I’ll be looking at lowering trigs today, I am not liking these Labs I just got back this a.m. 16-17 months into Keto. HbA1cs are good but even 5.9 gets flagged in the US.
Total Cholesterol 405
Trigs/HDL = 4.20
Here are past results to compare, and feedback welcome:
Your HbA1C is at least trending in the right direction. Do you have the number for CRP, WBC, and ferritin?
Also, your latest ratio of triglycerides over HDL is 100 / 61 = 1.64, which is excellent. You put 4.20 in your post, but I’m not sure where that comes from.
Oh thank God, I divided the trig by the hdl but must have mis-entered on my calculator app Paul, thanks so much, that scared me, I’m still believing the cholesterol total conflicts with all the other info I’ve learned here and online other places.
I’m just a beginner here, but my first question is whether you are actually in ketosis. Each individual has their own daily threshold for net carbs. You might buy some Ketostix or a ketosis meter to find out your actual metabolic state.
Firstly, I would see if I could get a CGM. HbA1c relies on the length of time your red blood cells live. If yours happen to live longer, you’ll get a higher HbA1c than someone whose red blood cells don’t live as long.
Your HDL continues to go up and your trigs aren’t bad. Do you drink coffee, even decaf? If so, that could cause higher trigs. (For me, coffee doesn’t do anything, but there are others for which it does.)
As LDL and TC (total cholesterol), I don’t think these matter much. But, if you do, get a coronary arterial calcification scan done. Where I live, this is not covered by insurance, but I was able to find a place that charged $100. Without a prescription. But this is the only easily-available test that quantifies calcification.
I’ve thought about that, but first I can see I miscalculated my Trigs/hdl. My cholesterol number is so high and I was reading this a.m. that too many fats can cause high trigs, but I didn’t read anything about high cholesterol accept that early on in keto it can go up, but then it usually comes back down. I’m not worrying about it, haven’t been anyway, and I eat very, low carb, probably average about 20 g per day.
I’m fairly certain I am burning fat for fuel, I exercise, and do weight-resistance which I’m outgroing the bands, so maybe try the gym again.
I had the Carotoid Artery ultra-sound done, all looked good to both my MD and Cardio.
What’s CGM? I guess I can google it too 
I drink only decaf. I’ve been eating the same since Jan. 2021 except I quit regular coffee, and added more cruciferous vegies, I eat salads a lot. I maybe better look closer at my fat g per day. I don’t overdo any foods except possibly fats.
A CGM is a continuous glucose monitor. The HbA1c theoretically should tell you what your average daily glucose is. If you look at 6.0 here:
http://www.ngsp.org/A1ceAG.asp
You’ll see that’s about 126 mg/dL (US units). If you take your blood glucose, and you get a bunch of 100s (or less) over the course of a day, you know your HbA1c is reading high.
The easiest way to do this is with a CGM, but they are expensive and hard to get (at least in the US).
Unfortunately, decaf coffee can raise trigs in some people:
As for fats and trying to change your values, I personally wouldn’t even attempt it. Your values are so high, that whatever change you make is unlikely to make much of a difference. And if your carotid artery scan was good, then does it really matter what your LDL is?
If you want to change LDL, just eat white bread:
This will, of course, ruin your trigs.
I think I’ll leave everything alone. The Trigs are good, and the cholesterol I’ll keep ignoring. I just eat the same each day, exercise more and eat my Daily Caloric Needs for my input on a TDEE calculator. I don’t stick exactly any day, I just go thereabouts the number on the calculator. I can do one day, today, on My fitness chart and see how I’m doing in that regards Thanks @ctviggen
Pretty much as I eat the same amounts of protein, fats and carbs. Here’s one day showing macros Ifod:
That’s almost exactly the same every day, my diet is boring but I do eat less some days, just not hungry, and others I can feel kind of ravenous and eat a couple or 3 snacks but always keto friendly that I either bake, or just a cheese stick Oops, forgot to mention I am 5’2" and right now, 117lbs
You are almost certainly in ketosis. I wouldn’t worry about it.
As for cholesterol, I personally believe that the “science” people use to justify telling us to worry about cholesterol is bogus. There is actually quite a bit of evidence to suggest that cholesterol can’t possibly cause cardiovascular disease, even if cholesterol levels might be a marker of disease (I have already posted all this evidence repeatedly, so I’ll spare everyone the rest of my rant here). But even the most diehard cholesterol-is-dangerous advocates are forced to admit that the data show that a triglyceride/HDL ratio as low as yours means that you have very little risk of cardiovascular disease.
While it is true that most people’s cholesterol numbers have gone down by the six-month mark, there is a group of people, which the researcher Dave Feldman calls “lean-mass hyper-responders,” who have high LDL levels, while their triglycerides and HDL are superb. These people can also manipulate their test numbers by eating a certain way for a number of days before the blood draw. Details can be found on Dave’s site, https://www.cholesterolcode.com/.
The reason that people are afraid of cholesterol is that it is found to be present in arterial plaque, as part of the body’s efforts to repair arterial damage—much as fire engines show up to deal with fires. But as one prominent researcher has remarked, blaming cholesterol for arterial plaque is very similar to blaming fire engines for the fires they are present at.
Thanks for that link, and your input has done a lot to keep me from worrying. I’m just not willing to let it take up space in my brain, not for long That’s why I came here, I knew I could find people that imo, follow the right information. The proof is in the way I feel, and not looking too bad either
I’ll follow your link and see if I can pull that off as I plan to be retested since i also heard some info on ways to make your labs come out closer to the norm
Overall seems pretty decent, I can say if it were me, I’d have to half the fat to either lose weight or to have better cholesterol numbers. I wound up figuring my tipping point for fat was around 50-85g or so. They say it only effects our cholesterol numbers by like 10% I believe, I found that to not even remotely be the case for me.
When I switched to TKD/CKD I figured out I could push it a little higher without that happening, but when I did standard keto for years it’d jump through the roof with the higher fat intake. My trigs always stayed good, but my total and LDL would go up huge.
