Cholesterol 400

I have done well maintaining my weight for the last year. It goes up and down just a few pounds. I have however been so focused on protein and how much I weigh each day and not much else. I just had a blood test and my cholesterol is 400 !. They want to put me on meds, but I'm hoping I can lower it somehow myself. Any advice would be appreciated.

Well, the usual way is to lose weight and up your activity, but according to your ticker, you're somewhere around 125 lbs, so there may not be much you can do in that realm. Some people just have high cholesterol due to heredity and there's not really anything they can do about it other than medication. Take the meds and get yourself out of the danger zone and talk to your doc about other options in the meantime.

Jen

Yowza! I would recommend trying to stick to very low fat protein sources and working in some beans/lentils here and there for protein as they tend to help with cholesterol. With a cholesterol level that high, though, I suspect your doctor will want to put you on a statin and that is probably a good idea.

What is your cholesterol breakdown?

As someone whose cholesterol was measured at 480 on the day of my heart attack I would definitely get on medication immediately. A cholesterol count over 400 is much more than a food problem.

That's double the limit they want people to be under...not good.

It's already been determined that eating low fat doesn't have the effect they thought, so don't fall for that BS.

I've seen some great testimonials of those who tried a diet of high protein, high fat and intermittent fasting. I belong to a FB group of them, just because it interested me, but never tried it since I had a friend trying it after a heart attack. It's pretty fascinating what they are achieving. That would be the one thing I would try before the drugs.

Yikes! Have you had cholesterol tests in the past? How does this one compare?

High carb and fat diets can increase cholesterol. Also, if you are using fat for energy (if you are in ketosis), your cholesterol is higher because more is available.

My friend Dave does a pretty good job of explaining this. When his cholesterol went up after starting a low carb diet, he tried to reduce fat. His cholesterol went up even higher. He's been doing experiments that cause it to be highly manipulated for tests, curiously. That's important, because your eating patterns could conceivably affect it independently of health.

Fasting in general reduces LDL and triglycerides dramatically, too.