By Michele McAlister, Registered Dietitian, Diabetes Educator & Mind-Body Coach
If you feel like you’ve been trying everything to heal your gut but you’re still dealing with bloating, discomfort, or frustration, you’re not alone. And more importantly, it’s probably not your fault.
Most of the time, it’s not that you’re not trying hard enough. It’s that some of the things you’ve been told to do may not be the right approach for your body.
I see this all the time with clients: they’re putting in real effort and making changes, but they’re still stuck. Let’s walk through five common patterns I see so you can start to understand what your body might actually need.
If you’d rather listen or watch, I walk through these 5 gut health mistakes in this video:
Do I continue to keep eliminating foods that I feel I don’t tolerate?
One of the biggest patterns I see is people eliminating more and more foods over time. Maybe it started with gluten or dairy, and then the list kept growing.
Many people have been told to try the low-FODMAP diet, which can provide some initial symptom relief, but it’s extremely restrictive and difficult to follow long-term. It’s designed as a short-term elimination diet (typically about a month) where you then systematically reintroduce food groups one at a time. There is a right and wrong way to do this, and it is not meant to be your diet forever.
When followed too strictly or for too long, the low-FODMAP diet can actually have a negative effect on the beneficial bacteria in your gut. Beyond that, when people start eliminating more and more foods, they can begin to fear food itself, which can lead to disordered eating patterns.
The real issue is usually how the body is processing food, not the food itself. Instead of continuing to remove things from your plate, we need to start asking: why is this happening in the first place? That means working on balancing the microbiome and addressing any microbial overgrowth at the root.
Should I add a probiotic or other gut supplement?
Another common pattern is using supplements like probiotics or gut-healing protocols without understanding the timing or purpose behind them.
For example, some people start probiotics early in the healing process and actually feel worse. This can happen because certain strains create more histamine in the gut, or because probiotics are being introduced too early, before the underlying environment is ready for them.
There’s also the issue of product quality: not all probiotic supplements contain enough of the right strains for your specific situation.
Gut protocols are often not individualized, and they really need to be. Each person can have very different underlying root causes for their digestive issues. So it’s not always about doing more, it’s about doing the right things, in the right order, with the right supplements for you as an individual.
Does the way I eat affect my digestion?
This is a big one, and it’s often overlooked.
Things like stress, sleep, and how you’re eating play a huge role in digestion. If you’re eating too quickly, eating while stressed, not chewing your food thoroughly, or constantly running in a busy, overwhelmed state, your body simply isn’t in a position to digest well, no matter how healthy your food choices are.
Our bodies need to be in a relaxed, parasympathetic state in order to properly digest food and absorb nutrients. Taking even a few minutes before meals to slow down and calm your nervous system can make a profound difference.
Slow, deep breathing and mindfulness practices are genuinely game-changing here. These aren’t just “nice to have”, they’re foundational to gut health.
Can I fix my gut on my own?
There is so much information out there right now, and I see people working incredibly hard to piece things together from social media, Google searches, and conflicting recommendations. The problem is that most of that information isn’t individualized, and some of it isn’t even accurate.
This leaves people feeling overwhelmed, or pursuing approaches that don’t actually support their specific body and situation.
The gut is the center of everything. What happens in the gut can affect virtually every other system in the body, leading to nutrient deficiencies and imbalances that can contribute to chronic disease. Getting this right matters, and it often requires the guidance of someone specifically trained in gut health who can help you identify your root causes and build a plan that works for you.
I only have a BM every few days or I have multiple loose stools a day. Is this normal?
This mistake is more common than you might think.
Many people have lived with their symptoms for so long that they’ve accepted them as just part of life. Irregular bowel movements, daily bloating, or ongoing discomfort can start to feel like “just the way it is.” But your body is always communicating with you, and those symptoms are signals worth paying attention to.
What’s normal for you isn’t necessarily what’s optimal for you. Here’s a helpful benchmark: ideally, you should be having one to three well-formed bowel movements per day that pass without straining or pain. If you’re not going daily, or if you have to strain, that’s considered constipation, and it significantly impacts your body’s ability to detoxify.
On the flip side, if you’re going several times a day with loose stools or diarrhea, that’s not optimal either. Frequent loose stools can interfere with nutrient absorption, since your body needs adequate time to absorb what you’re eating. If this is an ongoing issue, it’s worth addressing, because it affects your overall health in a big way.
So, What’s Next?
If you’ve recognized yourself in any of these patterns, I want you to know: it’s not about doing more or trying harder. It’s about understanding what your body actually needs.
That’s exactly what I help people do in my Root Cause Health Audit where we look at your symptoms, your habits, your patterns, and start connecting the dots so you can have a clear, individualized direction forward.
https://bitebybyte.thrivecart.com/root-cause-health-audit/
Michele McAlister is a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist, Certified Diabetes Educator, and Mind-Body Coach specializing in gut health and root cause nutrition.
