18 months keto and still high cholesterol


(Sonia) #1

Hi keto family,

I’ve been doing keto for 18 months now. Maintaining my 90 pound weight loss. 5’6 123 pounds, 36 years old. Never had high cholesterol before keto.

6 months into my journey I got bloodwork done and my cholesterol was high. Not to worry because I was new into the diet plus I had lost a lot of weight.

Two weeks ago I did another round of bloodwork. Been maintaining for a few months now.

So my total chol is 263. Should be under 200. Good chol is 65 which is fine.

LDL is 171 which should be under 130.

I don’t eat beef. I eat lamb maybe twice a month. Bacon maybe once a week. Sausage twice a week.

I’m a little lost. How am I gonna do low fat on keto? She wants me to change my diet for 8 weeks and then come back. I’m really upset because I absolutely love keto. And yes I can modify it but I feel like I’ll be hungry.

Any advice or suggestions?


(Susan) #2

Switch doctors to a Keto friendly one =).


(traci simpson) #3

Watch


(Bob M) #4

You’ve lost 90 pounds. I assume you feel great. Do you really think your “cholesterol” is trying to kill you?


(Michael - When reality fails to meet expectations, the problem is not reality.) #5

(Bob M) #6

OK, if you are really freaked out about this, there are number of things you can do. One is to get a better lipid test (“cholesterol” is carried by lipids, and that’s what these tests actually measure). This will break down the lipids ever further, into those that are associated with higher CHD and those that are not. For instance, the one I get does this complexly (lists all the various subfractions), but also gives a “Pattern”. Patter B is bad, Pattern A is good. I started, about 6 years ago, in Pattern B, but I’ve in Pattern A for a long time now.

You can also get a coronary arterial calcification (CAC) scan, which will quantify the amount of calcification of the arteries. If you score low (say zero or slightly higher) on that, statins have been shown to provide no benefits and there is a very low (but not zero) risk of CHD.


(Michael - When reality fails to meet expectations, the problem is not reality.) #7

Just curious, what do you eat regularly/frequently? Chicken, fish, shellfish?


(Scott) #8

I have bacon and sausage daily along with eggs and other meats.

         <LOW FAT  -  KETO>

They are totally opposite directions so you can’t do both, sorry.


(Bob M) #9

And I have low total and LDL cholesterol and eat tons of beef. I think ruminant meat is the healthiest, though that includes lamb.

I try to avoid eating much chicken or pork, though do eat them.

Your cholesterol level is likely not controlled by saturated fat. As far as I tell, that’s a myth.


(Sonia) #10

Mostly chicken. About 4 days chicken, one day sausage, one day bacon, one day just eggs. I don’t eat breakfast and most days I don’t eat dinner.


(Sonia) #11

I wish! I don’t have any near me!


(Sonia) #12

I agree. I feel great. But I don’t want to be put on cholesterol medication.


(Sonia) #13

Thank you for the great advice. I’m going to try to change my diet slightly for 8 weeks. If that doesn’t work, I will look into what you mentioned.


#14

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #15

Saturated fat has been shown to raise HDL (the so-called “good” cholesterol), whereas it is a high carbohydrate intake that elevates LDL, for the most part. But what exactly cholesterol in any form has to do with cardiovascular risk is open to debate. Some major studies intended to link cholesterol ended up showing instead an association between lower cholesterol and higher cardiovascular risk. It is a known part of the body’s mechanism for repairing atherosclerotic lesions, however, so in a very real way, blaming cardiovascular disease on cholesterol is very much like blaming fires on the presence of fire trucks.

The OP doesn’t mention a triglyceride score (did I miss it?), but a ratio of triglycerides to HDL of 2.0 or under is considered to indicate a low risk of cardiovascular disease, regardless of the absolute values. As this time, the coronary arterial calcium (CAC) score is the best indication of cardiovascular disease and risk.

Be aware that your doctor may feel obligated by the standard of care to prescribe a statin (or a PCSK9 inhibitor, which is the new hot drug because it is still under patent), but you cannot be forced to take it.


(Nancy) #16

I too am concerned about my cholesterol. I started keto almost 2 years ago. I lost 30 pounds pretty quickly. My cholesterol Pre keto was 168. Then it went off statins and it went up to 278. I stayed off the statins and it went up to 318. The most disconcerting thing is I now have cholesterol pustules behind my eyelids. They don’t hurt and are harmless but I think my body is trying to tell me something. Plus I have not been able to lose weight in a year. I have done IF all along. I have done egg fasts where I lose 2 pounds and it comes right back when I go to keto. Needless to say, I am back on statins, very low dosage. The eye pustules really bothers me. Anyone else have anything like this.


(Bunny) #17

You may be eating too much saturated fats?

It could be your specific genotypes need more monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats along with the saturated fats in other words too much of your fat intake may be coming from saturated fats and you need to balance all three dietary fats in ratios on a ketogenic diet or if you choose to continue on a ketogenic diet?

People sincerely want to believe they can escape there own genetics by avoiding monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats but reality is a different story; what causes inflammation in one person does not cause it another person, so you have these hysterical people out their that believe everyone should only eat saturated fats, when they have no idea what they are talking about to begin with? They want to think everyone falls under one Neanderthal umbrella, that is why you will see all these hyper-responders who still don’t get the point that they need more polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats along with the saturated fats in there specific dietary intake? And then we have people with xanthelasma in there eyes who could be eating too much of the wrong fat for there genotype??

People don’t listen to common sense anymore, they blindly follow gurus these days.

References:

[1] Dyslipidemia is linked to inherited genetic disorders, including:

  • familial hypercholesterolemia
  • familial hypertriglyceridemia
  • lipoprotein lipase deficiency

A person with one of these conditions may have abnormally high lipid levels despite being in otherwise good health. For this reason, these conditions are known as primary causes of dyslipidemia. …More