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  #16   ^
Old Sun, Jul-27-14, 13:25
ID4 ID4 is offline
Registered Member
Posts: 58
 
Plan: VLC
Stats: 158/150/150 Male 69 inches
BF:
Progress: 100%
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Update...I feel a little better but my numbers are still bad. First number is from May, second from last week. The first numbers are a bit different since this is from the doc's office.

Cholesterol 397 377
Triglycerides 300 217
HDL 275 244
LDL 62 90

Since about March I thought the best macronutrient breakdown was 60/30/10 (Fat/Protein/Carb) and was trying to do this March/April. I realized last month that when people were discussing this ratio they were talking about calories, not mass/weight. So I think I exacerbated the problem back in April/May and delayed some additional weight loss. Turns out I'm still losing.

Also, Nancy, I agree with you and once I understood I was probably drowning in calories, fat became my friend again. I will follow my weight loss down and see where it goes, if I go south of 145 lb I will probably stop there and start gaining muscle weight. I hope the cholesterol/TG thing doesn't apply when one is gaining. I also think getting a full night's sleep has something to do with this, so I'm making that my focus in addition to diet.

Last edited by ID4 : Sun, Jul-27-14 at 15:47. Reason: Typos
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  #17   ^
Old Sun, Jul-27-14, 14:01
ojoj's Avatar
ojoj ojoj is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 3,184
 
Plan: atkins
Stats: 210/126/127 Female 5ft 7in
BF:
Progress: 101%
Location: South of England
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As an aside, I once had my cholesterol checked, about a year after I started atkins. I remember my numbers were extreemly low. In fact my doctor phoned me up to tell me that my triglycerides were the lowest he'd ever seen (0.4 in UK measurements). He was very concerned as low cholesterol is apparently a marker for cancer!!!!

Great lol

Jo xxx
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  #18   ^
Old Sun, Jul-27-14, 15:55
Nancy LC's Avatar
Nancy LC Nancy LC is offline
Experimenter
Posts: 25,843
 
Plan: DDF
Stats: 202/185.4/179 Female 67
BF:
Progress: 72%
Location: San Diego, CA
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Did you manage to cut out the alcohol? Your Trig. did drop by 30%, that isn't nothing.

Also... I've never seen an HDL that high. That's really weird. Unless you mixed up your HDL numbers with the LDL numbers.
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  #19   ^
Old Sun, Jul-27-14, 19:15
ID4 ID4 is offline
Registered Member
Posts: 58
 
Plan: VLC
Stats: 158/150/150 Male 69 inches
BF:
Progress: 100%
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I do drink a bit less, but I did not cut it out, no I would like to think all these numbers will fall really far over the next three months...I really can improve a lot in my sleep habits, and I think I will also see some benefit between that and my consistent adherence to a calorie level that's appropriate for me.
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  #20   ^
Old Mon, Jul-28-14, 06:56
ID4 ID4 is offline
Registered Member
Posts: 58
 
Plan: VLC
Stats: 158/150/150 Male 69 inches
BF:
Progress: 100%
Default

Yours were amazingly low ... part of the reason I couldn't stay away from the fat. I felt like "I was coming down with something" when I broke up with fat temporarily, ate lots of salmon, and took ~3 fish oil pills a day. It didn't feel right ... in all fairness, I wasn't getting the most rest then, either.

I also discussed getting a thyroid test (FT3) and a vitamin D3 test, but was without food ~19 hours when I visited the docs office, and did not want to go back and have blood drawn again ...I already felt like you-know-what.

Some of what I ready about being hypothyroid could possibly explain my bad numbers, except that hypo folks usually gain weight, I thought.

I do know, deep down, that the docs/researchers aren't completely sure what their numbers mean. That said, I also expect that those of us on LC/ketogenic diets' numbers are supposed to improve, even by their standards. I will cross my fingers. If they at least improve away from "you have to start meds now" territory, I will be happy.

Quote:
Originally Posted by ojoj
As an aside, I once had my cholesterol checked, about a year after I started atkins. I remember my numbers were extreemly low. In fact my doctor phoned me up to tell me that my triglycerides were the lowest he'd ever seen (0.4 in UK measurements). He was very concerned as low cholesterol is apparently a marker for cancer!!!!

Great lol

Jo xxx
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  #21   ^
Old Mon, Jul-28-14, 11:46
Merpig's Avatar
Merpig Merpig is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 7,582
 
Plan: EF/Fung IDM/keto
Stats: 375/225.4/175 Female 66.5 inches
BF:
Progress: 75%
Location: NE Florida
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ID4
I also discussed getting a thyroid test (FT3) and a vitamin D3 test, but was without food ~19 hours when I visited the docs office, and did not want to go back and have blood drawn again ...I already felt like you-know-what.

Some of what I ready about being hypothyroid could possibly explain my bad numbers, except that hypo folks usually gain weight, I thought.
That was certainly my case - SHARP SHARP rise in cholesterol numbers, and I had been low carbing for some years at that point - my numbers were like:
Total: 296
HDL: 60
Tri: 72
LDL: 218

Then my PCP tested thyroid and antibodies and I was found to have Hashimoto's. 18 months on Synthroid and my cholesterol numbers kept rising. My endocrinologist was rabid to put me on statins and we fought all the time. I begged to try Armour thyroid and she totally refused, claiming she thought it was a dangerous drug and she would never prescribe something dangerous (though she was a rabid statin pusher!)

Finally I found a holistic nurse practitioner ready to prescribe Armour for me, and in about 2 months time (when I was next tested) my numbers were something like:
Total: 191
HDL: 52 (down a bit, bummer)
Tri: 98 (up a bit bummer)
LDL: 110

but overall much improved numbers, so thyroid can certainly come into play, and for many people synthroid and the like (T4 only) are no use at all in helping with the numbers.
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  #22   ^
Old Thu, Jul-31-14, 22:32
ID4 ID4 is offline
Registered Member
Posts: 58
 
Plan: VLC
Stats: 158/150/150 Male 69 inches
BF:
Progress: 100%
Default

I will definitely look into the thyroid tests. My first stop though is triglycerides. I feel I need to understand them better. Everything I read says carbs lead to higher TG production. I consume very little carbohydrate. A poster here ... rightnow, I think? has a blog (HyperNutrient) and has a lot of good things to say about vitamin C. I have an 'old bottle' of the stuff I bought when I thought Vitamin C was super important that I never got through half of... between that and some things I've read over at gutsense, I am mega dosing C this week to see if it does anything for me at all. I am 6 days in of taking 2.5g of Vitamin C twice to three times a day. Nothing major, so far ... anyway the first ingredient in the tablets is sorbitol.

I assume I am getting a measure of carbs from these tablets, but of course they don't have to disclose the amount from one tablet...my estimate is minimum 10g carbs from the vitamin C plus whatever I eat, which is not much. I probably average 20g a day from food, since I have a good amount of heavy cream each morning with coffee, and there are some hidden carbs there, too.

Anyway, once I get my brain around the role of triglycerides I'll have a better idea how far I can cut mine before looking at thyroid issues. It would be so odd if I had a thyroid issue. By all accounts (outside and inside) I am very healthy, but I expect my numbers to follow the low-carbers' trends ... we'll see.
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  #23   ^
Old Fri, Aug-01-14, 02:56
ojoj's Avatar
ojoj ojoj is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 3,184
 
Plan: atkins
Stats: 210/126/127 Female 5ft 7in
BF:
Progress: 101%
Location: South of England
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by ID4
Yours were amazingly low ... part of the reason I couldn't stay away from the fat. I felt like "I was coming down with something" when I broke up with fat temporarily, ate lots of salmon, and took ~3 fish oil pills a day. It didn't feel right ... in all fairness, I wasn't getting the most rest then, either.

I also discussed getting a thyroid test (FT3) and a vitamin D3 test, but was without food ~19 hours when I visited the docs office, and did not want to go back and have blood drawn again ...I already felt like you-know-what.

Some of what I ready about being hypothyroid could possibly explain my bad numbers, except that hypo folks usually gain weight, I thought.

I do know, deep down, that the docs/researchers aren't completely sure what their numbers mean. That said, I also expect that those of us on LC/ketogenic diets' numbers are supposed to improve, even by their standards. I will cross my fingers. If they at least improve away from "you have to start meds now" territory, I will be happy.


Quite frankly, cholesterol levels are pretty much pointless. Most cardiologists report that heart trauma victims in general show no sign of high cholesterol. The "experts" keep changing their minds on what, which, how fluffy, what to eat, fat or no fat, certain types of fat, ldl, hdl.... I'm told by my doctor my triglycerides are too low and that suggests a predisposition to cancer..... What the heck.

The bottom line for me is that I would sooner die from a mega heart attack than cancer, especially as I had to watch and nurse both my parents thru long, agonisingly painful and undignified deaths from cancer.

But they really dont know. I think the whole cholesterol thing is a red herring and counting the number of freckles we have would be more significant

Jo xxx

Last edited by ojoj : Fri, Aug-01-14 at 04:48.
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