Not a good idea (Picture: Getty Images/Metro.co.uk/Mylo)

We know it’s a bit of a personal question, but, erm… Do you grunt while you poo?

Medical experts are now warning that grunting on the toilet could actually be counterproductive.

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Two Danish doctors told Denmark’s MetroXpress paper (no relation) that around a third of people in the country are loo-grunters, according to a survey they carried out.

While it’s not so bad it’ll push your poo back in or anything, grunting does make it harder for you to get it out.


‘Basically, it is all about pressure,’ Jan Fallingborg, a senior consultant at Aarhus University Hospital’s gastroentorolgy department, told the paper.



‘That pressure decreases when we let air and noise out of our mouth. Therefore the release of forced sounds should have the opposite effect.’

And Gerd Johnsen, another expert with around 33 years’ professional experience with constipation, added: ‘Pushing sounds have no correlation to helping release.’

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But if you enjoy noisily evacuating your bowels, don’t worry – there is one sort-of benefit to grunting.

‘It could be that grunting may give a sense of psychological satisfaction,’ Fallingborg said.

So there you go – if you like it do it, basically, but it won’t make things move any faster.