Cholesterol levels?

solska

I have lost weight (more than 45 pounds now, most of it in the first year) on and off on low carb/keto in the past nearly four years. I am active and walk around an hour a day. My cholesterol is 232 and LDL is 149, which is recorded as very high. I have heard many saying this is not really dangerous and cholesterol can appear high while on keto (my tests in the past few years have shown these ranges.) Everyone on my father's side had heart disease early on. So I wanted to hear people's experiences. Do you show high cholesterol while on keto? I am at the lowest weight I have been in the past 12 years and at 25.2 bmi today. I still have more to lose and want to lose more.

GaleHawkins

@solska mine numbers popped up like many others and now have been trend downward slowly over the last 4 years. At first I took some flak at my annual wellness exams but at the last one was done by a D.O. He mentions my high levels and they have been dropping annually for 4 years and that my HDL had climbed into a higher range and that my triglycerides were still low unlike before keto/low carb. He was aware of the research that indicates people my age (69) that higher levels of cholesterol maybe health protective.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/jgs.15733

I did have the LDL size study that LifeExtension sells and went to a Lab Corp office to give the blood. Mine was the large fluffy LDL so to speak. You can find medical research to support any belief system one chooses to follow when it comes to this subject.

Having invited a few to my 110th birthday day bash my goal is to keep my mind and not get cancer and heart disease for a long long time.

Just keep reading because much of the info from the anti FAT years turned out not to be based on solid science. No two people are the same and people under medical treatments of any type may be a special case.

I took a lot of damage I am sure eating high carbs/high fats for 40 years. It was 2014 with fast failing health that on a hunch that cutting out grains and any form of any sweeteners that I could manage my life of high pain levels without starting on Enbrel injections. Thankfully in my case the hunch was the correct thing to act on for pain management and the road to health recovery. I did not do it to lose weight but did lose weight (50 pounds) as I was regaining my general health markers. I did regain 10 pounds during the COVID-19 restraints but now that I am out on the tractor and moving more the weight is starting to reverse.

Sunny_Bunny_

Check out www.cholesterolcode.com to learn more about it and you can even run your numbers there to *kitten* your risk.

psuLemon

Cholesterol is an interesting thing and one of the limitations is most of the current evidence isn't based on people following low carb or keto diets. Having said that, yes, my LDL shot up.. a lot. Like from 99 pre keto to 178.

The thing you need to do is look at your other factors. LDL is not necessarily a good indicator. And lowering LDL doesn't mean metabolic heath is improved. That is why you have to evaluate other major things like fasting glucose, HDL, triglycerides, blood pressure and family history.

ETA: if you want and there is major concern from your doctor, i would ask for a fractionated ldl test. Typically LDL is estimated. And a test will measure it and it will let you know what type you have.

rmac18

I’ve been on Keto for a year now. I started to control T2D without insulin. I’m BG is now at non-diabetic levels, I’ve lost about 65 lbs and my cholesterol dropped significantly (probably from the weight loss) but one year a I’m pretty happy with the results and so is my doctor.