The human body is constantly producing, er… stuff. Think about it: We go to the bathroom every day, we trim our nails every other week and most of us cut our hair about once a month. But have you ever taken a second to think about what all that stuff we’re shedding totals up to over the course of your lifetime?
We did a little math based on the average global life expectancy of 71.4 years, as reported by the World Health Organization in 2015, and the amounts of skin, hair and other stuff our bodies generate in a single year to find out just how much of everything our bodies create in a lifetime.
Skin: 628.32 pounds, which is equal to the weight of about 100 bricks (or if you really want to gross yourself out, another three or four entire you’s).
Hair: 428.4 inches per strand, which is about as long as a telephone pole. If you multiply that number by the 100,000 hair follicles the average person has on their head, it equals 676 miles, which is almost twice the length of Lake Superior.
Nails: 107.1 inches per nail, which is just taller than Shaq. If you multiply that number by the 20 nails most people have on their fingers and toes, it equals 178.5 feet — just a little shorter than the Leaning Tower of Pisa.
Tears: 1,570.8 gallons, which could fill 10,000 venti Starbucks coffee cups.
Sweat: 4,284 gallons, enough to fill 100 bathtubs.
Saliva: 6,854 gallons, which is enough to fill 450 beer kegs. In fact, we swallow enough saliva to fill at least one wine bottle every single day. Cheers!
Urine: 9,496.2 gallons, which could fill 50 hot tubs. While that number may seem low compared to the other liquids our bodies produce (the average person doesn’t cry a ninth of what they pee each day, right?) remember that we’re constantly producing tears and saliva 24/7 to keep our eyes and mouth moist and lubricated. Some we swallow, some evaporates, but we’re producing this stuff in huge amounts all the time without even noticing.
Poop: 25,704 pounds, which is equal to the weight of a cruise ship anchor — or roughly the same as two Tyrannosaurus Rex.
The numbers may be gross, but hey, at least we can all rest easy knowing we’re leaving our own very large mark on the world.
Ian Lecklitner
Ian Lecklitner is a staff writer at MEL Magazine. He mostly writes about everyone's favorite things: Sex, drugs and food.
