Get your pre-keto blood work!

(Crippie) #1

So i still consider myself a newbie, not an Oldie yet. Only been keto for about 3 months now.

BUT I have a tip for all the newbies who are just starting and I am sure this has been said before but it needs to be said.

GET YOUR BLOODWORK DONE PRE-KETO!

I just went and got my first blood draw today after 3 months, and keep kicking myself for not doing it before. I have no real baseline to compare against to see how keto has affected my blood work. Maybe it raised my LDL or lowered it? Who knows!?!?!? If it is high my doctor will blame the diet even if maybe its lower than it was before starting. Maybe my triglycerides are good, but went up? WHO KNOWS? And I HATE not knowing.

I started keto because a couple of friends I knew had great success with it for weight loss. I looked into it and researched the crap out of it and then jumped on board. I didn’t find the 2 keto dudes podcast until about a month in, after all their talk about their numbers changing and seeing everyone’s posts about how their numbers have been affected, I wish I had that reference to go back too.

I am not going back to my old way of eating to get a baseline level of bloodwork, so there is no real way for me to get that baseline. Just have to KCKO. And hope a newbie in their first few days may see this and go get their blood work done NOW.

#2

Yes this - so important to see the changes.

(Crippie) #3

Yup! And you may not think at the beginning that you even care about the numbers(much like I did) But you might care later! And there’s no going back! once its past it is past and you cant get that benchmark again!

(Carpe salata!) #4

Lipid tests (cholesterol, triglycerides…) are interesting, but Dave Feldman has shown they are more of a reflection of our eating and exercise over the prior several days.

The good test to get is ‘glucose tolerance test with insulin levels’ and HbA1c. This will pick up insulin resistance and deranged sugar management. These are more fundamental to your recovery from metabolic syndrome.

What actually causes the BMR to drop with dieting and fasting?
#5

Yes I would get fasting insulin, HbA1c, cholesterol panel, trigs.

#6

I completely agree @Crippie. I did exactly the same thing and only discovered the importance of having a baseline to use as a comparison when it was too late.

#7

I wish I had done that too. I have blood work results from 2 years ago, but nothing since, until last month after being on Keto for 1 1/2 months. My A1c was 6.9 then, putting in the diabetic bracket. And now I’m not. Not sure about my lipids. My LDL is slightly high, but I have nothing to compare it to. Was it higher before and is now lowering? Like you…who knows!!!