New blood work

(Darby) #1

Hello everyone!
I’ve been messing around with keto/carnivore/IF and fasting for the last 4 ish years. This past year I bought a keto mojo device to track ketones and glucose. For the past couple weeks I’ve been in and out of high therapeutic ketosis even if my glucose is high (100-120). It used to be up to 140’s. So I had blood work done the other day and it really discouraged me. My triglycerides where 386 and my HDL went down from 37 to 26. I really don’t care about the total cholesterol these are the numbers that should be on a1:1 ratio. Am I not giving this enough time? I’ve been eating good since mid October except for the week of Thanksgiving and Christmas which I didn’t go crazy.

(Bob M) #2

Those are some troubling numbers. When was your blood work? Were you fasting at least 12 hours? Do you drink coffee (some people have higher trigs due to coffee, though many don’t)? Were you fasting for a while (multiple days) before getting blood work done?

(Joey) #3

Welcome @GRMTLAGER to the forum!

Yes, as noted by @ctviggen, the trigs are of concern. How certain are you that your fasting was proper prior to the blood draw? Do these figures square with prior triglyceride levels or just an anomaly?

(Darby) #4

I wasn’t fasting, I had a coffee without and a coffee with heavy cream. I haven’t seen much of a change in my glucose when drinking cream so I didn’t think much of it. I normally have 2 Starbucks Via instant coffee per day

(Darby) #5

The triglycerides are about normal when not eating keto. I had about 3-4 tbsp of heavy cream in my coffee. I thought that if I was in high therapeutic ketosis the tri’s would be down. It’s frustrating to see people that go on keto diet and everything send to turn around so quick for them. My fasting insulin in the past was 18.

(Bob M) #6

I would get another test done, fast for 12+ hours, and have only water. See how that goes.

The coffee is something that affects some people, but it affects them all the time, not necessarily directly after drinking it. See this:

image

The “have only water” is more of a cautionary guide. Here’s a test I did where I fasted, got tested with only water, then chugged my normal intake of “coffee” (16 ounces coffee + 2 cups tea), but without cream (black), then got tests 2 and half hours later.

image

I thought I got blood sugar tested both times, but I guess I didn’t. As you can see, there’s not a lot of change. So, I could probably drink (black) coffee for these tests, though I still drink water.

(Edith) #7

I wonder how many LMHR are actually LMCR (Lean Mass Coffee Responders)?

(Darby) #8

Thank you all for the help. I almost had shepherds pie last night.

(Alec) #9

When I did the test I was told to fast for 12-14 hours, which of course I did. No coffee, no food, nothing. Result: my LDL was 450, and trigs 90. Nice! So no lean mass coffee responder for me! :joy::joy::joy:

Those numbers are not good. I agree with Bob, it is worth re-doing the test with 14 hours of fasting beforehand. I would be specifically focussed on the trigs to start with, that is the more urgent number. Trigs do change a lot with recent intake, so you may be OK, but you also may not be. This is worth checking out: high trigs are not a good place to be.

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #10

Lipid numbers aren’t reliable if you don’t fast. That means no caloric intake for at least ten to twelve hours before the blood draw. Heavy cream is certainly caloric! Also, many people’s numbers are unreliable if they have coffee before the blood draw, so stick to water only, next time. You can have your coffee and cream when you break your fast, after the blood is drawn.

In any case, since you’ve only been keto since Christmas (you said you were off the diet during the holidays), it is far too early for reliable lipid numbers in any case. Wait until June or July before trying again; we find that it usually takes about six months for lipid numbers to settle down after someone begins a ketogenic diet.

#11

Do you track what you eat? If not you’re doing it blind. Don’t buy into that cookie cutter thing of only 10% effects our cholesterol numbers, that’s BS!

Mine was in the high 200’s for a while, the breakdown was fine, but it still anoyed me. My dietary fat while still a good amount is way lower these days, and my cholesterol dropped like a rock. If I didn’t start tracking I wouldn’t have never known that. While the 199 being ok and 200 being bad is completely make believe, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t care about the numbers otherwise.