How do you lower your cholesterol?

exercise, maintaining/being a healthy weight/body fat %, fewer refined carbohydrates, FOODS with soluble fiber, eating more omega 3 fatty acids and monounsatured fats.

I am not sure I could answer how many numbers for you to maintain. But here is my story.

I started with total cholesterol of 250.
After I lost about 75 pounds, my cholesterol was 189. LDL was 102

For the past 8 weeks, I have been experimenting with plant-based and fresh fruit diet. Please look at my food diary. It is open to public.

3 days ago I re-checked my cholesterol and it was 134. My LDL went down to 78. That's 28% reduction in bad cholesterol. And I consider this a success. I also lost 12 additional pounds since I started plant-based diet.

Good luck in your journey.

I'm not overweight by any means, I generally eat healthy, and my cholesterol was high the last time I got it checked. I've been trying to be conscious about exercising more regularly and eating more balanced, hoping that it will be lower when I get it re-checked. One thing that I've heard works for other people is ground flaxseed, so I've been putting some in my smoothies.

On the other hand, my husband can apparently be overweight and eat whatever he wants and still have extremely low cholesterol. Clearly genetics must have some hand in this...

I'm in a similar boat... I'm 26, 5'6" and 125lbs. Never would have imagined having a cholesterol problem! Like I said, I've just been a lot more conscious about my habits. When I get mine re-tested, I'll let you know if my experimentation worked at all

What should your goals be if you need to lower your cholesterol? Which 5 nutrients should you be focusing on?

I've made a serious dent in my cholesterol with diet alone and was able to avoid being put on a statin.

1.) Cardiovascular exercise; 30-45 minutes 3-5 times per week.

2.) Plenty of soluble fiber in your diet...think oatmeal (the real stuff, not instant), and berries (Stawberries and Blackberries are particularly good sources). Also, just fiber in general.

3.) Emphasize veg and fruit in your diet...see #2 in RE to fiber.

4.) Plenty of lean proteins to keep your saturated fats in check; I keep my intake of red meat to about once per week...two times max. I also eat minimal dairy. Red meat and dairy products are very high in saturated fats. I try to keep my sat fats around 15 per day...if I go over, it is usually do to nuts and what not...your body treats those saturated fats differently than saturated fats from animals.

5.) Eat more sea food, particularly fatty fishes like Salmon and Tuna...get your Omega 3 fatty acids. Eat your fish 2-3 times per week. Additionally, supplement with fish oil and get your Omega 3 fatty acids. Try to get around 1,000 mg of dha and epa combined daily.

6.) Limit your processed carbs...try to get most of your carbs from berries, fruit, veg, and some whole grains.

7.) Get your heart healthy fats...eat your nuts (almonds and pistachios are particularly good for the heart)...eat your avocado, etc...get those heart healthy fats.

8.) Lose some weight if you are over weight.

I started my diet due to having really bad cholesterol and triglycerides among other things. My blood work has completely normalized now in about 6 months since I made all of my dietary changes...I've also lost about 30 lbs and fitness is now just a part of my daily life. My diary is also open. I have a 40c/30p/30hf macro ratio.

Also, I do not even track my dietary cholesterol. It has little bearing on blood level serum.

eat more Oatmeal, whole grains, fiber and vegetables

eat less red meat and cheese

Please dont take offense, but eat more Oatmeal, whole grains and eat less red meat and cheese is the one of the worst mistakes of the health industry. People are paying for it dearly with their health. There is not a single clinical study that exists, and yet the media keeps propagating this slander.

In reguards to "Actually, there are plenty of studies to support whole grains"

There are clinical studies that show they are better than processed grains, but that is it. There exists not one single study that compairs whole grains to no grains. However there are a few that link it to various metabolic syndromes. Also it is now known that polyunsaturated fats, such as those found in vegetable oils along with grain products, are the leading cause of inflamation, artery damage and in turn heart disease. There are zero clinical studies that show red meat, saturated fat or colesterol lead to or cause heart disease. On top of that, there are several clinical studies that show saturated and monounsaturated fats are the healthy ones.

I know how you feel, the media botches so badly the health information it tries to push. Look for the studies themselves, you will be surprised what you find and how out of left field some people get their headlines. I have been studying studies for a long time ( I come from a chemistry/physics background) and over the last several years have been extensively studying biology and nutrition.

What I really need to do is exercise more...

There's no downside to exercising more. You can find numerous studies on food consumption that contradict one another. You'll be hard pressed to find a study that shows that exercise is bad for you.

Keep it simple. Eat whole foods. Exercise often.

Eating whole foods and exercise often is pretty much what my doctors told me.

If the gym is too much work or takes too much time, buy some workout dvds. Heck you can pick up the walking dvds from Leslie Sansone for like $10 on amazon, and even if you have no time, just do the 1 mile program to get you moving a little bit (for what it's worth, I burn 170 calories with the 30 minutes workout and close to 400 calories with the 1h workout).