Hello Everyone,

I'm brand new here, confused/upset/angry...you name it. My husband and I have both been on Atkins for 8 months. I've stuck to the induction phase the entire time...religiously. We have both lost 25 pounds. Our blood results just came back for a fasting cholesterol, and neither one of us are happy.

Here the are:

Me

HBA1C 5.3
Sugar 100
Chol 228
Tri 81
HDL 48
LDL 164

Him

HBA1C 4.9
Sugar 104
Chol 259
Tri 79
HDL 58
LDL 185

The worst part about it is that prior to Atkins my total Chol. was 195 and his was 164!!! What's wrong with this picture? The LDL's really have me bothered. Can anyone give us some advice? I don't want to stop the plan because I've never felt better in my life! I don't want to go back to those sugar highs and lows that made me feel so tired.

Any help...please!

Toni

First off, congratulations on losing the weight. That alone is great.

The next REALLY positive thing is that both of your Triglyceride levels are fabulously low!!! A number of doctors consider that to be much more important than the cholesterol levels.

Now for the cholesterol. I posted my blood work after 5 mostly LC years in this thread:
http://forum.lowcarber.org/showthread.php?t=153952

My doctor said I should ignore the fact that my LDL was higher than the desirable range as it was "calculated" from the other numbers.

I know that the numbers are a different system in the US, but look at my LDL. It is higher than the "desirable range" too. However, LDL is calculated from the HDL number in most tests. The important thing is the reaio of Total Chol. to HDL.

So your Ratios would be: 228/48 = 4.75 for you and 259/58 = 4.46 for your DH which both look good as a desirable range is "3.8-5.4".
Check out this thread for some information and a link to more:
http://forum.lowcarber.org/showthre...ratio#post32634


Your weight loss and "feeling good" along with these good blood tests should help you relax and continue in a way of eating that IS going in the right direction.

Here are some more threads in this forum. I encourage you to do some reading here and see other people's numbers.

http://forum.lowcarber.org/showthre...tio#post1535739

http://forum.lowcarber.org/showthre...tio#post1285029

http://forum.lowcarber.org/showthre...tio#post1277579

http://forum.lowcarber.org/showthre...tio#post1212731

Thank you Tofi, I appreciate the reply. I'm feeling a bit better about this, but still have some reservations. I think that in our case, we were eating too many products such as protein bars, and too much bacon and eggs. I definately don't want to add carbs back into our diet, but I think we'll cut back on the b & e's and red meats.

Thanks again,

Toni

Toni57, your numbers aren't bad. What were they before this WOE? Have you ever read Protein Power by Drs Mary and Michael Eades? To keep your lipid profile normal, you must keep your insulin / glucose ratio balanced. Balanced insulin levels stimulates the production of the hormone, glucagon, which stimulates your system to rid itself of excess cholesterol and triglycerides. You can find more information on the "Ying-Yang" of the metabolism on pps 32-38 in the Protein Power book.

By reading this info one will realize that consumption of fats and cholesterol does not cause the build up of these in the arteries.

Are you eating foods with partially hydrogenated oils (transfats) in them? From what I have read, that is absolutely the worse thing to eat with regard to ldl levels. You said you have been eating protein bars and I've noticed that some of the lowcarb bars and candies have transfats in them. I don't think any of the Atkins brans products have transfats, but many of the other brands do.

I've been trying to emphasize healthy fats, including lots of olive oil. I also eat a lot of fish. My cholesterol results were quite good when I had them done last spring after about nine months of low carbing.