Firstly I want to preface with the fact that I’m not arguing as to the effects of saturated fats on your body and the many potential misconceptions the health industry has about saturated fats, I’m simply attempting identify a method of reaching ketosis through diet that can be achieved by anyone, consistently, without raising LDL cholesterol levels regardless of fitness levels and activity. Many people are scared off the diet after receiving blood work because of increased LDL and the more blood tests like these are seen by medical professionals the more it proliferates the negative opinions of ketogenic diets amongst the medical community.
I made a post to the Facebook group today regarding the results of clinical studies vs individual reports of elevations in LDL cholesterol after following a ketogenic diet periods of up to 6-12 months. I’m creating this topic as a means for me to follow up on my blood panels over the coming weeks and to further break down my reasoning behind what I’m doing.
Objective: Identifying a method of reaching ketosis consistently (through diet only) without increasing LDL cholesterol levels regardless of activity level by adapting saturated vs unsaturated fat intake to individual variables.
Clinical studies have shown that ketogenic diets high in polyunsaturated fats result in increased ketone levels when compared to diets high in saturated fats. Additionally, the diets high in polyunsaturated fats resulted in no adverse effects on LDL cholesterol levels, while the diets higher in saturated fats resulted in significant increases.
There are many arguments about whether or not having higher levels of LDL cholesterol matters as much as the medical community at large says it does but the fact remains, most medical professionals consider high levels of LDL to be dangerous and will recommend people stop the ketogenic diet more often than not.
This causes two immediate problems:
- The individual panics and their first reaction is to stop the diet immediately, at the very least they’ll continue amidst healthy anxiety
- The results of the blood test proliferate the stigma amongst medical professionals that there is causation between ALL ketogenic diets and higher levels of LDL cholesterol regardless of what the diet constituted of
But some people have reductions in LDL cholesterol while on a high saturated fat versions of the keto diet, how can you explain that?
While definitely not the only factor, the most obvious factor could be the level of physical activity the individual is involved in and the TYPE of physical activity it is. Studies have shown that aerobic exercise prevents increases in cholesterol from diets high in saturated fat.
The ketogenic diet is gaining immense traction however it still suffers from one major setback, reports of increases in LDL cholesterol and the inevitable stigma that follows. To combat this stigma we now have research that shows our preconceptions of LDL may be unfounded to a certain degree, but like anything these arguments will take a long time to become mainstream.
While there are many people that have successfully transitioned to a ketogenic diet without taking saturated vs unsaturated fats into consideration (and that’s great for them) and have perfect blood work there are many that haven’t. Instead of treating ketogenic diets as a one-size-fits-all approach backed up with modern & fringe arguments about LDL levels I propose that more thought needs to be put into the induction process.
Before starting a ketogenic diet some questions need to be asked, these are just a few basic ideas that I’ve thrown around based on the studies I’ve read and sifting through causation and correlations.
What is your level of activity? If you are very active aerobically then increasing your intake of saturated fats won’t have the same impact on your LDL levels that someone with a sedentary lifestyle has (although the amount may differ for the individual). The goal, of course, is for everyone to be active but there are many heavy people on a ketogenic diet that are unable to exercise at their current weight. In these cases recommending at least a 20/80 ratio of saturated vs unsaturated fats may be a better approach until activity levels can be increased.
Will elevations in LDL put you off the diet? GP’s well versed in ketogenic diets are few and far between and you can’t throw a stone without hitting a story about someone’s GP recommending they stop their diet immediately 6 months into their diet. If this is something that will prevent you from continuing with your diet then reducing saturated fats may be a way of sticking to the diet long term while showing your GP that ketogenic diets can help lower LDL cholesterol at the same time leading them to become more interested in the topic and not writing it off. On the other hand if you are confident in studies regarding LDL not being as bad as previously thought then this won’t be as much of an issue for you.
There are still some unanswered questions that I hope to find the answers to, for instance how do the effects of cholesterol mobilising due to weight loss combat the effects of reducing saturated fat intake? Will one outweigh the other and if so which?
I’ll follow up with my own blood work and other results over the next several weeks.
My last lipid panel in 2015 was - Cholesterol 9.17 mmol/L, HDL 3.49 mmol/L, LDL 5.22 mmol/L, Trigs 1.02mmol/L. I’m not worried at all. My trig/HDL ratio is good and your might be a bit high. We both have high HDL, a good thing. I can’t get particle testing either in NS (Canada). I’ve been keto over 2.5 years and plan to do so for life. 
