Avoiding fat, cholesterol, and salt?

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lilawolf
lilawolf Posts: 1,690 Member
in Food and Nutrition
I know that this is n=1, but sometimes that is helpful when there is SO much research, most done poorly with loose correlation, a lack of a control group, poorly collected data (questionnaires), and suspicious funding by pharmaceutical and agriculture companies. I also know that there is a wide range that works for most people, and there are other reasons to choose your diet such as religious or disease related reasons. This is just to say dietary fat makes you happy, it makes you satisfied at lower calorie ranges, it is delicious, and it won't wreck your blood work.

I looked back at my weekly macro percentages for the last year, and my fat macro ranged from 32-43% with an average of around 38%. This is about 69g of fat a day when I was on a cut (1650 total cals), and about 105g of fat a day now that I'm bulking (2500 total cals). Some of this fat is so called "healthy fats" like nuts and avocados, but a lot of it is saturated animal fat. Steak, sausage, pork roast, bacon, dairy, butter, and more processed stuff like ranch.

MFP shows that my sodium is usually around double the allotted amount, and I don't log salt that I add myself, which is quite a bit. I'd say I'm at 3-4x the salt recommendation. Did you know that you stop bloating with salt once you get used to it? A high salt day on a low salt diet with make you gain a lot of water. I never bloat and my blood pressure is great.

My dietary cholesterol is also usually high, but not as much as I would have thought with all of the eggs and fatty meat.

I just had my numbers run:
Total cholesterol: 167 (desirable is under 200 mg/dl)
HDL: 69 (above 60 is desirable)
LDL: 79 (under 100 is optimal)
Triglycerides: 93 (under 150 is optimal. This surprised me with the pork roast I had last night)
Ratio: 2.42 (less than 4 is desirable)
Systolic blood pressure: 96 (under 120 is normal)
Diastolic blood pressure: 68 (under 80 is normal)

Replies

  • helenrosemay
    helenrosemay Posts: 375 Member
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    That's great for you, but when I lowered my salt and fat my cholesterol and blood pressure lowered too, so each to their own.
  • magerum
    magerum Posts: 12,589 Member
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    nicholas-cage-you-dont-say.gif
  • magerum
    magerum Posts: 12,589 Member
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    That's great for you, but when I lowered my salt and fat my cholesterol and blood pressure lowered too, so each to their own.

    I would hazard a guess that that was more a function of weight loss than dietary choice.
  • susannamarie
    susannamarie Posts: 2,148 Member
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    That's great for you, but when I lowered my salt and fat my cholesterol and blood pressure lowered too, so each to their own.

    I would hazard a guess that that was more a function of weight loss than dietary choice.

    Some people are a lot more susceptible to dietary salt than others.

    For someone who already has low blood pressure, no worries. For someone who has high, it's worth trying it for a few months to see if it helps.

    I have a friend (of normal weight) whose blood pressure runs dangerously high if she doesn't watch her sodium. I, on the other hand, practically have a salt lick in my kitchen, and still run low.
  • lilawolf
    lilawolf Posts: 1,690 Member
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    I was borderline on half of those numbers before I lost weight. My mom has high blood pressure (two different meds to keep it under control!) and cutting out salt did not reduce her numbers at all.

    I suppose neither of those statements rules out the possibility of us all being snowflakes when it comes to salt, but I'm skeptical.
  • highervibes
    highervibes Posts: 2,219 Member
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    I eat a lot of saturated fat and I don't watch sodium. My numbers improved leaps and bounds. I guess it was weight related.
  • susannamarie
    susannamarie Posts: 2,148 Member
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    I was borderline on half of those numbers before I lost weight. My mom has high blood pressure (two different meds to keep it under control!) and cutting out salt did not reduce her numbers at all.

    I suppose neither of those statements rules out the possibility of us all being snowflakes when it comes to salt, but I'm skeptical.

    It's not "us all" -- I think the study I found said that about 30% of people with hypertension are helped by cutting salt, and this is the basis for the nutritional recommendations. But I don't remember where I read it -- it's been a while.

    It doesn't mean that it's not worth a shot -- a 30% chance of improvement? Sure, why not try. But it does explain why you know multiple people where it didn't help at all.
  • lilawolf
    lilawolf Posts: 1,690 Member
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    I was borderline on half of those numbers before I lost weight. My mom has high blood pressure (two different meds to keep it under control!) and cutting out salt did not reduce her numbers at all.

    I suppose neither of those statements rules out the possibility of us all being snowflakes when it comes to salt, but I'm skeptical.

    It's not "us all" -- I think the study I found said that about 30% of people with hypertension are helped by cutting salt, and this is the basis for the nutritional recommendations. But I don't remember where I read it -- it's been a while.

    It doesn't mean that it's not worth a shot -- a 30% chance of improvement? Sure, why not try. But it does explain why you know multiple people where it didn't help at all.

    I didn't know that! Why don't doctors say so? That it may or may not work, rather than you must do this? I like that we just had a discussion without attacking each other lol or adding in another creepy Cage gif...
  • Warchortle
    Warchortle Posts: 2,197 Member
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    Not eating fat won't help you lose weight more or less weight if your caloric intake is the same.

    Low fat over a long time at a caloric deficit has shown to negatively affect hormone levels though.

    For the other things... cholesterol scare is outdated. The U.S. gov't decades ago didn't want people to eat more than 1 egg a day because of the cholesterol. There has been studies that the consumption of cholesterol does not increase your cholesterol within your body.

    If you have no health risks like high blood pressure then consuming salt is fine and is necessary for a person who works out a lot. No offense... but retards who freak out over sodium... really? Drink some water pls.
  • raiderzara
    raiderzara Posts: 55 Member
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    That's excellent bloodwork!! WooHoo!!

    Despite all the bad health genes I've inherited from my parents, the one awesome thing is borderline low blood pressure. I eat all the sodium I want and the only time in my life my blood pressure has ever been high (and my weight has fluctuated by 90 pounds over the course of my adult life) was when I had eclampsia/toxemia during my first pregnancy. I also drink a LOT of water and work out a lot, so that probably helps, too.

    I think the thing to keep in mind is that the science of nutrition is an ever-evolving thing...just when they think they've cracked it, some discovery comes along and blows everyone back to the drawing board. Until there have been long-term, peer-reviewed, double-blind studies with sufficient population size on some of these new findings (and some flawed old ones, such as that eating cholesterol doesn't necessarily raise your blood serum level, and that saturated fat doesn't fill your veins with lard immediately, causing heart attacks and death), people should try to refrain from passing harsh judgement on what others choose to eat.

    I love my Paleo/Primal, eat-clean, and all-natural friends and my IIFYM, poptart-and-ice-cream-eating ones equally. :D

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