cholesterol question

xrj22

I recently found out that I have high cholesterol (246, LDL 157), which is launching me on a new, mostly-vegan diet. My doctor wants to re-check in 3 months. I am just wondering how much change I can expect and how fast with diet. I know it varries, but am just really wondering what other people's experience has been?

DancingMoosie

I dropped my cholesterol a little by going vegan, but the most significant drop was after losing weight and exercising(while not being vegan).

Avidkeo

Yeah i cut out all sorts. It wasn't till I lost 20kg that my ldl went down. Being overweight seems to contribute more to a high cholesterol than diet.

dawkson2017

Im 265 total cholesterol, but not on meds. Bmi is 21, so I am moderating on alcohol, and carbs.... increasing my meat intake.
Im 67 yo retired female..... just walked 9 km in 2hrs around local streets.
Will see how I go....

psuLemon

Weight loss and exercise will provide the greatest impact on metabolic health. Consuming adequate fiber (fruits, veggies, whole grains), fatty fish and other omega 3 and consuming unprocessed oils (olive and avocado) can help. Reducing added sugar and highly processed foods will also help. Going vegan won't necessarily improve the position by itself.

Next total cholesterol is a pretty meaningless number. LDL is questionable by itself. What are your triglycerides, fasting blood sugar, and HDL look like?

ETA: i have and would never go vegan but in my experience, weight loss had the best impact on my metabolic panels. But i have really good panels with with a high meat and dairy Ketogenic diet. I still work on eating adequate fiber and i try to eat a lot of fish.

Terytha

Diet had negligible impact on my cholesterol. My doctor also warned me it would be that way.

Weight loss made it go down then way up, but I hear that's a false positive from my fat cells emptying stored garbage into my blood. The down, while it lasted, was quite significant.