[mumble]

I noticed this happens a few times if I don't eat much during the day, the next day I often get it - what exactly is causing it? Tense muscles? Does anyone else get this?

 

[Kathleen M.]

Well usually if you don't feed the system regularly it does react and "shuts down" until you eat again. This has to do with colon muscles, not the abdominal wall. However you don't have a lot of pain nerves in the abdomen so you can't often separate things a few inches apart from each other.The longer you wait to eat the bigger the "restart" is and the more it will cause big increases in activity and that can be painful for IBSers as well. Again this is the colon muscles (smooth muscles in the colon) not what you do sit ups/suck in your gut with.IBSers often have less pain with frequent small meals than with avoiding food for as long as possible and eating just to keep from passing out.