i have been on the low carb diet for 4 months now and loving it... BUT .... I went to have a cholesterol check yesterday and was shattered to hear that my LDL numbers were off the chart !! It was (in South Africa reading) LDL 6.74!!, my total Cholesterol was 9.22 (it should be 5 and below!!) , HDL 4.4 , trig 0.82.
This is most disconcerting as I am not sure whether it is this diet which I love and feel so good on? I started having a problem last year but got it down to normal (Ttl chol: 5.0) 4 months ago before LC diet. Now I am not sure whether it is diet: Is filter coffee, cheese, cream, coconut oil etc. bad for cholesterol. I am not sure what to do as this forum explains it well -but does not explain my bad figures which are not slightly higher but SERIOUS.??? Does anyone have any suggestions?

Were you fasting?

And a 4.4 HDL is ….amazing…so high, so good… that I've never seen anything close to that. 170 in mg. I'm around 100 HDL and at some record level high for the clinic, so these numbers seem…off.

Nancy - yes I did fast for 12 hours. I did have black coffee on the morning before the test but I did eat badly (more carbs than usual on the weekend) - not sure if that made a difference.
|Janet: Oops sorry my
HDL was 2.1,
LDL 6.74 ,
Trig 0.82and
Ttl HDL (not sure what that figure is) was 4.4 (not my hdl alone)

OK, both your Trigs and HDL right around OPTIMAL levels. Still stellar HDL and Trigs, as is the Trig/HDL ratio. The TTL/HDL is the ratio of Total to HDL, and because your HDL is so high, even that is under the 5 ratio goal used with conventional Cholesterol tests. So back to the original concern, you have the high LDL pattern that is seen in some Low Carbers. Read Cholesterol Clarity for their view that basically this is benign, or the recent post by Low Carb Dietician about her concerns with this pattern. She offers some good links with various views on high LDL in LCers.
http://www.lowcarbdietitian.com/blo...-own-experience