Hi this is my first message as I'm a newbie to the site. I am now 3 weeks into less than 30g carb/ day on LCHF diet. The diet has been going well and my blood glucose levels have been best ever. I use freestyle libre constant monitoring and its a pretty straight line about 5mmol. I have had no spikes and have been able to not take any daytime insulin (novarapid) my night time insulin has also reduced down from 20 units to 16 units per day.
Even exercising doesn't cause the night time lows. So everything was going great
Then I had a cholesterol test a few of days ago and am really concerned by the results. My total cholesterol has gone from (last test was July) 3.9 to 7.3 my Hdl has gone down from 2.0 to 1.2, trig raised from 1.0 to 3.5 and LDL raised from 1.4 to 4.5 - so this would only have been affected by low carb, high fat diet for 2 weeks. My diabetic specialist has told me to stop eating Lchf as my good cholesterol has gone down and bad cholesterol gone up since starting this 3 weeks ago. I am now panicking as I only have been having the recommended healthy fats.
Could this be because my body is losing weight (5kg in 3 weeks). Has anyone else experienced this (possibly excess fat dumped into blood by liver).
I am only slightly overweight. 5'11 and 85kg
I'm hoping that this is just a transient stage. Someone emailed me this:- When you lose weight, you are mobilizing energy stored as fat. That fat is mobilized as fatty acids and triglycerides into the bloodstream. 10 pounds lost, for instance, means the equivalent of 35,000 calories of fat released into the bloodstream.
These fatty acids are not alone. They interact with the other elements in the bloodstream. In particular, this flood of fatty acids:
—Block insulin–and thereby increase blood sugar. A non-diabetic can even become transiently diabetic during weight loss.
—Increase triglycerides–A starting triglyceride level of, say, 120 mg/dl, can increase to 180 mg/dl during active weight loss. (Triglycerides contain fatty acids.)
—Decreased HDL–Excess fatty acids and triglycerides modify HDL particles, causing their degradation and elimination. A starting HDL of 45 mg/dl can drop to 28 mg/dl, for example.
—LDL measures go haywire–The conventional calculated LDL cholesterol, or even generally superior measures like apoprotein B or NMR LDL particle number, can go in any direction rather unpredictably: They can go up, down, or sideways. Likewise, the (miserably useless) total cholesterol value can go up, down, or sideways.
—Increased blood pressure–This is likely due to the enhanced artery constriction that occurs due to increased endothelial dysfunction, i.e., dysfunction of the normal relaxation mechanisms of arteries.
The key is to recognize these phenomena as nothing more than part of weight loss and the inevitable mobilization of fatty acids into the bloodstream. Accordingly, decisions should not be made based on these values, since they are transient. Your doctor will likely try to push hypertension medication, statin drugs, fibrate drugs, diabetes drugs . . . all for a transient effect. Is there a way to not experience these changes? Sure: liposuction. To my knowledge, there is no way short of extracting fat with a trocar to avoid these changes.
As a practical matter, avoid having blood drawn until weight has plateaued for at least 4 weeks and these changes are allowed to reverse. Only then will you know what you have achieved in your wheat-free adventure.
Other peoples experiences would be greatly appreciated
Even exercising doesn't cause the night time lows. So everything was going great
Then I had a cholesterol test a few of days ago and am really concerned by the results. My total cholesterol has gone from (last test was July) 3.9 to 7.3 my Hdl has gone down from 2.0 to 1.2, trig raised from 1.0 to 3.5 and LDL raised from 1.4 to 4.5 - so this would only have been affected by low carb, high fat diet for 2 weeks. My diabetic specialist has told me to stop eating Lchf as my good cholesterol has gone down and bad cholesterol gone up since starting this 3 weeks ago. I am now panicking as I only have been having the recommended healthy fats.
Could this be because my body is losing weight (5kg in 3 weeks). Has anyone else experienced this (possibly excess fat dumped into blood by liver).
I am only slightly overweight. 5'11 and 85kg
I'm hoping that this is just a transient stage. Someone emailed me this:- When you lose weight, you are mobilizing energy stored as fat. That fat is mobilized as fatty acids and triglycerides into the bloodstream. 10 pounds lost, for instance, means the equivalent of 35,000 calories of fat released into the bloodstream.
These fatty acids are not alone. They interact with the other elements in the bloodstream. In particular, this flood of fatty acids:
—Block insulin–and thereby increase blood sugar. A non-diabetic can even become transiently diabetic during weight loss.
—Increase triglycerides–A starting triglyceride level of, say, 120 mg/dl, can increase to 180 mg/dl during active weight loss. (Triglycerides contain fatty acids.)
—Decreased HDL–Excess fatty acids and triglycerides modify HDL particles, causing their degradation and elimination. A starting HDL of 45 mg/dl can drop to 28 mg/dl, for example.
—LDL measures go haywire–The conventional calculated LDL cholesterol, or even generally superior measures like apoprotein B or NMR LDL particle number, can go in any direction rather unpredictably: They can go up, down, or sideways. Likewise, the (miserably useless) total cholesterol value can go up, down, or sideways.
—Increased blood pressure–This is likely due to the enhanced artery constriction that occurs due to increased endothelial dysfunction, i.e., dysfunction of the normal relaxation mechanisms of arteries.
The key is to recognize these phenomena as nothing more than part of weight loss and the inevitable mobilization of fatty acids into the bloodstream. Accordingly, decisions should not be made based on these values, since they are transient. Your doctor will likely try to push hypertension medication, statin drugs, fibrate drugs, diabetes drugs . . . all for a transient effect. Is there a way to not experience these changes? Sure: liposuction. To my knowledge, there is no way short of extracting fat with a trocar to avoid these changes.
As a practical matter, avoid having blood drawn until weight has plateaued for at least 4 weeks and these changes are allowed to reverse. Only then will you know what you have achieved in your wheat-free adventure.
Other peoples experiences would be greatly appreciated
