Should you be fibermaxxing? Here's what the science says
Short Wave
NPR
4.7 • 6.5K Ratings
🗓️ 13 May 2026
⏱️ 12 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Fiber – a type of carb that our bodies are unable to digest – is prevalent in foods like fruits, veggies, whole grains, and beans. And it’s key for everything from feelings of fullness, to gut health, to good poop. That’s why a lot of people online are “fibermaxxing”: trying to meet or exceed the daily recommendation of fiber, in hopes it’ll improve their health.
But how should YOU add fiber to your diet… and are the fibermaxxers overdoing it? Gastroenterologist Berkeley Limketkai is here to help parse the science on how little fiber is too little, how much fiber is too much – and, like Goldilocks, how we can figure out the amount that’s just right.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | You're listening to Shortwave from NPR. |
| 0:06.0 | Shortwavers, some people on our team are very online. |
| 0:09.3 | I'm actually not one of them, but I have been alerted to this phenomenon on social media known as maxing. |
| 0:17.0 | Whether that's looks maxing, gym maxing, protein maxing, or fiber maxing. I'm tired of not getting |
| 0:24.5 | enough fiber in, so welcome to day one of becoming a fiber maxing. I'm fiber maxing hard. Fiber is |
| 0:30.7 | officially scared of me now. Is it for anybody trying to die? Quit protein maxing, bro, and fiber max. |
| 0:35.6 | I will say, I've looked at some of these videos now, and fiber maxers are right about one thing. Over 90% of people in the U.S. don't get enough fiber. The standard American diet or the Western diet in general actually is very depleted of fiber. This is Berkeley Limkekekeye. He's a gastroenterologist at UCLA, and he says most Americans are fiber deficient because, well, we're eating a lot of other stuff. |
| 0:57.2 | We do like our refined carbohydrates, the sweets. |
| 1:00.6 | We do love our fried and fatty foods. |
| 1:02.4 | We do love our ultra-processed foods, which are intentionally created to be more attractive, tasty. |
| 1:08.5 | And unfortunately, ever since being little children, folks don't really like |
| 1:13.5 | eating their broccoli as much. |
| 1:15.3 | The average person eats 10 to 15 grams of fiber per day, but the recommended daily average |
| 1:22.4 | is more than double that number. |
| 1:24.9 | And usually, the place that makes itself known is the porcelain throne, |
| 1:29.9 | the lavatory, the toilet. When they don't consume enough fiber, they tend to have more constipation. |
| 1:36.0 | And as such, you know, they could actually experience more straining when having bowel wounds. |
| 1:40.5 | They can feel like they're not completely evacuated after each toilet session. |
| 1:45.3 | They could feel that a feeling of having a bowel wound is more extended over time or the |
| 1:50.8 | interval between bowel wounds may be longer. So those are some of the initial telltale signs of |
| 1:56.7 | not having enough fiber intake. I know what you're thinking. You're listening to this and saying, |
| 2:00.5 | shortwave, you already did an episode on your pooping all I know what you're thinking. You're listening to this and saying, |
... |
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