Time between eating and passing gas?

[KayGeeBee]

On Saturday evening/night I expelled vast amounts of gas for around 8 hours, enough to power a small town, accompanied by balloon-animal guts which are now sore. This happens periodically but I haven't found the trigger food(s) yet, but I have some suspicions. Will this gas attack have been caused by something that I ate on Saturday, Friday or even Thursday? i.e. what is the interval between eating something and large scale gas manufacture? Thanks.

[XDjames]

Posted yesterday on cheesecake. Ate on Friday afternoon, ****ing like crazy in the evening, yesterday (and the phrase occurred to me) and today (then who knows), I could certainly save us a lot of money on our central heating but it's trapped and I'm thinking of drilling a well to get to it.

[Jackie1612]

Sorry you are going through this KayGeeBee. I am the same, sorry to say, I am not sure what the trigger is – everything? Dairy is the worst. I too do not know my transit time. Sometimes I think it’s almost immediate, sometimes 24 hours, sometimes 48 possibly? This IBS is such fun!

[Missus835]

Unsure about the timing of the gas because it's most of the time and quite toxic. Do not light a match around me. If in the car, I warn everyone and open the window. Grandkids get a kick out of it. Seriously, abdomen is quite "hard" most of the time as well. Triggers - not dairy. Chicken - possibly. I've cut out a lot of carbs, but there is something that sets it off and just when I think it's settled, I walk around with a cloud following me.

[Iesgobdafydd]

I floundered a lot with trying to work out my triggers because I had no idea what my transit time was and I'd read it could be anywhere between a few hours and a couple of days. Makes it difficult! It occurred to me when reading your question that at least the probable length can be narrowed down a little by considering how firm your stools are - if you're dealing with IBS-C then your transit times are at the long end of the spectrum, if you have IBS-D then they're at the short end, but of course diarrhoea also comes with the "alternating" IBS, where the system backs up and then flushes through with diarrhoea. I guess transit times would vary with that, but I haven't had it.

[MatthewU]

A Sunday roast always gives me extra special farts within 3 hours; carbs such as bread/pizza, fizzy drink and milk bloat me giving a pregnancy look except being a bloke I look like I have a massive beer belly!

[KayGeeBee]

Thank you all for your thoughts and shared experiences. Maybe we could set up as an energy company as we certainly aren't helping with climate change!

I'm going to work on the theory that major gas events start soon after eating and the bloating and pain is then caused by the gas rapidly forcing its way through the guts, overtaking the more solid material until it reaches the exit. For me it doesn't seem to affect the stools, so I suspect the normal food transit time is irrelevant, its just that the gas can pass through the guts faster by inflating them? Maybe.

I shall carefully test the theory by eating things that I ate on Saturday and that are under suspicion. A particular brand of wholemeal bread is first in line...

[Luisa22]

I pass most wind as soon as I wake up and get up in the morning. LOTS of it. Then nothing at all, all day. Then maybe once or twice about 4-5 hours after dinner. So that's about 10 or 11 at night. Why all that gas gets stored up to pass in the morning I don't know. With me it has no smell at all, it's just like air, but it can sound like a herd of elephants greeting the morning!

So about that time would be 16 hours after my last meal, and about 13-14 hours since my evening snack. And again a little bit 4-5 hours after my evening meal. Oddly breakfast never does that to me. but I only have a small simple breakfast and now sadly no fruits at the moment, whereas I eat vegetables with my evening meal.

[Ashweb901]

Back in the days when my IBS behaved like this it was within an hour or two.