High Cholesterol Settings

adamchao1984 wrote: »

Hey, everyone --

I recently found out I have high LDL and total cholesterol counts as well as low HDL. My cholesterol levels 5 years ago were good. I am a vegetarian and trying to get back to working out at least 5 days a week. Can someone give me some guidelines as far as settings go for my diary? I obviously want to avoid sat fat but also carbs. What is a good % percentage breakdown for carbs, protein, and fats? Thanks in advance!

The real answer is indeed the registered dietitian. Take the rest of this as a personal testimonial, not a substitute for the RD.

Are you overweight? Do you have familial hypocholesterolemia (FH)?

I'm a long-term vegetarian (44 years), had the same problem a few years back (high LDL/low HDL) and had had it for a long time. Getting active (while remaining overweight) didn't help lots, but losing weight seems to have been practically magic. Though I eat smaller portions of everything now, proportionally I'm still eating many of the same things - possibly a higher proportion of veggies/fruits, and a lower proportion of carbs, but I still eat plenty of carbs (200g+ most days).

I don't have FH, though, and I understand that makes a difference in what strategies work.

Without FH, the macro breakdown that works for other people should be reasonable for you until you can see an RD. Personally, I target a minimum of 0.6-0.8g protein per pound (yes, pound) of healthy goal weight (roughly equivalent to 0.8-1g per pound of lean body mass), minimum 0.35-0.45g fats per pound of healthy goal weight (as much as I can manage of it from sources like nuts, seeds, avocados, olive oil, etc.), and let carbs fall where they may to balance out the calories; plus a minimum of 5 veg/fruit servings and preferably 10+ servings.

What I did was figure my goals in grams, then set the MFP percentages to come close to those goals with just my base calorie allowance.

With weight loss and eating as described, my LDL cholesterol went from 140s to 95-100, triglycerides from 400+ at one time to 70s, HDL from 30s to 70s. They've stayed in this improved range for around 3 years now of maintaining a healthy weight.

This won't work for everyone, but has worked fine for me. YMMV.