• Guest - w'd love to know what you think about the forum! Take the 2026 Survey »

CHOLESTEROL/LCHF.

Randburg

Randburg

Well-Known Member
Messages
751
Location
South Africa
Type of diabetes
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
Dislikes
Grey Cats
With the Age old belief that Fat is bad for you, I would like to know from people on a Low Carb High Fat diet, What has happened to your Cholesterol levels on the Diet.
I have been following a LCHF diet for most of this year and should go for a test.
What should I expect to be the result to show GOOD OR BAD ?
:confused:
 
Total cholesterol had fallen slightly but rose this time. My cholesterol ratio however is the lowest ever as my HDL level has increased. I'm sorry I can't tell you any more, my trigs weren't usually tested so I've only one reading for those.

So I would expect some of your tests to stay the same and some to be better, but that's just my guess.
 
Generally people claim that the cholesterol levels improve but the only concise info that I remember was in Southport GP's paper. Here is a link to download the pdf file.

http://www.practicaldiabetes.com/SpringboardWebApp/userfiles/espdi/file/March 2014/PP Unwin final proofs revised.pdf

Also I seem to remember Dr Briffa saying in his book that the hormone which releases fat from fat cells is only produced by the pancreas when you eat fat.

Cholesterol is now considered by some to have had a bad press and is not so bad for you as hitherto thought. Older people need it I am told.
 
My HDL stayed the same, everything else improved.

Total dropped from 6.1 to 5.2
Trigs dropped from 1.25 to 0.7
LDL dropped from 4.0 to 3.3
TC/HDL ratio dropped from 3.9 to 3.3
 
When you lose weight (as often happens on low carb) the body's own fat reserves release into the bloodstream - including triglycerides. So raised triglycerides during weight loss should be expected, and viewed as a positive thing - because they are being released, metabolised for energy, and leaving the body.

I think the time to be concerned is if the weight loss stopped a while ago, and triglycerides are still high. If so, look at diet.

And the HDL/LDL ratio, as zand says, is far more important than the overall figure - assuming the numbers aren't ridiculously high...
 
My lipid profile improved dramatically. Total cholesterol way down, triglycerides way down and HDL almost doubled. I strictly observed the LCHF way of eating. I eat between 20- 25 grams of carbohydrates /day 70 grams of protein and 160 grams of fat/oil.
FYI I have heart disease, have had heart attack and by-pass surgery and the LCHF has done me the world of good.
Best of luck with your tests and may your results also be good.
 
Started LCHF 8 June this year. During this time I only lost 5 pounds.
May 22 results compared to 13 August results (mmol/L):

Total cholesterol: 5.90 to 5.28
HDL: 1.29 to 1.30
Total/HDL ratio: 4.6 to 4.1
LDL: 4.05 to 3.55
Triglycerides: 1.24 to 0.94

These are the best lipid numbers I've had in 20 years after only 2 months of LCHF.
Of course, my blood sugar numbers are also excellent now as well.:cool:
 
Improved lipid profile

Probably +TC and +Trigs, which docs will see as bad if they are allowed to ignore every other lipid measure showing improvement.
 
Back
Top