Low carb/fat Diet Question

Angela,

I think it might be worth asking your doctor to send you to see a dietitian (if that's how it works wherever you live!).

It is up to you (of course) if you choose to follow your doctor's advice but keep in mind that they don't always have a lot of training in nutrition.

Based only on the problems you described (not sure if you have any others) I would have said that a low carb diet may be a bad idea since it seems your liver is already stressed (and low carb puts your liver under a bit more stress to turn protein into glucose for your brain). Also, high protein diets (which is what you will have if you cut fat and carbs) are not generally recommended for people with liver problems.

Your trigs should come down if you eat less fat and also if you continue to lose weight.

I would suggest somewhere around 50, 30, 20 (carbs, protein, fat) or 40, 30, 30 and closely watching saturated fat intake but again, I don't have your full history.

Best of luck to you!! :flowerforyou:

What are triglycerides?
Triglycerides are a scientific term for fatty deposits stored in your body. Following is a brief explanation of how they are formed:

Your body transforms the carbohydrates you eat into glucose to be used for energy by your cells. Once the cells have what they need, the excess glucose is sent back to your liver and converted to glycogen. Glycogen can then be stored in your muscles. (Bodybuilders can eat more carbs and be able to store them since their muscles are larger than those of an average person.)

Once you've reached your capacity of glycogen, excess glycogen is sent back to your liver again, where it becomes triglycerides, which are stored as fat. Your body has endless storage space for this fat, as we all know.

Now some of these triglycerides are not stored as fat, but remain in your blood stream, which is where the problem lies. Excess levels of triglycerides thicken your blood, making it sludgy, which increases the possibility of clotting and blockage which could eventually lead to a heart attack or stroke. This is why it is so important to keep your triglyceride levels as low as possible.

How do you keep triglyceride levels down?
Many doctors focus too much on cholesterol, and not enough on triglycerides. However if you have high cholesterol AND high triglycerides, your chances of developing heart disease go up exponentially. As such, both indicators must be paid attention to.

As we mentioned above, triglyceride levels are directly influenced by what you eat. Anything that increases blood glucose will potentially increase triglycerides, so you should lower your intake of anything that is converted to glucose in the body.

The most important step to take is to lower your carbohydrate intake. All of the most popular diets today - Atkins, South Beach, Zone, etc. are all based on a low carbohydrate diet, because it is an increase in carbs that triggers the conversion of glucose to triglycerides (fats). The low carbohydrate diet is being recommended by more and more doctors and nutritionists as science is proving the carbohydrate fat relationship outlined above.

Excess sugar should also be avoided, as it is converted to glucose and in turn triglycerides much the same way as carbohydrates are.

Ok so I have never been told by a doctor to go low carb and low fat so I have no idea how to even monitor this intake what is the normal and what should I be consuming. The doctor said my liver enzymes are high along with the triglycerides so I need to doe this for six weeks then get the labs done again. So any help would be great.