Best time for first cholesterol test?

#1

Just wondering if anyone knows when is the best time (3 mos? 6? 1?) to get my cholesterol tested after starting this diet. I had high-ish numbers (all except triglycerides) before keto and vegan made them go up (that gets me LOLing every time but true story). I have a family history of heart disease on both parents’ sides and both parents died young of major heart events, so I do need to check and adjust if its too crazy.
I haven’t lost a ton of weight on this diet and don’t need to, so dropping large amounts of weight increasing it won’t be an issue.

(Susan Lawrence) #2

I would say to wait for at least 6 months before you get your cholesterol checked. If you are really concerned get a CAC done. If that is a 0 it will really reassure you. It’s certainly reassured me!
Heart disease definitely runs in my family- both parents and three siblings had heart attacks. I found out I had extremely high cholesterol after starting keto. But my CAC was a zero. I tested my body fat through a dexa scan and found that I had less than a pound of fat around my organs. And then had an NMR done. And that came out good too. I think these tests were so much more important to me to make me feel like I’m doing the right thing. I already felt wonderful.
But my doctor did freak out about my cholesterol.

(Daryl G Jackson ) #3

On the keto diet one’s cholesterol levels may always be high, but the large fluffy kind which is good rather than the small dense kind which is bad. AND just as many or more people die of heart disease with normal or low cholesterol than those with high cholesterol. There is a way to load one’s bio numbers and it is explained on one of the 2ketodudes podcasts, it’s crazy, like 5,000 calories a day for 5 days will make one’s bio numbers normally perfect! Also a good read is Cholesterol Clarity by Jimmy Moore also on audible, and a good movie to watch is Fathead Directors Cut on Amazon prime or YouTube. I don’t worry about cholesterol at ALL, and triglycerides may be high and HDL low as long as one is trying to lose weight on keto, but normalized when going on maintainer mode, according to the books I have read.

(Tina Emmons) #4

There is great info out there now about testing not only HDL/LDL but the types of them and how we’ve demonized it. It’s necessary and not what it’s been made out to be. I love the analogy of firefighters are always found at fires so in conclusion, firefighters cause fires! Haha. It’s data but don’t put too much emphasis on the overall number.