Atkins and effects on cholesterol..
 

Hi all... I'm new to the board...

33 year old white male, currently 207 lbs, 5'11", ..
January of this year, I had a physical, and my cholesterol was 198....
May of this year, went on Atkins.. had my cholesterol checked last week.. it's up to 249.

When I started Atkins, I was at 220 lbs.. so I've only lost 14 lbs in the 5 months I've been on this torturous diet, and my cholesterol has gone up 51 points.

I don't get it. I only eat about 20-25g of carbs per day.
I eat Atkins bars as snacks, veggies, steaks, sausages, cheese, fish, salads, low carb tortillas, low carb snacks, crystal light, .. etc etc.

I was excited to get on Atkins, because I thought it made sense.. but from what I'm experiencing, it's a bunch of hooey.

Anyone else have problems with their cholesterol skyrocketing?

My doctor told me that Atkins is BAD BAD BAD.. .he looked like he wanted to slap me when I told him I was on it...

Cal....total cholesterol doesn't tell you much. What are the individual numbers? A rise in cholesterol may actually be a good thing if it's coming mostly from a rise in HDL or a shift from the bad dense LDL to the lighter (thought now to be beneficial) lighter LDL. Higher levels of HDL paired with low triglycerides are thought to be protective against cardiac disease even in the presence of elevated LDL.
Cholesterol numbers in and of themselves may not even be that good of an indicator of cardiac risk, especially given that at least half of those that experience cardiac events have what are considered to be normal numbers.

I don't know if this will make you feel better or not, but when I first started low carb my cholesterol also went up the first 6 months. However, during the following 6 months, it fell to lower levels than when I had started. After being on low carb for 2 1/2 years, my numbers continue to fall within "normal" limits.



Not to be rude, but if you find Atkins so tortuous, why have you continued with it? Perhaps another low carb plan would suit you better? Since this is meant to be a change in eating habits for life, it doesn't seem like you'll be able to stick with this for the long haul if you find it "tortuous".

Hi there!

Here it s the link of a very interesting thread reagarding cholesterol

http://forum.lowcarber.org/showthread.php?t=138915


In my case, total cholesterol skyrocketed to 400 but my doctor found the cause in hypothyroidism. I ll re-check next november.
Lucky me my doctor likes low carb plans!
Cheers,
Isiar

Total Cholesterol is meaningless...What is most important is your HDL and Triglycerides. LDL is also important, but to a lesser degree as most Lipid Panels do not differentiate between the 2 subtypes...only one of which is damaging. I had mine checked after 9 months on Atkins and my Cholesterol was 175 and Triglycerides were 96. My LDL is 122, which is acceptable for someone without existing heart disease. I'm gonna have it checked again at 12 months.

For starters, Trans-Fat is known to worsen your Cholesterol. Not all "LC" Candies are TFA-Free. Russel Stovers in particular loads their stuff up with Trans-Fat. Most Peanut Butters also have TFAs. If you are eating either of those two items, that could explain a worsening [assuming the increase wasn't caused by HDL going up] of your Cholesterol. Atkins says to avoid Trans-Fat.

Second, while it probably won't affect Cholesterol...Sausage is usually a cured meat (contains nitrites and lotsa sodium) and should be kept to a minimum. Crystal Lite is fine on Atkins as long as you get the bottles. The powder contains Aspartame...which although it probably doesn't effect Cholesterol, it is known to cause headaches and slow/stall weight loss.

Beef should not raise your Cholesterol as Beef is primarily Stearic Acid and Oleic Acid...both of which lower cholesterol. Whole Dairy [such as Cheese, Cream, and Butter] will raise your Cholesterol...But, studies have shown that it is usually the light fluffy variety...that doesn't increase risk of Heart Disease...not the small dense variety [that is linked to heart disease.]

alright.. here's the breakdown..
My bad, in looking at the test results, my total cholesterol is 242, not 249
HDL: 48
LDL: 173
Triglycerides: 107

That's all they tested for..

Both my wife and I have experienced an increase in Total Cholesterol while following the Atkins LC plan for over a year.

BUT, we have also had a much greater increase in HDL, the good cholesterol, and a truly amazing decline in Triglycerides during that same period. And the ratio of good/bad choleseterol has improved dramatically, to the point that both of us register in the Low Risk category for heart disease based on our blood lipid profiles.

And the best news of all is that our blood pressure has improved to the point that neither of us has to take any BP medication. Wife was taking 3 meds at the start of Atkins, which were having serious side effects. Her BP is now better than when on the meds, and she takes none.

I was taking only one med, but it was contributing to serious depression, and now my BP is better than it has been in about 35 years.

I am ecstatic with the results, and the elevated cholesterol numbers are of no concern to me at all. We plan to have a new comprehensive blood panel done in the early spring, and will report further progress then.

Keep on, keepn' on!

My cholesterol went from 220 to 160.

I agree that this way of eating should not be torturous. Life is too short for that. What part of it do you find difficult? Perhaps we can help!

Best of luck to you.

Mine dropped. My ratios are all normal now.

For me, I LOVE breads and sweets.. When I go out to dinner, I have no problem passing on the pasta, potatoes, refried beans and stuff, but when a nice, warm, dense loaf of focaccia bread glistening with olive oil is placed in front of me, I want to leap off a bridge... also, I'm a chocoholic.. have been since I was a kid. The Carbolite stuff is alright, about a 3 on a scale of 1-10.. but it has some rather undesirable side effects as well...

Low fat is much easier than low-carb.. no doubt about that.