Bloodwork after 5 weeks Keto

#1

Hey everyone, first time poster here so excuse the rambling…

Came to keto to shed some weight and get the mental benefits I hear so much about. Have tried low carb in the past with good short term results but never been able to stay consistent. Biggest change this time has been my wife and I joining a high intensity training class 3 days a week, weight lifting, anaerobic exercise, short distance cardio, lots of stretching and functional movement as well. Keeps us accountable to the group and provides some much needed discipline to exercise.

I’ve now been doing Keto with 16:8 IF for just over 5 weeks, even tried one week of that as carnivore but didn’t feel like I could perform in the gym very well, supplemented with electrolytes and it helped, but still felt depleted all the time. I’m 33, 5’9" and started at 209, I’m down to 196 which feels great in such a short time, I know I’ve gained muscle as well so I’ve probably lost more fat that the scale suggests. Family and coworkers have mentioned a physical difference. I’m a professional chef, so quality of food is important, but the past 12 years in professional kitchen’s has unfortunately not always brought the healthiest lifestyle.

I’m embarrassed to say that I have never had a regular doctor as an adult (still think I’m an “invincible” teenager sometimes) so I had my first check up and blood work done a couple days ago. My results were not terrible, but a little bit alarming. Total Cholesterol high (223) and LDL high (164) Triglycerides normal (86) HDL Normal (42).

The only other things standing out on my CMP was slightly low creatinine(any ideas??) (.73) and slightly high Calicum (10.5)

blood sugar was normal, everything else normal…

My doctor wrote as I have come to expect from these forums and other keto resources - “focus on aerobic exercise, weight loss, limit animal and dairy fat, egg yolks, shrimp and squid and increase almonds, walnuts, soy, and soluble fiber, eg peas, beans, lentils, oatmeal, apples, okra and eggplant”

I have a family history of heart disease - Grandfather, Father and Uncle all had quadruple bypass surgery, other uncle has stints. I’m trying to break the cycle.

Should I be worried about my cholesterol being that high at this stage of my keto journey? I don’t have any reference point before that other than a Biometric screen I had for insurance about 4 years ago which said that my bad cholesterol was a touch high.

My other conundrum I wanted to put out there is that my wife and I decided to have a “cheat” the other night, after our doctors appointment. Went out for Mexican food, had dessert etc… and then got right back on the keto train the next morning, starting with a great upper body workout at 8am for 4th of July.

Tricky part was, we both thought we were going to feel like crap in the morning but, low and behold…both of us felt amazing! and had more strength and energy at the gym than we had been feeling! WHAT?! Did we just refill our depleted muscles with glycogen? Are we working out too hard for our bodies at this stage without some added carbs? Mark Sisson seems to suggest that for active folks adding some more carbs up to 100 grams on workout days.

Sorry for the rambling, any help is appreciated. Just trying to see if I’m on the right track.

(Mark P) #2

My first thought is to do bloodwork again in 3 months, and view the changes, then go from there. I have similar numbers to you, but not that horrible family history of heart issues. So, my doctor isn’t too worried, also being a non-smoker. I’m 4 weeks in on Keto, and plan to get my blood work done at the 3 month period to compare to last years non keto bloodwork. I know a few years back when I was eating Paleo, my numbers changed dramatically for the better after 3 months. It’s funny, how the doctor pushes so many of the SAD diet things, because I have a wellness plan at my work, and when I input my diet, they basically feel I’m a failure at life! What, no fruit? 2 servings of veggies per day? I quit participating in that aspect of the program, as I no longer agree with it after my Paleo experience.

(less is more, more or less) #3

Smarter people will provide you with better feedback, overall, but your doctor’s advice (keeping doing what continues to fail for 95% of the population) to you is sufficient reason to find a better doctor. His or her advice is a safe prescription, for the doctor, from a malpractice point of view, but, more importantly, critically wrong for the patient.

(the cheater) #4

If you had an extraordinary workout after a cheat meal, you’re probably not fat adapted yet. Same thing happens to me. I’m keto all the time, but because I allow myself a cheat/binge day/meal every week or so, I am probably never in true fat adaptation and when I workout the day after a cheat day (or later that day) it’s amazing. Same thing’s probably happening to you, I imagine.

I still have incredible success with keto, but I do need to eventually get away from cheating.

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #5

Your strength and performance are not going to be great until you are fully fat adapted (can take two months and sometimes even longer), so don’t worry about it right now. You might want to go easy on the exercise until you are fat-adapted, to avoid over-stressing your body. You might even want to wait on the fasting, as well.

Your blood work is likely to look much better once you’ve been ketotic for six months, and even then, your LDL may alarm your doctor. The numbers to look at are your triglyceride/HDL ratio (anything under 2.0 is good, if measured in mg/dL, and under 0.9, I believe, if measured in mmol/dL—you are almost there already) and your HbA1C (under 5.5 is okay, under 5.0 even better). At this point in your new way of eating, you are fine.

As far as cholesterol’s being bad for atherosclerosis, the original study was done in the first half of the previous century on rabbits—who don’t eat animal foods, so no wonder they had problems! Cholesterol is an essential molecule, being the precursor of many important hormones (indluding testosterone) and a key building block in cell walls. If you removed all the cholesterol from your body, you would turn into a pile of goo. Cholesterol is part of the body’s response to inflammation in the arteries, but blaming cholesterol for the problem is like blaming fire trucks for showing up at fires. We also know that the original study on which the prohibition of eating saturated fat is based was fraudulent.

Recent studies in human beings have actually shown that higher cholesterol levels are associated with a lower risk of cardiovascular disease, especially in women over fifty, and in the elderly of both sexes. Research on patients with the genetic condition known as familial hypercholesterolemia shows that fully half of them live perfectly healthy lives and never suffer from heart disease, much less die from it, so it’s not likely that it is the high cholesterol levels that cause the heart disease and heart attacks in the other half.

My personal conclusion from what I have read is that cholesterol is a bogey and is really irrelevant to our heart disease risk. The incidence of heart disease in populations always coincides with the introduction of the so-called Western diet, which is rich in refined grains and especially in refined sugar. The known effects of the fructose moiety of sucrose on the liver and the effects of the raised insulin levels caused by the glucose moiety on the rest of the body are—to me—convincing mechanisms for the promotion of diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and obsesity, not to mention all the other diseases included under the rubric of metabolic syndrome or “the diseases of Western civilization.”

Do keep us posted with your progress. Welcome to the forums, and keep ketoing on!

#6

Thank you all for the advice/help! it’s great to have a community with so much knowledge and experience. I’ll keep posting as I progress through the journey.