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High Cholesterol / High LDL after the Whole 30?


yeckdedboot

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I just finished my Whole 30 a few weeks back and am feeling great. I lost at least 10 pounds (I haven't been this light since my early high school years), and just feel good. Yay!

But... I just got my cholesterol levels checked with interesting results:

  • Total cholesterol: 283 (terrible -- anything over 200 is deemed "bad")
  • HDL: 100 (great -- anything over 60 is deemed "good")
  • LDL: Don't know; the machine didn't give a reading since my HDL was so high. Clearly this has to be contributing to the high total cholesterol number.

I'm trying to figure out what this all means. Is this good? Is this bad? Should I be changing anything about my diet based on these results?

Has anyone else had similar results, and what have you done to address them?

FYI - I found an interesting set of articles on cholesterol on the Perfect Health Diet site, the primary suggestions I pulled out were [a] increasing carb intake to over 60 grams/day, and upping mineral intake (most notably, copper, but also magnesium, chromium, iodine, and selenium).

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First, we aren't doctors, so we can't really give you medical advice, but I will tell you that, having lost 10 lbs 3 weeks ago, your recent test results mean less than nothing.

Losing significant amts of fat will temporarily elevate your LDL levels, because your body's releasing a bunch of stuff that need LDL particles to carry out. It takes a few (4-6) months for it to stabilize.

Do some searching on here for lab results. Tom and I have both talked at length about cholesterol numbers and their value.

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How were your triglycerides? I just looked up cholesterol in ISWF and found this:

"Say your total cholesterol is 230 mg/ dL (230 milligrams of cholesterol per deciliter of blood). If you have no systemic inflammation, high HDL-C, and low triglycerides, you can consider yourself generally healthy and at low risk for heart disease, even though your total cholesterol is “borderline high.†In this instance, some of your “high†cholesterol might come from your diet, but that is not a problem! However, a cholesterol level of 230 accompanied by systemic inflammation, low HDL-C, and high triglycerides is a totally different story— this can happen even if you consume no cholesterol in your diet. In this case, high total cholesterol puts you at increased risk for heart disease and stroke. Context matters."

Hartwig, Melissa; Hartwig, Dallas (2012-06-19). It Starts With Food: Discover the Whole30 and Change Your Life in Unexpected Ways (p. 150). Victory Belt Publishing. Kindle Edition.

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Renee -- thanks for the note. I hadn't realized weight loss leads to higher LDL; I also found a number of other posts you've commented on previously. Great info! I've never had problem cholesterol levels in the past and the research I've done today has definitely eased my mind.

Anham -- Tris were in the healthy range, I'm at 79 (normal is <150), so based on your logic there sounds like I'm just fine.

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