The Poop Decoder

What came out, decoded. Pick the shape, the color, and whether it floated. You'll get what it usually means, what tends to cause it, and the signs that mean see a doctor.

For adults. Baby and toddler poop is different: ask your pediatrician.

1. The shape Pick the closest

2. The color

3. Did it float? Optional

See a doctor right away if

Black, tarry stool, especially with a foul smell
Red blood in your stool, or maroon-colored stool
You vomit blood, or feel dizzy or lightheaded
Pale or clay-colored stool for several days, or with yellow skin or dark urine
Bloody stools with weight loss, dizziness or fever

Call 911 for an emergency. When to see a doctor

The 7 shapes

Doctors use a 7-point scale from a 1997 Bristol study: the harder and lumpier the stool, the longer it spent in your colon. Types 1 and 2 count as constipation, 3 to 5 as normal, and 6 and 7 as diarrhea. Our drawings, our words.

	Type 1: Hard little lumps. Separate hard lumps, hard to push out.	CONSTIPATED
	Type 2: Lumpy log. Sausage-shaped but lumpy.	CONSTIPATED
	Type 3: Cracked log. Sausage-shaped with cracks on the surface.	NORMAL
	Type 4: Smooth snake. Smooth, soft and sausage- or snake-shaped.	NORMAL
	Type 5: Soft blobs. Soft blobs with clear edges, easy to pass.	NORMAL
	Type 6: Mushy. Fluffy, ragged pieces, a mushy stool.	LOOSE
	Type 7: Liquid. Watery, no solid pieces.	LOOSE

What the colors mean

Brown	Normal. Bile from your liver turns brown on the way through: every shade of brown is fine.	NORMAL
Green	Usually something green you ate or drank, or food that moved through too fast for bile to turn brown.	USUALLY FINE
Yellow	Usually fat or speed. Greasy, smelly yellow stool that floats and keeps coming back can mean fat isn't being absorbed.	USUALLY FINE
Orange	Almost always food: beta-carotene from carrots, sweet potatoes or squash, or orange food dye.	USUALLY FINE
Black	Iron pills, bismuth stomach medicine, black licorice or blueberries all do it. Black and tarry with a bad smell can mean bleeding higher up.	CHECK THE CAUSE
Red	Beets, red food coloring and tomato juice can do it. Red blood or maroon stool is not normal.	CHECK THE CAUSE
White, pale or clay	White for a few days after a barium X-ray is expected. Otherwise bile may not be reaching your gut: if it stays pale for several days, see a doctor.	SEE A DOCTOR

Every color on one page: the poop color chart. Seeing slime instead? Mucus in stool.

Sources: Lewis & Heaton, Scand J Gastroenterol 1997 (the stool form scale); MedlinePlus, Black or tarry stools; MedlinePlus, Stools: pale or clay-colored; MedlinePlus, Stools: floating; The Conversation, Why is my poo green?; Cleveland Clinic, Can food change the color of your poop?; MedlinePlus, Barium swallow.