Nice work! Don't obsess over the increase in your total cholesterol too much. Be more attentive to your cholesterol ratio.

Your cholesterol ratio is calculated by dividing your total cholesterol by your HDL cholesterol. The higher the number, the higher your risk of atherosclerosis and heart disease. Your ratio is not alarmingly high but could certainly be improved.

While your total cholesterol has gone up, so has your HDL which is good. Unfortunately, you also have a slight increase in your ratio (average is 4.5...we should all aim for 4.5 and preferably lower). Increased physical activity will raise your HDL. That is what is important...keeping your HDL high while keeping your LDL and triglycerides low. Eliminating all trans fats, processed (fake) foods and alcohol will help lower LDL and triglycerides. (Alcohol can also be another contributor to high triglycerides...I have experienced this personally...I will never, ever, ever give up my wine...but when I am consuming more heavily, my triglycerides are always higher.)

I have always had very high total cholesterol (250-275) but my HDL is always between 100-110 and my LDL is always on the low end of normal, so there is no way any practitioner would even consider treating my "high cholesterol". I had to laugh because I am now cared for by the VA. My provider loves to see me because I am the rare VA patient who is not a "train wreck"...she is always incredulous when she sees my HDL levels and claims mine are the highest she has ever seen.

Maybe I am just incredibly lucky genetically. I am quite active but I know a lot of people who are much more active than me whose ratios are poorer.

Keep up the good work!!

Looks pretty good to me. Here are a couple thoughts.....

Did you get an A1c test or, if not, do you frequently test your BG? A single fasting blood glucose sample doesn't tell you a lot, though yours clearly improved.

It might also be worthwhile to test Apo-lipoproteins and/or sub-particles of LDL, so you've got a baseline for future reference.

Also - your lipid profile will stabilize when you're finished with the weight-loss phase and have moved into maintenance; LDLs in particular can climb a bit as you keto-adapt and shed weight.

They always run A1C when I go to the dr, and I am not diabetic - it seems to be a standard test for my provider...they have only done fasting BG when I was pregnant though.

kpk54 wrote: »

Is there a need for non diabetic folks to have A1c or BG checked? Are they standard on annual physicals? They're not something I've ever concerned myself with. I didn't have trouble losing my excess weight, never seemed to experience any symptoms of high/low BG, always figured I gained weight simply because I ate far more than needed to expect weight maintenance.

Given the diabetes epidemic we have, this is a better safe than sorry test IMO. It is good to know it so you can see if a trend develops in the wrong direction from physical to physical.