Poop & Gut Expert: How Processed Food Is Destroying Your Gut Health

I recently sat down with Scott Hickle, co-founder of Throne, and we had a blunt, fun, and eye-opening talk about poop, wearables, and what daily tracking can teach you about health. I'm Robert Sikes, and I want to share the takeaways from that conversation so you can see why this matters for anyone trying to get shredded, stay healthy, or simply feel better day to day.

How Throne Started

Scott told me the idea began at a poker table. Believe it or not, the joke turned into a real startup. Both founders come from medical families, and they learned fast that doctors and patients really do talk about poop a lot. Scott's mom, a geriatrician, said older patients obsessed over their bowel habits. It was a clear sign there is real health data in waste.

Their device, Throne, is a camera that clips to the toilet bowl and looks down only. It records a short video and audio of the session, analyzes it with AI, and then sends you a short, private report about your stool, hydration, urine flow, and more. The goal is to turn bathroom data into daily, actionable health answers.

What Throne Measures

Stool consistency: The app maps stool to the Bristol Stool Scale so you can see if foods make your poop loose or hard.

Stool frequency: How often you go and what your regular pattern looks like.

Strain and time-to-first-evacuation: This helps detect constipation and pelvic floor problems.

Hydration: Throne estimates hydration and gives a heads-up to drink water when needed.

Urine flow dynamics: The device can map urine flow and flow rate using audio. Useful for prostate health or hydration tracking.

How It Works and Privacy

The camera only faces down. It cannot look up. It uses motion sensors and Bluetooth on your phone to recognize you, so recording is automatic. If you go without your phone, there are simple buttons to mark a session.

Audio and video are processed to pull out the health signals; raw audio is not shared. Data is de-identified when it is flagged for labeling by clinicians, and everything is encrypted. Scott was very clear that privacy and safety were top priorities.

Real-World Use Cases

Here are the ways I see Throne helping real people:

• Track triggers for IBS or food sensitivity by linking meals to stool pattern.
• Catch dehydration quickly by watching urine volume and flow in real time.
• Monitor recovery and performance by seeing how stress, sleep, or supplements affect digestion.
• Provide doctors with objective, longitudinal bowel data to help diagnose constipation, diarrhea, or inflammation.

The 30-Day Ultra-Processed Food Test

Scott did a bold experiment: 30 days eating 100% ultra-processed foods while keeping calories steady at about 3,200 calories and maintaining normal exercise. He tracked everything: CGM, DEXA, blood tests, mood scores, sleep, microbiome, and Throne data.

The big findings:

• Weight stayed stable, but visceral fat jumped significantly (a 5.5x increase in visceral fat measured on DEXA).
• Total and free testosterone fell sharply. About 25–30% lower in roughly one month.
• Blood lipids were largely stable, but inflammation markers in the gut (like calprotectin) rose.
• Glucose average didn't change much, but spikes and crashes increased. These swings killed mood and energy more than mean glucose numbers did.
• Gut output (stool frequency) stayed fairly steady except on extreme days (like donut day or a day of energy gels), when he suffered clear digestion problems.

That experiment shows one big point: point tests (a single blood draw or a one-time microbiome test) miss the daily swings that matter for performance and feelings. Continuous, simple measures can show what truly affects how you perform.

The Limits of Microbiome Tests

We talked about microbiome testing. Scott said the field is still messy. Lots of lab reports give you bacteria lists and tell you to eat or avoid things based on one species. That can oversimplify a complex, adaptive system. He prefers daily outcome measures, like stool consistency and inflammation markers, over a single microbiome snapshot.

Big Vision: Catching Cancer Early

The long-term aim is powerful: Throne wants to be a smoke detector for colon cancer. The earliest sign can be tiny, hidden blood in stool. If future versions can spot that early, it could push people to get checked sooner and save lives.

Where Throne Stands Now

Throne started in 2023. They've shipped beta units and are iterating fast. Scott said they've pre-sold several hundred, have a big waitlist, and are aiming for a consumer launch in January 2026. The team includes people from top wearable companies and advisors from GI medicine, so they are building both the tech and the clinical bridge.

My Takeaway

As a coach and competitor, I want clean inputs and reliable outputs. Throne aims to provide hard outputs from the bathroom so you can steer the inputs such as food, water, sleep, and stress with more confidence. If you live to optimize your body, tracking the output side of things is the missing piece.

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FAQ

Q: Is this device safe and private?

A: Yes. The camera points down only, data is encrypted, and personal data is de-identified for any model training that clinicians help label.

Q: What if I use public bathrooms or other toilets?

A: You can log stool events manually in the app or take a photo (awkward, but possible). For advanced hydration and urine flow metrics, you need the device attached to the bowl you use most.

Q: How accurate is the urine volume and flow measure?

A: Throne uses audio science (sono uroflometry) and claims accuracy within about plus or minus 5% based on lab testing with simulated streams.

Q: When can I buy one?

A: Scott told me they plan a consumer launch in January 2026, and they are running betas now.

Q: What is the best single reason to track bathroom data?

A: It gives you clear, daily feedback on how your diet, sleep, stress, and hydration actually affect your body. That makes your training and nutrition decisions smarter and faster.

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