As the daughter of a gastroenterologist, I never imagined my career would intersect with my father’s work – but here we are.
When I told him about the latest gut health trend, ‘poopmaxxing’, he did his classic medical eye-roll and gave me a very ‘dad’-coded reality check: “I wonder how the human race survived so long before poopmaxxing became a thing,” he said.
Fair point. Yet here we are in 2026, buzzwording the sh*t out of the most basic of human functions, excuse the pun.
So, what is poopmaxxing, you may ask?
Great question.
Just like the other ‘maxxing’ subcultures you’ve likely come across if you spend your days scrolling instead of “optimising” your life, it’s all about seeking perfection.
Whether it’s sleepmaxxing, gymmaxxing, or looksmaxxing – ‘poopmaxxing’ is exactly what it says on the … can.
Yep, just when you thought we couldn’t gamify one more mundane habit, the wellness junkies have decided to give their colons a glow-up, and share the delightful process with the world.
To understand this new term, we need to understand how we got here.
The suffix “maxxing” is internet shorthand for “maximising”.
The phenomenon originally birthed in niche, often toxic, online forums dedicated to extreme physical enhancement, but the term has seeped into the mainstream through social media.
Now everything from circadian rhythms to career productivity is vulnerable to being maxxed.
Take sleep, for instance. People are now stacking magnesium drinks, using blackout curtains, mouth taping, and playing white noise machines just to achieve a basic night’s rest.
While working on your sleep hygiene isn’t inherently controversial, some newer maxxing variants, like poopmaxing, most definitely are.
It’s gone from a taboo topic to the trend du jour, and is all about perfecting the art of a high-quality bowel movement.
Social media users are now broadcasting TMI details of their bathroom routines that ensure the quality and cadence of their motions are top-tier.
This can include posting about their diet adjustments (often under the hashtag #fibremaxxing) or go-to bathroom accessories, like sanitary sheets for public stalls and travel-sized odour sprays.
One self-confessed ‘certified pooper’ known as Hally has amassed a significant online following (whom she affectionately calls ‘poopies’) by sharing her “poopmaxxer salads,” “poopmaxxer grocery hauls,” and “poopy meal preps”.
One clip is even titled: “Poop with me.”
I’d rather not.
In one viral video, Hally shows off her handbag stocked with herbal teas, wipes, and instant savoury oatmeal for “fibre on the go”.
In another post, she narrates her ‘day on a plate’ with startling matter-of-factness.
“I like to hit my butthole first thing in the morning with a poop juice,” she explains, referring to a smoothie of kale, banana, and spirulina.
The comments section is full of remarks like “so smart” and “obsessed”.
One thing I can’t help but notice about this latest wellness craze is that it’s yet another class marker, suggesting you have the time, resources, and mental bandwidth to optimise a biological process most people perform without a second thought.
Gone are the days when a simple morning coffee was enough to ‘get things going’.
From a personal standpoint, I’m reaching “maxxing” fatigue.
The idea that every part of life must be measured and optimised until we reach some mythical “peak” is exhausting.
Just look at Bryan Johnson, the “lifemaxxer” spending millions to reverse his biological age.
Now that I’m in my 30s, I’ve reached a point where I’m content with doing a ‘good enough’ job on things, especially the ones your body kind of sorts out for itself.
And in terms of the whole public-posting thing – you’ll never catch me yapping about my bowel schedule online.
It’s enough that my Sunday family dinners are often consumed with poo-adjacent chats (not always in the name of medicine).
My followers don’t need to be involved in those scatological conversations as well.
However, if you feel inclined to jump on the bandwagon, do yourself a favour and educate yourself on the risks first.
Since I know your attention span is likely optimised for short-form content (#doomscrollmaxxing?), I’ve included advice from Dr Zac Turner, our resident no-nonsense GP, for your convenience.
He warns that the biggest mistake people make with this trend is increasing fibre too quickly, advising people to “go low and go slow”.
If you suddenly jump from very little fibre to huge amounts overnight, you can end up bloated, uncomfortable, and constipated, which ironically is the very thing you’re trying to avoid.
Also, some of the high-fibre recipes circulating online, like ‘poop juices,’ ‘chia water,’ and ‘psyllium jelly,’ can cause genuine gut irritation if people overdo them.
He recommends a “crunch before lunch” strategy – consuming insoluble fibre earlier in the day so it has more time to move through the gut. An easy way to remember this is to focus on foods that start with “C,” like carrots, celery, cucumber, and cabbage.
He also says that the key to improving bowel health is consistency rather than intensity.
It can be counter-productive if you go from zero to a hundred with detoxes and fad diets, so people should focus on sustainable daily routines rather than cleanses.
However, it’s not all doom and gloom.
According to Dr Zac, when done right, poopmaxxing – or perhaps a more moderate “poop-improving” approach – can be beneficial by raising awareness about fibre intake.
Since most Australians don’t consume enough dietary fibre, increasing intake could be beneficial in reducing long-term health risks like high cholesterol, type 2 diabetes, and colorectal cancer.
Another person who knows this space from the entrepreneurial side is Morgan Appleby, founder of Hunker, an Aussie brand that creates “poop stools”.
These accessories put the body in a natural 35-degree squatting position, which relaxes the pelvic floor and straightens the colon for a more complete movement.
Morgan explains, quite frankly, that her brand helps you “hunker down for the best poo of your life”.
She believes that while other ‘maxxing’ behaviours can be rooted in misogyny – like female looksmaxxing, which exacerbates unrealistic beauty standards – she’s fully supportive of people getting more comfortable with their bowels.
Morgan has noticed a huge influx of social media attention lately, coinciding with the rise of poopmaxxing, with one of her reels racking up 2.2 million views and bringing in hundreds of new customers interested in improving their toileting experience.
One loyal fan even travelled the world with her poop stool for six months to relieve “travel poop anxiety” while eating unfamiliar foods.
Other customers with haemorrhoids, constipation, and mobility issues also report feeling relief.
Overall, it’s clear that the trend does have its positives.
And given we’ve just seen the back of the protein obsession – which often touted high-protein diets at the exclusion of fibre – pro-fibre messaging is a welcome refresher.
Personally, I like that poop-maxxing is helping to remove the stigma, especially with women, around an often “embarrassing” experience, but I just don’t think we need the “max” part. Everything in moderation, I say.
Also, as long as the trend doesn’t veer into “drink this juice for a flat stomach,” and brands trying to capitalise off that, then I’m on board the poop train – which is express, by the way.
But the only “max” I have time for is a Maxibon, because life is too short to choke down spoonfuls of psyllium.
