Tell me about Keto and Cholesterol

sciencenovice

I'm newly on keto, only a couple weeks. I'm not sure about how this diet can effect cholesterol. I just got blood work and it said my HDL was 120 and the number should be 99 and below. I'm pretty sure the short time I've been on keto hasn't caused this. But I am 31 and have a bmi of 26%. So not horrible. But the on and off again cigarettes and weight gain have probably more to do with this higher number. I'm just wondering if this diet can lower my bad cholesterol. Or if it's a separate issue I'll have to work on after reaching my goal weight? I wanted to stay keto and go to maintenance but I might have to change?

camtosh

Welcome to better health! You need to read Cholesterol Clarity by Jimmy Moore, he puts to rest all the mistaken thinking about cholesterol and your worries (mine too!). In a nutshell, yes your total cholesterol may rise on this diet for a time, but your triglycerides and LDL (the bad stuff) will go down (yay). The HDL/trig ratio is the thing to watch. Higher HDL is a good thing! (The "should be" on your lab results might just be the "normal" among those tested.)
Also, check out our Launchpad for other FAQs: http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10103966/start-here-the-lcd-launch-pad#latest

...where you will find this link too: The Straight Dope on Cholesterol https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAWdHYSrh7M

kcko!

Sunny_Bunny_

I was just about to link to his website

http://eatingacademy.com/nutrition/what-is-cholesterol

Here's some text I copied from the linked page.

"Historically, we’ve been taught that LDL is “bad,” while HDL is “good.” This is true in the same way it’s true to say rugby is safer than football, because they don’t wear helmets and don’t hit quite as hard. It sort of misses the important nuances (which I won’t go into here). Unfortunately, it’s far too simple to assert that LDL is “bad,” though it is easier to say HDL is “good.”
The aspect of LDL that makes it “bad” is not the cholesterol concentration (the so-called LDL-C, which is what your doctor measures when you get a cholesterol test), it’s probably the actual particle itself (the so-called LDL-P, which you never get checked unless you have a fancy test called a lipid nuclear magnetic resonance – or NMR for short – test). If that doesn’t confuse you enough, this might: there are different types of LDL molecules, which vary in size."