Hi all,
After a few month of doing Atkins, I've dropped about 15 pounds, but my cholesterol is much higher than before. Any solutions? Thanks for reading.

Total cholesterol reading is meaningles..What was the ratio of either toal, or else LDL, to the HDL? And what were your triglycerides now compared to last reading? Also, there is typically a cholesterol spike early on in Atkins...best to redo it in 3-4 months.

Val

What is your new cholesterol level.

Thanks for your replies, Val and Catfish!

The total cholestrol now is 246, was 206.
HDL is 67, was 67
LDL is 171, was 122
HDL ratio is 3.7, was 3.1
Triglycerides is 42, was 91

Triglycerides are down! That's a great thing.

JFF

Kitty,
What did the doc say? Did they recommend you stop losing weight? Or did he/she say to return in a couple months to re-test? One test is one test. I don't know if you should worry yet. The levels could be wrong, I don't know. I personally don't put much stock in these tests. The more we test, the more we find wrong.

My cholesteral is sky high after 6 months, at 241, and at first it freaked me out. I'm going to finish losing the rest of my goal weight and then worry about it. Already, I've cut back on cheese a bit, and fewer eggs. My doctor said the overall picture for me is nothing to be too concerned about at this time.

Try reading the cholesterol forum under the Health section...you will see there (look at two posts by 'Lissa' for example) that many people say their overall cholesterol readings go up (except for HDL usually) when they first get a reading soon after starting this WOE. Then, 3 months or so later when retesting, the HDL has gone up. Triglycerides are a very important heart health indicant and they have significantly dropped in your case. There is not much, if any evidence that overall cholesterol readings that are high are in fact dangerous. It is based on a theory that was situated in a correlation (arterial plaques) but no direct evidence IMO has ever been provided that shows causation. And long term studies have not shown that high cholesterol predicts anything dire re mortality, except in the obese, which you certainly are not. So get those lbs off, and retest in 3 months' time.

Val

Kittypath, those are GREAT results! Well done!
Have a read of the info in the sticky at the top of this (Cholesterol) forum, and you'll see that an HDL of 67 is really protective against heart disease, and your trigycerides also are wonderful.

There is now more evidence showing that LDL is not a good indicator of potential heart disease. There are two types of LDL. And for some folk with a higher level of LDL, they may have a high level of the "fluffy" or "good" LDL.
So relax, your numbers are actually very good.

Rosebud