Super disappointed (effect on cholesterol)

This topic contains 9 replies, has 7 voices, and was last updated by bmesc 11 years ago.

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bmesc

10:53 pm
18 Nov 13
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After 2.5 months of strictly following this eating regime, solely to see the effect on my cholesterol, it didn’t really do much. I’ve been on SIMVASTATIN 10 MG for years. My last blood test for cholesterol (July, 2013) showed 208 total, 61 HDL, 123 LDL, 118 Triglycerides and 24 VLDL. I just got the results back and the new numbers are 199 total, 52 HDL, 129 LDL, 91 Triglycerides and 18 VLDL. Note that I did not stop taking the statin; I wanted to see if the diet did anything first. Other info: I maintained working out 5 days a weeks, 1 hour a day (treadmill, resistance exercise). I’m a 55 year old white male in the US, 130 lbs with no other health concerns.

Per the diet’s claims, I did eat whatever I wanted on off days. I was not as focused on avoiding fat on this diet. There may have been more fat than before. The diet is very effective for losing weight, and I have had to try to eat more to maintain my goal of 130 lbs (I started out at 136 lbs).

At this point, I may try doing it just once per week and see what happens, but it certainly did not have the effect on my cholesterol I was hoping for. Any advice/feedback is welcome. Thanks

Nika

4:57 am
19 Nov 13
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Hey BM, I must say I have no idea about these matters – but looking at those numbers I am a bit confused – they all went down, right? Except LDL (but something in my memory is telling me that’s supposed to be higher, not sure though).
You say you kept eating whatever you wanted on off days. Did this mean eating unhealthy or maybe too much food? Some people confuse “eating what you want” equals having a complete cheesecake if you feel like it – that’s not really the point. You can have a slice, fine, but keep within your TDEE!

And another point that may help, did you fast completely during your weeks of 5:2 or did you still eat during the whole day on your fast days? You may try to just eat dinner on fast days, having your calories in 1 meal so your body is on empty for longer. This may help it to “clean house”.

I hope this helps a bit, like said I don’t know anything about cholesterol but this is what I could come up with.

bmesc

6:58 pm
19 Nov 13
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The numbers did not change significantly. While I am still on a prescription, I would need to see probably at least a 10 point drop in my total and/or “bad” cholesterol in order for me to go off my prescription. I had hopes the diet would do that. It may be that my exercise routine is the key factor and, at least for me, a change in diet will not change cholesterol much. Perhaps for people who do not do as much exercise the diet will affect cholesterol levels more.

I did not eat high fat diet on non-fast days, I just wasn’t as fastidious in avoiding higher fat foods. My overall fat intake probably was higher, but not through the roof higher.

I followed the diet plan: men, 600 calories a fast day. I did 300 for breakfast, 300 for dinner, with 12 hours between the meals. Not a bit of cheating.

The main problem with the cholesterol numbers is that the key numbers got worse: “good” HDL went down, “bad” LDL went up. I needed them to go the other way. The other measurements did improve, but I am not sure if they are as important as HDL and LDL. Still, this blood test looks like it may have been a normal test to test fluctuation. I can’t look at it and conclude the diet did anything, good or bad. My main goal was to lower cholesterol; weight is not an issue for me.

Thanks

Nika

2:50 am
20 Nov 13
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The only thing I can suggest changing is how you eat on a fast day. When you only have a fasting window of 12 hours, your body doesn’t get the full benefits of fasting. So cut the breakfast and just eat an evening meal. Maybe this’ll help.

Also you say you follow the diet plan for men, but did you calculate your TDEE or not? This is very important for success, as it may be very different than the 2400 the 600-calorie fast day is derived from! There is a calculator underneath the how? button in the menu at the top of the site.

The above two things are the only thing I can suggest, but I think they’re both very important towards success! I’m not a doctor or a nurse so that’s all the help I can be right now, sorry about that.

piper

4:02 pm
20 Nov 13
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bmesc- also not an expert, but your trigs are in “heart protective” range, not just the okay range. Another post talks about Peter Atria, a Canadian doctor who goes on and on about cholesterol. You might check him out. (Will never eat like that, though and maybe he only impresses the non-medical folk ,but you gotta start somewhere). I also have thought that it’s easy to raise HDL and hard to drop LDL. Exercise is the easiest way, for me, too.

wjl

7:19 pm
2 Dec 13
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I also have had dissapointing results with my fast. I believe that I followed the fast closely, but I only did so for one day/week. I didn’t want to lose weight because I lost 30 pounds previously, and didn’t want to lose any more, but ended up losing 10. I wanted to see what the effect would be on my lipid panel. After two months, my total cholesterol went up, with LDL increasing tremendously. My trig’s went down and my HDL went up which was encouraging.

During the fast I did not eat anything I wanted, but followed a good diet finding I did not really desire junk food. I’ve always followed a pretty good diet and exercise regularly. I am 72 and weigh 165. However, looking at my diet I now believe it may not be as good as I think it is. I eat lots of vegs, fruit,little red meat, etc. But, I find that I eat the white stuff, potatoes, pasta, probably too much.

wjl

cheeta

10:36 pm
2 Dec 13
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bmesc: maybe you should not worry so much about cholesterol levels.
You might want to read this article http://www.spacedoc.com/malcolm_kendrick_cholesterol or this book: http://www.amazon.com/The-Great-Cholesterol-Con-Disease/dp/1844546101. Both written by Malcom Kendrick.
Good luck!
🙂

cheeta

Speedy

9:51 am
6 Dec 13
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Bmesc, I think you may need to wait longer to see more significant effects on cholestserol.
I talked to Dr Fung about this. He works on alternate day fasting to reverse diabetes. I was also upset my bp had not dropped in 3 months even after losing 15 kilos. His advice was to keep going as cholesterol and bp may take longer than a few months to drop.
Dr M saw results after 12 weeks it’s true. But we are all so different. There is an improvement in your figures so I’d say just keep going. Give it a year and see where you are. What have you got to lose? Taking stains!
Personally I have a theory that if you are losing weight as I am, then that fat has to be processed through your system; be carried through your blood to get rid of the body fat so I suspect for some of us that may be making a difference to cholesterol etc. levels.

quizzle

7:53 pm
6 Dec 13
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First of all I’d like to know why your Cholesterol is so high that you need treatment? Is it familiar? Did you try lowering it by diet changes first (about 20% of your cholesterol level can be influenced by diet changes – lowering saturated fats by avoiding meat, milk, butter and other animal-derived foods, avoiding cholesterol-containing foods like egg yolk and animal fats, putting more fiber in, espec. oats and so on) ?

I’m having a familiar hypercholesterolemia and I’m on alternate day fasting since April. My HDL improved slightly from 40 mg/dl to 58 (which may be more caused by a tight exercise program 5 times a week).
LDL stayed about the same (close to 100) and total Cholesterol is still around 150. Atorvastatin was taken without change.

So, alternate day fasting couldn’t make much for this problem but I didn’t expected big changes – even fasting can’t change my genes! But I know it’s doing much more than “just” that and that’s why I’m still on ADF.

It was interesting to note that diet changes had a greater impact – dropping back to a meat loaded diet and skipping most fasting day for 3 weeks prior to the regular summer testing made everything worse (despite taking statins) – total Cholesterol from 148 to 182, LDL from 99 to 110. 4 month later on a ADF regime changed everything back to the good levels as they had been before.

So check your diet on the non-fasting days…together with fasting days it may help you much more than putting all your faith just on keeping those two 600 kcal-days!

Good luck!

Q

bmesc

8:46 pm
6 Dec 13
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As a follow up to several relies:

1) I am going to continue to pay attention to my cholesterol levels. I choose to go along with the vast majority of the medical community on this one. I read about Malcom Kendrick and his “evidence” and I am not convinced

2) My diet is not heavy on fat, and includes a healthy supply of fruits and vegetables

3) I have been exercising regularly most of my adult life, currently working out 5 days a week, 1 hour per day (35 minutes on treadmill). That, I believe, and can track, has had a major positive effect on my cholesterol levels. However, they were still too high and that is why I am currently taking a statin

4) After further reading on the subject, I think that because of my exercise routine, the diet had minimal effect. If others that do not do regular exercise report their cholesterol levels did significantly drop, then it may be that exercise OR the diet work.

5) The diet appears to have had a mixed effect, but not enough for me to continue doing it. I do believe, though, more time is needed, so I am fasting one day a week for a stretch of 18 hours to see what that does

Thanks for all your feedback