is not an indication of how long it takes to run through your intestines small or large.
IF your stomach and digestive system are 'normal' these times hold more or less true.
When you mix certain food groups together in the same meal you will alter your digestion as well as digestive times...for example, meat + potatoes or chicken + rice will take longer to digest...because you are mixing 2 different groups, one acid, and one alkaline...the result is the need for 2 different types of stomach acids that will work against each other and cancel each other out somewhat, requiring more stomach acids...which often leads to acid reflux and heartburn...
For example: I eat only fruits and drink fresh juice, coffee and water in the morning...I can calculate the time it will enter my pouch, about 30 mins which means that I can be ready to leave for work 1hr after breakfast. Yogurt and vegetable (my usual lunch) is about 2hrs...so I can plan my public transportation routes around when I will need to empty out...(I have nearly 2hrs travel time in each direction)...so when working I am careful...When I stay home (like now with online teaching, I really don't care so much...I can eat whatever I want).
All of these numbers are only indicative of Average Travel times, not specific to Us pouchers...but you can experiment, with eating only one group at a time and charting your times.
Sharon
Sharon, that is amazing information. Thanks for sharing. My go-to meal for feeling good and a long transit time is chicken or fish, rice and a small amount of veggies.
