Cholesterol has dramatically increased

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Cholesterol has dramatically increased

This topic contains 9 replies, has 7 voices, and was last updated by  Tobias Karlsson 7 years, 1 month ago.

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  • Hi team,
    My cholesterol has risen to an astonishing 7.4. I have lost just a little over 10kg in three months. Loving the fasting 5:2 system.
    I HIT cycle three times a week and use free weights. I don’t have milk or cheese, no red meats, maybe six eggs a week and copious helpings of rolled oats with almond milk. Where am I going wrong for my cholesterol to shoot up?

    Thanks all.

    Hi,

    Losing weight causes a temporary rise in cholesterol levels as it is stored in fatty tissue and is released into the bloodstream as fat is burned. It should settle down again, but to be on the safe side get it checked regularly.

    Thanks for the reply.

    I can’t seem to find any info on this whatsoever. I will have my bloods checked in four weeks or so and hopefully, fingers crossed I should see an improvement.

    In my view you are doing great and you will if you continue the 5:2 fast diet and the HIT workout routine. I have been doing the same (HIT and 5:2, although I mainly follow the 4:3 routine rather than 5:2). As a result my weight has dropped by 11 kgs (25 lbs) in 9 weeks.

    Before I started this diet, I had also been diagnosed with high ‘bad cholesterol’, but upon intuition I refused to take statins or any meds whatsoever and it seems my intuition has been confirmed. I copy this comment from another thread on this forum posted by ‘Simcoeluv’ https://thefastdiet.co.uk/forums/topic/how-does-high-ldl-cholesterol-affect-our-health/#post-154468 :

    “As one medical professor put it: “Blaming cholesterol for atherosclerosis is like blaming firemen for the fire they have come to put out.” http://coconutoil.com/enjoy-saturated-fats-theyre-good-for-you/. That is because among other things cholesterol fights inflammation in the arteries, which is why if an artery gets inflamed it is surrounded with cholesterol trying to repair the damage caused by the the inflammation. For many years, doctors believed based on rabbit research that cholesterol caused the problem. But it turns out, it may be just there to try to fix the problem.

    You can watch the first 15 or so minutes of this Dr. Fung video for most of the information I referenced: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QetsIU-3k7Y. If you know Dr. Fung’s reasoning, you know he believes it is the insulin that causes the heart disease, not the cholesterol (if it isn’t the cholesterol that causes it you have to have a replacement cause). Dr. Miller’s article lists several other possible ’causes’ for heart disease.

    But whatever the cause of heart disease, it seems current research does not show strong correlations between high levels of total cholesterol and heart disease and in fact high levels of cholesterol may be beneficial in older people. Not my opinion, just the evidence from the many research papers cited by Dr. Fung and Dr. Miller.

    So I posted the study because it is the only one I have seen where they were actually able to test the ‘good cholesterol’ theory and because it may imply that if they could test people with high ‘bad’ cholesterol, they might get the same bad result (which was the question posed). It seems the ‘blend’ may be the thing – two ‘bads’ might make a good!”

    Above comment and the presentation by Dr Jason Fung mentioned therein – not only the first minutes but the entire series of 6 lectures – has been an eye-opener to me.

    Losing weight can cause a temporary spike in cholesterol levels as it is stored in fatty tissue and is released into the bloodstream once the fat is burned. It should get normalised in a few days but you need to get it regularly checked to be on the safe side.

    On 40mg lower tablets at present to see if that helps. It’s odd as I have always had good levels.

    Hi,

    I have read the posts above and would just like to hear if others have experienced the same, which the above seems to indicate: I have been on 6:1 for 4 years after 1 year of 5:2. I started intermittent fasting 5 years ago. My 6:1 is almost like “5.5-1.5” because I do 36h with one meal after 24h and then another 12h of fasting. I am perfectly normal weight – 182 cm and 71kg. I had a blood test last week right after a 36h cycle like that and for years since I went on this regime I have had very good cholesterol levels, both overall cholesterol and LDL and triglycerides. This time though they were all elevated (HDL remained unchanged). I suspect what may have happened is that my body burnt fat at that stage and that it reached the blood stream and could be seen in the blood test for that reason – have others had similar experience? Obviously the only way to find out if I may be doing something wrong suddenly or if this was a “freak result” is to have another blood test soon again during a different day of the cycle, e.g. a couple of days after the fasting period finishes. I had also been exercising that morning, which I thought may burn the fat in the blood stream off but that obviously did not happen 🙂 – may the fact that I was likely a bit dehydrated during the time of the test have played a role? I tried to drink as much as I could butn they called me in earlier than planned. My glucose was low and healthy and I am still waiting for the IGF-1 result, but it has always come in at around 110-120 where the normal range for my age is like 100-240, so I am rather perplexed about the cholesterol than concerned about the overall outcome of the regime. And I feel great on it :). We speak about a result = 5.8 where LDL = 3.68 and TG = 1.4, so it is like 10% above the healthy human range in standard advice although there is obviously a debate around whether it is something to bother about in the first place. My glucose came in at 3.7 (normal range like 3.5-6).

    Thanks for any tips!

    My Cholesterol has reduced from 6.8 to 3.4 since I started a combination of the 5:2 and plant sterols. I am delighted.

    @tobias. Repeat the blood tests but not after your 36 hour fast. Just make it on another day and see what it comes back as. I had a similar thing happen as well. LDL and cholesterol up, HDL about the same. If it still comes back high then examine what you have changed in your diet.

    Thanks! Yes, this is what I will do – it was interesting to hear if others had experienced the same thing. I did find some references to this very topic in some other threads in this forum but then other subjects took over, so I could not get that much information from those.

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