Intro & cholesterol question


(Chris) #1

Hi all. Been doing Keto for about 11 weeks. Been pretty strict with it with no cheating, tracking macros closely, 20g net carbs (or fewer), and trying not to be too ‘dirty’ with the fat sources. Prior to Keto I had reduced carbs but kind of went up & down on them. Get a good A1c, relax a bit, then get a higher one and tighten back up - sort of a rollercoaster with the carbs (mostly sugar/sweet tooth!).

Started a couple years ago & got a surprise 7.0 A1c at physical and “welcome to type 2 diabetes” speech from doc. He said to immediately start metformin, cholesterol, & blood pressure meds. My cholesterol was higher but still in normal range. Blood pressure excellent. So, while still in a bit of shock from the news, really didn’t like the sound of “take these 3 meds the rest of your life” so stated “you’re probably going to make me go on a low carb diet, exercise, and lose some weight too, correct?”. The answer was YES! So I told him let’s start with that & see what happens. No meds for now, but if I don’t show improvement we can revisit.

So anyway, just following basic guidance from nutritionist about serving sizes, plate method, etc. I lost some weight and got A1c down to 5.5. But felt crappy overall - hungry often and deprived. Very deprived since the carb cutting meant cutting cookies, ice cream, cake, etc…you know the stuff that got me to the place I was but still loved it…So that stuck for 6 months or so, then after the 5.5 results, I let some carbs back in so went to 5.7 A1c, then 5.9, 6.2, etc. Just crept up as I was more liberal with “a few cookies won’t hurt anything”. And even though I didn’t much like it, I figured out I could keep A1c low enough to shut up doc about the meds by just pulling the carb lever.

Then I quit a 30+ yrs nicotine habit last spring. Yay for that, but relaxed a lot on diet using it as an excuse. “I feel crappy without the nicotine, and at least deserve this cookie (or these 10 cookies) to help get my mind off the nicotine”. So that led to gaining back weight (up to 215 lbs), A1c up to 6.4, and cholesterol up to 195. So as my pants were getting tight again and I knew it was getting close to time for bloodwork again, I decided to try keto.

So it took a bit of adjustment, but overall I find keto easy to stick to. Not convenient, much more time-consuming, and was hard to get over the sugar addiction, but I don’t feel hungry all the time. Other than missing some foods or not particularly loving some of what I’m eating, I don’t feel like I’m on any kind of diet. About a month or so ago worked in intermittent fasting so most days I only eat two meals, “eating window” is noon-6pm, fasting the other 18 hrs.

And the results are great. Only losing about 1 lb per week, but since I’m not hungry or obsessing over food all the time, I’m happy with the slow but steady loss. A1c was 5.4 which was lowest ever since diagnosis. I’m down to 197 lbs now - which was about 6 lbs real fast (water I’m sure) then about 1 lb/week pace. BUT my waist hasn’t changed. That’s kind of scary - I have skinny person arms & legs, I carry my extra weight in “beer belly” mostly and that has not changed. I was expecting to be cinching my belt a notch tighter by now and since I am not but am weighing less, wonder if i’m losing muscle instead? The other question/issue is my cholesterol was 225. I thought it went down on keto (even though it is counter to what the docs tell you about not eating fatty foods to reduce cholesterol). But I have NEVER been over 200 before. Doc said it could be that I just did blood work too early in keto - might be that it spikes, then drops and stays low. Test again in 3 months to see, but if still that high, time for meds :frowning: .

From all the anecdotal accounts I’ve read and all the “what to expect on Keto” type articles, I was a little surprised by the lack of waistline inches lost and the spike to cholesterol. Otherwise, pretty much inline with typical keto person. Are those things to worry about or just not enough time to see the results @ 12 weeks?


#2

Welcome, Chris. I’m sure you will find a lot of great information here, as well as some of the best folks you will ever find in the Keto-Realm. :slight_smile: And the best site for this WOE/WOL. :+1: (Way of Eating/Way of Life) … As far as your questions go, I’m sure there are some folks that could provide you some insight, but to be honest, since it’s all so different for all of us I don’t dig too deeply in the science, other then all the studying I did when I first switched over. But every one does see their results in different ways too, so it’s never the same for everyone. :slight_smile:


(Bob M) #3

So, you’re going to lose a ton of weight, feel much better, have more energy, yet your cholesterol is killing you? Does that make sense to you?


(Jack Bennett) #4

Short answer: cholesterol may increase on a LCHF diet. This may not be a problem.

Long answer: see https://cholesterolcode.com/


(Chris) #5

ONLY in the sense that as part of the initial diagnosis of type 2 diabetes was the explanation from doc that it is a cardiovascular disease so managing cholesterol in tandem with blood glucose is important. My goal is to stay off meds. While I realize it is my choice and regardless of any lab results & can refuse them, my ultimate goal is for doc to not say I need any. I don’t want to have the same discussion every 6 months of “you should start this med…” I would prefer her saying “as long as you keep up the discipline, your labs are good enough to warrant 0 meds”. :slight_smile:

I realize we’re all different, but SO MANY report inches lost (even though maybe little to no weight loss, the inches go down at waist) and really good or at least improved cholesterol numbers. So I seem out of the norm for both those measures. Don’t think the sky is falling, but could be an indication I’m doing something wrong or could be doing something better…


(Bob M) #6

Just do a search here. You’ll finds tons of people with similar concerns. Some people’s numbers would give your doctor a heart attack. :grinning:

These numbers are really meaningless, save to tell you that you’re eating the wrong diet. If your HDL goes up and your trigs come down, you’re heading (in my opinion) in the right direction, no matter what else happens.


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

When you switch from burning primarily sugar for fuel to burning primarily fat for fuel, the transport mechanisms for fat expand to handle the increased load. This is normal, to be expected and nothing to get upset about. As per @ajbennett Check out Dave Feldman.