Side Note #001

How Full of Shit Are You?

Did you know the average human body can hold about four gallons of feces?

It’s true.

A healthy human being (alive and without torn intestines leaking into the abdominal cavity) has roughly 15,198.78 cubic centimeters of digestive real estate when you add up the ileum, the cecum, the ascending colon, the transverse colon, the descending colon, the sigmoid colon, and the rectum.

That’s about 15.2 liters.

Now, technically, digestion begins in your mouth the moment enzymes in your saliva start breaking down food. But for the sake of this argument, let’s keep it simple:

Food officially becomes feces once it enters the ileum, after passing through the stomach, duodenum, and jejunum.

Now you know.

One more thing...

Since the density of feces can vary wildly from person to person (and, let’s be honest, from day to day), pinning an exact weight on that volume is nearly impossible.

But for comparison:

Four gallons of water weigh over 33 pounds (15 kilograms) at room temperature. I figure poo is at least as dense as water, yeah?

So yes—someone can literally be over thirty pounds full of shit.

Authors Note: This originally appeared on my social media accounts on April 17, 2024, and was inspired by Forrest Valkai. I have made minor tweaks for grammar and/or impact.