Cholesterol and Keto Diet
Greetings all!
I am new to this forum, so nice to meet you all:)
I started the ketogenic diet 1/1/20. I wasn’t overweight or unhealthy before I started. I was more trying it to see if I could get rid of brain fog and get more energy and wanted to see if I could also cut out sugar. I’m a 38 year old male in good shape. I have been wildly impressed with the results. Not only am I more fit than I’ve ever been, but my brain feels activated like never before and overall I just feel great. Also worth note is I’ve completely cut out alcohol. I’d love to keep going on this diet as I really like the way I look and feel on it.
That being said, I just had my bloodwork done a couple days ago and my LDL cholesterol came back quite high (see my results below):
LDL Calculated (NR)
Your Value
180 mg/dL
Standard Range
50 - 129 mg/dL
HDL
Your Value
41 mg/dL|
Standard Range40 - 60 mg/dL|
Cholesterol
Your Value
240 mg/dL|
Standard Range120 - 200 mg/dL|
Non HDL Cholesterol
Your Value199 mg/dL|
Standard Range <=130 mg/dL|
VLDL Calculated
Your Value19 mg/dl|
Standard Range10 - 31 mg/dl|
I gotta be honest, I’m a little spooked at my results and my cholesterol being so high. I realize times have changed and science has changed its opinions a bit on cholesterol. I hear lots of people saying cholesterol got a bad wrap and is not the culprit for heart issues/CVD anymore etc. But I just don’t know who do believe anymore. All the cardiologists and doctors I know still say high cholesterol is bad and if you’re cholesterol is high you should go on a statin and blah blah blah. I know I definitely don’t want to go on a statin as a healthy and thriving 38 year old athletic guy.
Anywho, I was hoping some of you veteran keto folks could shed some light on this topic and help me make some sense of all this.
I really appreciate the feedback and insight.
Have a great night:)
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Howdy, Keto Ross and welcome to the forum!
I’m a 63 yo male, retired Marine, very active. Eight years ago I was diagnosed as high cholesterol (runs in the family) and put on Simvastatin (20mg). Numbers were well controlled but still borderline, and when I started the keto lifestyle in Oct 2019, they dropped dramatically; well into the normal range. As an experiment (seriously, nothing to lose), we stopped Simvastatin and six weeks later tested with markedly increased cholesterol numbers across the board. I’m back on simvastatin and I have about four weeks to go before my 6-week test.
My Doctor and I knew - spent a lot of time discussing the on-going medical research - that the leading driver of cholesterol is hereditary. Diet and exercise can help, and keto’s done tremendous things to knock the numbers way down, but for some the cards are stacked against us. No complaints.
So what I see is:
do nothing: very high cholesterol
keto diet and exercise: somewhat high cholesterol
keto diet, Simvastatin and exercise: cholesterol levels are well in the normal range.
There has been some recent medical research studies done that suggest dietary cholesterol has little/no impact on blood cholesterol. While I know the world of medicine vacillates between findings of ‘cholesterol is nothing to worry about’ and ‘cholesterol is terrible’, my personal experience has been that simvastatin has helped, but keto and simvastatin have been a powerful combination to keep things well controlled.
Hope this helps, and good luck!
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I'm glad to hear your numbers dropped on your lipids. Mine have gone up HDL and Tryglycerides are in good range; LDL high. Was very disappointed in my last test last week. Now doc wants me back on statins. <sigh>
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My LDL went up too at first, However, 18 months later it is down to 122 . My HDL good cholesterol is the real story. It went from the mid-30s to 80! Had a NMR lipid profile that showed that the LDL was composed of “safe” LDL particles and my CHD risk was less than half of average.
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By the way, statins made me forgetful and brain foggy. Extreme muscle pain too. I’m off of them for years now and my NMR lipids are just fine. The usual crude lipid tests are borderline. They don’t provide sufficient information to assess lipids.