These tips are drawn from public health agencies such as the UK's NHS and the US NIDDK, and from published research. Each one lists its sources. They help you make sense of the terms in your log and when it's worth seeing a doctor. They are not a medical diagnosis or treatment advice.
These stats are your own baseline, not an exam score.
The shares, gaps and durations in Poopendar turn your own entries into numbers, so you can see whether lately looks different from usual. The tips below come mainly from public health agencies and published studies. They explain the words in your log and when it's worth seeing a doctor. They can't diagnose you.
Harder and lumpier usually means a longer stay in the gut; softer and looser usually means a faster trip.
The Bristol scale sorts stool into 7 types. In a 1997 study, 66 volunteers recorded their stool form while radio-opaque markers measured how long food took to pass through the whole gut. Form and transit time were correlated (about -0.54 at baseline), and when drugs sped up or slowed down the gut, the form changed with it.
So harder stools (types 1–2) tend to go with slower transit, and softer ones (types 6–7) with faster transit. This is a moderate correlation, not a one-to-one match, and diet, medication and hydration affect form too.
What matters more is whether things have changed from your own usual.
NIDDK lists fewer than 3 bowel movements a week as one symptom of constipation, alongside hard or dry stools, straining and feeling you haven't emptied. There is no "times per day" that fits everyone.
NHS also stresses change: a sudden change in your bowel habit, stools that stay loose or thin, or getting more constipated is worth seeing a doctor about. That's why average and longest gaps are best compared with your own past.
Food can turn stool red, but ongoing bleeding shouldn't be written off as hemorrhoids.
According to the NHS: