I’ve been following a keto diet for the last 7 weeks.
I was wondering if it was long enough to have a blood work done and see the differences with my previous diet?
Out of curiosity, the changes to the cholesterol, electolytes… are instant or do they take weeks to get detected in a blood work?
Thank you!
When to have a blood work done?
Fabi
(Fabian )
#1
Shortstuff
(Allie)
#2
It’s advised to wait at least six months because it takes time for your body to adjust.
PaulL
(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?)
#3
You might want to have the blood work done and use it as a baseline, but the eventual changes won’t be showing up right away. It took you years to get where you are, so it will take some time to heal. Allie is right; we recommend not worrying about the numbers until at least six months into this way of eating.
ctviggen
(Bob M)
#5
It took my HDL a few years to get to where it is now (typically, mid 50s in US units).
It looks like my LDL went up initially, but then came down.
I’ve become convinced that measuring electrolytes are useless, except perhaps to tell you that something is really wrong. For instance, I had a test where I got normal electrolyte levels…yet still had a cramp basically that day or the next.
Jman16
(JK)
#6
My LDL went up on Keto as well,GP wanted to put me on Statins,without looking at my hdl/ triglycerides ratio.
ffskier
#7
As others have mentioned, I think it is best to have a baseline. Before you start and maybe at the 3-month or 6-month time period. I also did a DEXA scan pre-Keto and at the 3-month mark. I continue with having blood tests 2-3 times per year and a DEXA scan once per year. I have also measured my blood lactate levels during exercise. I have over 10 years’ worth of data. I weigh myself about 5x per week. I want to know, specifically how eating a specific diet/protocol has an effect on me (short term). I am able to make better decisions because I have all of this data. I love numbers and data.
ctviggen
(Bob M)
#8
A person after my own heart! (Well, except weighing myself; I gave that up when I did not lose scale weight but lost belt holes; and when I was fasting a lot and would lose 5 pounds the first day, as this makes it hard to track. Of course, if you’re doing DEXA scans, that solves some of those issues.)
How much are your DEXA scans? The ones where I live are $150 each, and I have to drive 1+ hours to get to them. Hard to take that amount of time out of a work day. The systems are everywhere around, but no one gets the software to perform body analysis.