Hello,
I have been doing lchf on and off for a few years.
Basicly Atkins induction for about a year now.
7 months ago my LDL cholesterol was 140 and now it's 350.
This is devastating to me because I love this way of life and have lost almost 100 lbs.
My Dr just put me on the highest mg of lipitor 80 mg.
And now I don't what to eat.
I don't want to be on the medication because I'm a serious high risk of diabetes.
My sister just died from it.
But I'm also a super high risk of stroke and heart attack. My father died of heart attack when he was only 44.
I'm 49 Caucasian female.
I need a plan of action and I don't know where to start.
I'm thinking I want to go on a cholesterol lowering diet plan and still eat lchf.
I'm not sure if it's even possible.
Any suggestions would be helpful.
I'm not sure if I'm even in the right place or forum.
It's confusing to me.
It is a common thing that weight loss, especially a lot of weight loss (like 100 pounds in 7 months) will raise cholesterol. Your doc should know this, and wait several months after the weight loss has stabilised before assuming that you need treatment for high cholesterol. He should also be willing to discuss your cholesterol ratios with you, rather than just quoting the total cholesterol figure.
The body stores its fat in fat cells, then when you are losing weight, that fat is released into the bloodstream and circulated (as measured by the cholesterol test) to where it is needed. This raises your cholesterol. If it wasn't circulating in your blood, it would be sitting in your fat cells, and you wouldn't be losing weight.
Since it is worrying you so much, and I DO understand that with your family history it must be a huge concern, maybe have a think about the kind of fats you are eating. Several people have found that reducing cheese and the fat in red meat, while increasing the amount of foods like oily fish, avocado and such.
Changes like this seem to have absolutely no effect on me whatsoever, but some people report that it helps. Also triglycerides have been shown to rise when carbs and alcohol are involved, so if you are eating those, then they may not be helping (I know you mentioned Atkins induction, and that used to be 20g carbs a day, but am not sure if that has changed).
Hope that helps.