Keto for 4 months, labs out of whack

(Adam Cassis) #1

Started Keto about 4 month ago for general health benefits but fat loss was icing on the cake.
lost about 16 lbs so far.
i established care with an internal med doc as a routine visit, but also to check labs etc. did a bit of research beforehand and had him order NMR lipoprofile and hsCRP. he also check routine lipid profile. as you can see below, the results were not what i was expecting and quite alarming.

Pre-Keto labs
Trig 99
Total chol 168
HDL 38
LDL 102
VLDL 20
non-HDL 122

Post Keto
Trig 152
Total chol 227
HDL 37
LDL 160
VLDL 30
non-HDL 190

hsCRP <1.0

NMR
LDL-P 1936
LDL-C 163
HDL-C 34
Trig 154
Total chol 228
HDL-P 25.2
small LDL-P 705
LDL size (20.8)

now i get cholesterol will increase on keot diet, but i thought the LDL size and particle number profile was supposed to improve also. may not everyone responds in a favorable manner to this diet??

I have had only 2 “cheats” during this time, a small desert after a keto friendly dinner.

am i missing something here??

(Candy Lind) #2

You’re not missing a thing. You may be a “hyper-responder.” Go read everything on the cholesterol sub-forum; search for “cholesterol drop experiment” (Dave Feldman) on YouTube; visit his website, http://www.cholesterolcode.com and put your numbers in there in his reporting tool. He might even pop in here (or his new employee @siobhan, one of our admins) and give you some insight himself.

You can also look for Ivor Cummins and his presentations on cholesterol & heart disease on YouTube. Very enlightening.

BTW, just to make sure - you were fasted for the test? If not, it’s all completely invalid. Your doctor should have told you to fast before, and the lab should have asked if you were fasting.

(Siobhan) #3

Triglycerides going up is a bit odd with keto, although there is some variation in the number.
How long were you fasted before the test? I tend to recommend 12-14 hours to make sure triglycerides aren’t spiked as they can be if not fasted enough, or fasted too much.
Also, did you have any coffee on the morning of the test, or coconut/mct oil in the days leading up? These are two things I often see that can have an impact on triglycerides.
Lastly - are you tracking what you eat? Sometimes when getting into the swing of things, we can let a little carb creep in resulting in a higher carb high fat diet which can result in weird results until we address it.

FWIW, you didn’t have (or didn’t post) an NMR from pre-keto so we’re not really sure if it improved or not. 4 months may also be a bit early for a blood test, it may also be worth rechecking in a few months if none of the above may have influenced the results.

(Adam Cassis) #4

i was fasted at least 10 hours prior to test. i did not have a pre-keto NMR lipo unfortunately. i probably did have some MCT oil leading up to the test date, usually have MCT and 100% cacao powder in my AM coffees. i did not have coffee that morning however.

although i am not tracking currently, i keep a close eye on what i eat still. only card creep could have come from carrots in the bone broth i eat??

anyone ever try to incorporate a mediterranean diet into a keto diet?? meaning fatty fish, nuts, seed, lots of olive oil, etc??
thanks for the input!!

(Mitali) #5

Hi, do you think desiccated coconut also has the same effect as coconut oil on cholesterol tests?