How long does food really digest?

Question

I love to workout and every time i ate i just let 1 hour pass and do something to make me sweat and burn the calories i been eatin.I just really wanna know how long does food really digest.Thanks a lot this site is the best.

Answer 1

as quickly as 1-2 hours but up to 24 depending on what you ate

Answer 2

it depends on the type and quantities of the food items. proteins have the longest digestion time and there will be some variance that person A's body takes to metabolize beef than Person B. for the most part the "digestion will be the time it takes for the food item to pass through the stomach and through the small intestine where the majority of nutrients are digested. fats and fiber delay gastric emptying so meals with these will take longer to pass through the gastrointestinal tract (GIT). some examples would be egg whites at 30 minutes with a whole egg at 60. white fish about 1.5 hours with fatty fish like salmon taking 2x that. meat and poultry depending on the size are close to 3-4 hours. milk about 90-120 minutes. these are all based on a completely empty stomach. grains the same thing, for the most part the lower th GI the longer the digestion time. fruits usually 30 minutes up to 2 hours depending on the variety.

the post above that referenced digestion times of 6-20 hours is incorrect. either the text in his books was misread or not complete. 6-20 hours would be the time of digestion to defecation

Answer 3

Fruits take @ 1 hour alone, carbs take @ 4 hours alone, proteins with fats take @ 5 hours alone...yet when you add them together in the wrong combination, according to Harvey Diamond and others, the food you eat can take anywhere from 12-24 hours to digest and pass. Check out the 'The Fit For Life Solution' or 'Fit ForLife' books by him to learn the principles of proper food combining. Its very interesting and an informative look at what happens when starchy carbs like wheat, rice and pastas etc, are eaten along with meat proteins, fruits and vegetable carbs, and other various combinations.

I recommend it be read, as in the past it has helped me lose quite a bit of weight and given me alot of energy, without having to 'diet' or give up foods that I love.

Check it out....fitforlife.com

Answer 4

Digestion time varies between individuals and between men and women. After you eat, it takes about six to eight hours for food to pass through your stomach and small intestine. Food then enters your large intestine (colon) for further digestion, absorption of water and, finally, elimination of undigested food. In the 1980s, Mayo Clinic researchers measured digestion time in 21 healthy people. Total transit time, from eating to elimination in stool, averaged 53 hours (although that figure is a little overstated, because the markers used by the researchers passed more slowly through the stomach than actual food). The average transit time through just the large intestine (colon) was 40 hours, with significant difference between men and women: 33 hours for men, 47 hours for women. Two British doctors studied digestion time in children. They fed 35 children juice containing a red marker and asked the children s mothers to note when the stool first turned red. The mean time of transit from mouth to anus for the group was 33 hours (meaning half the children had digestion times slower than this and half had digestion times greater than this).

Answer 5

I read in a book that is takes a day or 2 to go thought the intestine

Answer 6

haha, it depends on the food. usually between 6-20 hours. i know, it's a big difference, but it's true........i just learned about that in my AP Biology class. :)