i am in a very experimental stage right now with SUPER HIGH cholesterol numbers, no matter what test you can think of my numbers are bad, you name it particle size stuff, the whole gamut. BUT, just got a calcium score scan done and had a result of ZERO, which apparently indicates very low risk of heart disease for about 10 years. I had been doing the whole bulletproof coffee low carb-ish type diet for years and then my functional medicine doc suggested eliminating saturated fat as much as possible, stopping the bulletproof coffee etc… and retesting my cholesterol in 3 months. I did this and BOOM, my cholesterol numbers dropped, all of them still WAY ABOVE what is considered “healthy” but this was a clue that maybe I don’t tolerate saturated fat that well? Anyway, have been wondering if by being CLOSE to ketogenic in my eating is a problem cholesterol wise? In other words, if I was fully keto maybe my cholesterol numbers would be much better but being on the fringe, and having some carbs, some fruit etc…this is negatively affecting cholesterol? Just wondering if anyone has any thoughts on this?
Keto till Dinner, Low Carb for Dinner - Thoughts?
It looks like the triglycerides and the LDL are on the high side, are you worried about the total cholesterol? Mine has been over 300 but my trigs are under 50
not even sure WHAT I should truly be worried about to be honest, all I know is all of my numbers are way outside the normal limits
Bringing down inflammation will help lower the triglycerides. That’s probably the most important number out of all of those as far as giving you a picture of your overall health. So keeping at what you’re doing can improve that inflammation.
I believe if your carbs are too high you are a sugar burner. Therefore, if you eat carbs and high fat, you just continue to store fat. Going all the way keto turns you into a fat burner so the fat gets used and doesn’t float around in your blood.
I believe there is really no middle ground. You either eat carbs, burn sugar, and store fat; or you eat very low carb and burn fat for fuel.
I bet your numbers improve by going full keto.
Regards,
Edith
i think you are absolutely right about this and the reason my numbers were so high is because of this middle ground I was in, how do I know when I am a fat burner? like what daily glucose, ketone readings should I be having? or what dietary macros would I need to follow to be a fat burner? does fat burner imply ketogenic? or can there be a little more carbs than keto? sorry to pepper you with questions, but these are the things I am wondering about
Well, fat burner does mean ketogenic. Ketones are produced by metabolizing fat. So, if you have ketones in your urine or blood that means you are burning fat. Most people start with 20g of carbs, an amount of protein based upon lean body mass (which I have a mental bock on whether to use pounds or kg) and the the rest fat. Since you have high cholesterol and triglycerides you may be insulin resistant so you probably shouldn’t have more carbs than that to get started.
I think there are some resources on this site that can answer your questions better than I can. I am relatively new to this WOE as well.
Cheers,
Edith
ok thanks Edith, is there a minimum ketone level that tells you you are a burning fat? last question I promise lol, will research if you dont know
This sounds like it may be more of an inflammation problem. Are you eating dairy and/or nuts? Try eliminating those and see what it does for your numbers!
I guess I should have clarified, bringing the carbs down will help with the inflammation 
I think 0.5 to 3.0 mmol/L is considered optimal for nutritional ketosis.
I hope I have helped 
Edith
Hi- a relative newbie here.
I’m trying to understand your post better.
Were you doing “low-carb” for a particular reason, before? Was it recommended by your functional medicine doctor? How old are you? Are you trying to lose weight or just correct other health parameters? Do you have “metabolic syndrome”?
Thanks!
I’m almost 50 now and started that kind of diet in my early to mid-forties just from listening to various podcast and such about low-carb diets and it making sense to me.
Once you’re properly adapted you are likely to be able to increase carb intake, but to try and have the best of both worlds at the early stages may not be the best idea - you’re either in ketosis with the benefits it brings, or you’re not. Some people get stuck in what I’ve heard referred to as “low carb purgatory” where your carbs are low but still too high to get the benefits of ketosis, and with the additional fats being consumed, fat gain is pretty much guaranteed.
So it’s well worth putting in the effort to get properly adapted because after that, some people can increase maybe even as high as 100g a day or more.
Yes! Purgatory, I think that’s where I’ve been and it’s taken a lot of detective work to finally suspect this. What I want to learn more about is how do I know when I am properly adapted? Are there Ketone readings and post-meal glucose readings that can help me know this?
Afraid not. The tests will show the presence of ketones but there’s no way to determine what your body is actually using for fuel.
The only way to judge is by how you feel and if you’re feeling tired or otherwise unwell, chances are you’re not adapted.
Mental clarity is a big sign for me. My head was never really fuzzy before adaptation, but the clarity since adapting is very noticeable. Some say they feel euphoric, some say they need less sleep.
Thanks, everyone here talks about being “adapted” and when I ask how can I be sure, I always get a vague answer like this, I have experienced this clarity and euphoria before, I know what you’re talking about and I appreciate you answering, it’s just a tad frustrating for the nerd in me who wants to be sure and have some kind of concrete proxy or way to actually test for this so I can get feedback on what I’m doing diet wise etc…