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Weight Loss Forum / Low Carb / March 2004Help! Loosing weight on Atkins, but cholesteral is way up.
So, I've been doing the Atkins diet, and have lost 20 lbs. in two months. That's the good news. The bad news is that my cholesterol, which has always been lousy, is now really lousy. This in spite of the claims by the Atkins proponents that just the opposite should happen. LDL and triglicerides are up and HDL is down. Some background: My cholesterol has always been bad. This, independent of amount of exercise (I do triathlons) or diet (drifted into and out of vegetarianism). Here are my before and after stats. Weight HDL LDL Triglicerides Before diet 205 41 203 91 After 7 weeks 185 35 239 128 I have continued to exercise heavily during this (which really hurt the first two weeks). So, I am very disappointed in this result. I was expecting just the opposite. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Mark San Jose Advice: learn the difference between loosing and losing.  SignatureMost of us probably aren't in danger of eating too little. :) Becky P. > So, I've been doing the Atkins diet, and have lost 20 lbs. in two months. > That's the good news. The bad news is that my cholesterol, which has always [quoted text clipped - 23 lines] > Mark > San Jose I have two thoughts for you. 1. Your lipids may become better once you stop losing weight. 2. No one forces you to overeat meat and eggs and bacon. Eat more fish and plan based oils (think nuts, oilive oil etc), turkey breast etc. i > So, I've been doing the Atkins diet, and have lost 20 lbs. in two months. > That's the good news. The bad news is that my cholesterol, which has always [quoted text clipped - 23 lines] > Mark > San Jose :: 2. No one forces you to overeat meat and eggs and bacon. Eat more :: fish :: and plan based oils (think nuts, oilive oil etc), turkey breast etc. You sound like a stupid broken record. > My cholesterol has always been bad. This, independent of amount of exercise > (I do triathlons) or diet (drifted into and out of vegetarianism). [quoted text clipped - 12 lines] > > Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I think that something is wrong with these numbers - not because of higher LDL, but your triglycerides (and HDL, which is tightly related to them) are puzzling. Typicaly, when people go LC, they might see LDL increased (I did :), but also trigs are almost always significantly decreased - numbers near to 50 are normal. As trigs are going down, HDL is likely to go up. Anyway, week ago Jenny had some suggestion that if you are loosing very quick, this might temporarily increase triglycerids - just because of all that fat being released (and burned) during ketosis. Loosing 20lb during 7 weeks is quite a lot IMHO (even if about 5-7 lb of it is water). Perhaps this could be a reason... (BTW, just for comparison, my "before" TC was 260 (unfortunaltely I do no now subpartitions), my 6 weeks numbers were TC 280, LDL 200, HDL 63, trigs 50. Mirek Mark Flynn burbled across the ether: > So, I've been doing the Atkins diet, and have lost 20 lbs. in two > months. That's the good news. The bad news is that my cholesterol, > which has always been lousy, is now really lousy. This in spite of > the claims by the Atkins proponents that just the opposite should > happen. LDL and triglicerides are up and HDL is down. It is possible that You've tested too soon. You should wait at least ninety days after starting before testing, to avoid unnecessary distress at the temporary rise in cholesterol (and even then some folks don't see the drop until they are near goal). You *might* be sensitive to arachidonic acid, but you should rule out whether it is the expected temporary rise first. info on arachidonic acid: http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=LxJ_9.110634%24rM2.51393%40rwcrnsc53&oe=UTF -8&output=gplain http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=4g5g0o%245p6%40newsbf02.news.aol.com&oe=UTF -8&output=gplain Signaturerevek www.geocities.com/tanirevek/LowCarb.html lowcarbing since June 2002 5'2" 41 F 165+/too much/size seven petite please "There are two kinds of people in this world, and I am one of them." - Dave Barry I though two months were too early to test? That is at least what I remember. You could eat more chicken, fish and so on. Curt > So, I've been doing the Atkins diet, and have lost 20 lbs. in two months. > That's the good news. The bad news is that my cholesterol, which has always [quoted text clipped - 23 lines] > Mark > San Jose > > So, I've been doing the Atkins diet, and have lost 20 lbs. in two months. > > I though two months were too early to test? The 2003 edition says 90 days. But that's very aggressive. All of the previous versions 1972, 1993 and 1999 said six months. > You could eat more chicken, fish and so on. That can't hurt, but just plain following the directions and waiting the six months is just as likely to work fine. > > > So, I've been doing the Atkins diet, and have lost 20 lbs. in two months. > > [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] > That can't hurt, but just plain following the directions and waiting the > six months is just as likely to work fine. Thanks for all of the input! On page 175 of the 2002 version (which I bought in Jan 2004); of the New Diet Rev., it says: "That's why I recommend you now repeat the blood and other medical tests you had done before you began Aktins (but not sooner than six weeks after your first tests)." He then goes on to say the usual thing about lower cholesterol. So I am following the directions. And to answer others: 1) Yes, I did fast 12 hours before both tests. 2) Yes, I am definitely low carb. No grains, no beans, no sugar, no nothing, other than green veggies, avocados, cucumbers, celery and the like. I'm eating 20-40 gr a day of carbs. 3) Yes, I really am exercising. I have been running 20-35 miles a week during the diet. That's actually typical for me. That's why I'm so keen on the diet, since it's the only thing that has made me loose weight. I have found that the more I train, the more I eat, and I typically gain weight during heavy training. 4) Emkay and others have mentioned that high tris can be caused by fat burning during weight loss. I wonder if my atypical calories burnt in a day (from the running) is contributing to the strange results? 4) Thanks so much for the spelling advice. It means so much. I have been a bit heavy on the nitrate-containing foods and cream, so I plan to cut back on that. I really really want to continue with this diet, as it's easy and really works. In fact, I lost another 2 lbs. since I first posted, so now I've lost 22 since 1/6! But I have to get the blood work under control. My sister had recommenced South Beach as a more cholesterol-friendly low carb diet. Any thoughts? Thanks again. Mark San Jose >My sister had recommenced South Beach as a more cholesterol-friendly low >carb diet. Any thoughts? > >Thanks again. > >Mark There's no science to back up such a claim. Susan > x-no-archive: yes > [quoted text clipped - 8 lines] > > Susan Not to mention that there is significant science contradicting that dietary cholesterol has an effect on blood cholesterol. Signature***************** Wayne Crannell Atkins + 10/21/01 250/139 ***************** > > > I though two months were too early to test? > [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] > had done before you began Aktins (but not sooner than six weeks after your > first tests)." As time goes on I think more and more about the problems added into the 2002 edition of the book. Sure it has many improvements over the prior editions in correcting a few wording problems, but it introduces more new problems than any of the prior editions as well. Where editions disagree, try to figure out why. What was Dr A's motivation. In all previous editions it was 6 months to ge tthe next cholesterol test. Cranking it to sooner doesn't make any sense given the results of the last 2 years. There are mistakes added to the 2002 edition that I *do* understand his motivation. He added bars to the plan, but only Atkins branded bars, and made over a million dollars for one sentence in the book. At a price of vast numbers of stalled At-kids. But there doesn't seem to be any benefit whatsoever to change the old standard of cholesterol testing from 6 months into the process to less than that. :: So, I've been doing the Atkins diet, and have lost 20 lbs. in two :: months. That's the good news. The bad news is that my cholesterol, :: which has always been lousy, is now really lousy. This in spite of :: the claims by the Atkins proponents that just the opposite should :: happen. LDL and triglicerides are up and HDL is down. Get the test done again.... :: Some background: :: [quoted text clipped - 10 lines] :: :: After 7 weeks 185 35 239 128 Something is wrong here. Your tris should not be up if you're really doing LC and exercising. Did you eat before getting the second test? HDL should be up, too. I find this really really hard to believe. :: I have continued to exercise heavily during this (which really hurt :: the first two weeks). So, I am very disappointed in this result. I [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] :: Mark :: San Jose > :: So, I've been doing the Atkins diet, and have lost 20 lbs. in two > :: months. That's the good news. The bad news is that my cholesterol, [quoted text clipped - 33 lines] > :: Mark > :: San Jose And this is only seven weeks. I've been on low carb constantly for a year. SignatureBob in CT Remove ".x" to reply Roger wrote: >Something is wrong here. Your tris should not be up if you're really doing >LC and exercising. Did you eat before getting the second test? HDL should >be up, too. I find this really really hard to believe. The first thing that popped into my mind when I saw the TGLs was that the OP hadn't fasted for 14 hours, or as long for the more recent test. My second thought has been stated by others, two months is too early to check for improvements in TC and ratios of HDL/LDL. It's rare for a LC dieter not to see HDL rise, (HDL can be accurately tested without fasting, I've read) or TGLs to plummet. Susan Were you fasting for this test? This should be a fasting test. The results make no sense. Trigs are directly related to carb consumption. Wait a couple of months and get re-tested. Cookie > So, I've been doing the Atkins diet, and have lost 20 lbs. in two months. > That's the good news. The bad news is that my cholesterol, which has always [quoted text clipped - 23 lines] > Mark > San Jose Also, alcohol will boost trigylcerides short term. Mark -- in Dr. Bernstein's Diabetes Solution, he says this: "When youre losing weight, fat is "mobilized" for oxidation -- i.e., to be burned -- and it will appear in the bloodstream as triglycerides. If you see elevated serum triglyceride levels as youre losing weight, its not something to worry about. Your triglyceride levels will drop as soon as weight loss levels off." (see http://www.diabetes-book.com/book/chapter12_3.shtml ) Em I have the same problem, but i've been Lc'ing much longer. Unfortunately i didn't have blood work done before i started (didn't have any insurance then. But maybe 6 months ago i finally went in to get blood work done. It was terrible! Doc said he had never seen such a spread in hdl & ldl. I was at ldl of 267, and hdl of 9. I don't recall the tri's(figures, since they're the important ones). So even after 2 years of LC'ing, and extensive weight training & exercise i was all whacked out for cholerterol. On 20mg Lipitor & 1500mg niacin & it's starting to come around. last moth i hit ldl of 179 & hdl of 15.... > So, I've been doing the Atkins diet, and have lost 20 lbs. in two months. > That's the good news. The bad news is that my cholesterol, which has always [quoted text clipped - 23 lines] > Mark > San Jose |
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