Can calorie counting help lower cholesterol and tryglycerides?

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ShrinkingStargazer
ShrinkingStargazer Posts: 26 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Can calorie counting help lower cholesterol and tryglycerides? .. If you eat anything you want but count calories and lose weight?
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  • DeguelloTex
    DeguelloTex Posts: 6,652 Member
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    It helped mine. And my blood pressure.
  • rosebette
    rosebette Posts: 1,660 Member
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    I would watch your saturated fat macros, cholesterol, and fat and make sure they aren't in the red. With cholesterol, it's not just how much you eat, but what you eat.
  • DeguelloTex
    DeguelloTex Posts: 6,652 Member
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    Dietary cholesterol meaningfully affects blood cholesterol?
  • Sandcastles61
    Sandcastles61 Posts: 506 Member
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    Concentrate on the fat macro with less saturated fats and more unsaturated fats like olive oil, avocado, almonds for example. Exercise is also highly beneficial.
  • kpk54
    kpk54 Posts: 4,474 Member
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    Losing weight and exercising did wonders for my blood pressure-no longer on meds. On the other hand my cholesterol got worse. If all goes as usual when I post this someone will probably want to argue with and say really? REALLY? My overall went up. My LDL went up. My triglycerides went up. My HDL went down. And I was eating to supposedly reduce cholesterol as suggested by my primary doc. Bummer. Bad genes, I guess.
  • rushfive
    rushfive Posts: 603 Member
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    kpk54 wrote: »
    Losing weight and exercising did wonders for my blood pressure-no longer on meds. On the other hand my cholesterol got worse. If all goes as usual when I post this someone will probably want to argue with and say really? REALLY? My overall went up. My LDL went up. My triglycerides went up. My HDL went down. And I was eating to supposedly reduce cholesterol as suggested by my primary doc. Bummer. Bad genes, I guess.

    You aren't alone on this one. I am yet on b.p meds. and my cholesterol didn't change. I was told hereditary...ugh. I will keep trying.
  • BWBTrish
    BWBTrish Posts: 2,817 Member
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    What did your doctor say you should do?

    And yes it lowered my BP because i lost almost 100 pound byt weighing ALL my food, counting and logging.

    Doesn't mean it will do for you too. But weight loss has a lot more benefits and is healthier :)

    Most important is what your doctor adviced you too.
  • Healthydiner65
    Healthydiner65 Posts: 1,579 Member
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    My cardiac surgeon told me to cut down on carbs to lower my triglycerides and to lose weight. Yes losing weight can help lower them as well as exercise! Just counting calories alone is not much help! In my opinion!
  • ShrinkingStargazer
    ShrinkingStargazer Posts: 26 Member
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    thanks everyone, yea i will try not to go over in my fat and i do exercise which hopefully will help as well
  • RodaRose
    RodaRose Posts: 9,562 Member
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    ShrinkingStargazer wrote: »
    thanks everyone, yea i will try not to go over in my fat and i do exercise which hopefully will help as well
    Fat are o.k. Be careful about carbs because they raise triglycerides.

  • ninerbuff
    ninerbuff Posts: 48,608 Member
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    Losing weight will directly affect both. And you lose weight by counting calories.

    A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
    IDEA Fitness member
    Kickboxing Certified Instructor
    Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
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  • SergeantSausage
    SergeantSausage Posts: 1,673 Member
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    Calorie counting? No way. Not a chance in hell.

    Eating at a Deficit and losing weight? Absolutely. Fixed my cholesterol, pre-diabetes diagnosis, and high blood pressure issues. For all of these, weight loss improved my numbers no matter what I ate.
  • LeanneGoingThin
    LeanneGoingThin Posts: 215 Member
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    Eating less calories actually promotes longivety. In certain Asian countries people live on less than 1500 calories a day to be very old.
  • PeachyCarol
    PeachyCarol Posts: 8,029 Member
    edited July 2015
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    My doctor gave me a very simple instruction: lose weight by eating a certain number of calories for my height. I count calories to do that. She told me to exercise.

    I have lowered my cholesterol, triglycerides, and blood pressure by losing almost 50 pounds so far.

    I didn't watch any particular macros with this in mind or my intake of cholesterol or saturated fat at all.
  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,398 MFP Moderator
    edited July 2015
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    RodaRose wrote: »
    ShrinkingStargazer wrote: »
    thanks everyone, yea i will try not to go over in my fat and i do exercise which hopefully will help as well
    Fat are o.k. Be careful about carbs because they raise triglycerides.

    Carbs do not increase triglycerides. And cholesterol, fat and sat fats dont either. Genetics and weight have a much higher impact on those.

    All my numbers continously improve over the past several years (well minus blood pressure but mine has always been 110/70) and continously eat 250+ g of carbs and eat red meat almost daily.

    Having said that, i believe that eating a variety of foods (fruits, veggies, meats, fish, whole grains) and getting them from whole sources may help. There are some studies that would suggest foods high in poly and monounsaturated fats help lower ldl and increase hdl. And omega 3s (found in fish) can improve cholesterol as well.
  • yarwell
    yarwell Posts: 10,477 Member
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    psulemon wrote: »
    Carbs do not increase triglycerides.

    Except when they do - like +40% or more in a high carb low fat diet at maintenance calories in http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/77/1/43.full.pdf+html (Table 3)

    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11082210 "It has been known for decades that low-fat, high-carbohydrate diets can increase plasma triglyceride levels"

    "When the content of dietary carbohydrate is elevated above the level typically consumed (>55% of energy), blood concentrations of triglycerides rise. This phenomenon, known as carbohydrate-induced hypertriglyceridemia, is paradoxical because the increase in dietary carbohydrate usually comes at the expense of dietary fat." http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11584104
  • Machka9
    Machka9 Posts: 24,994 Member
    edited July 2015
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    I lost 15 kg via CI<CO ... and my overall cholesterol level dropped 1 full point from 5.2 to 4.2.
    As part of that, my bad cholesterol also dropped.

    I also didn't watch any particular macros or my intake of cholesterol or saturated fat at all.

    My Dr was so pleased when I came in and asked to be weighed ... and she discovered I had lost the weight. Then she sent me for bloodwork and was so excited by the results she called me at work to let me know! :)
  • jessicapk
    jessicapk Posts: 574 Member
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    I had my blood test done after losing about 30-35 lbs and, YES, my cholesterol and triglycerides were down. However, something else you should be doing other than calorie counting is to watch your fiber. Fiber helps to move cholesterol out of the body and it also helps keep you full so it does double duty. Get your fiber from a variety of sources, vegetable, whole grains, etc. Try to avoid relying on supplements but they can help. I put Benefiber in my tea daily and it gives me 3g extra fiber and dissolves away to nothing. No flavor or anything. Beans are a wonderful source of protein and fiber. Avocados are fiber rich and full of healthy fats. When my total cholesterol was at 167, my doctor recommended exercise (best way to raise HDL, the good cholesterol) and fiber (clears up LDL, the bad stuff). Between that and losing weight, I'm down to a total cholesterol of 149 and I currently weigh 243 lbs. Not bad for a girl my size!

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