A year ago my cholesterol was 5.1 - in... - Cholesterol Support
A year ago my cholesterol was 5.1 - in the last 5 months I've exercised loads and lost over a stone. Now my cholestrol is 7.2! Any ideas?
If you have only lost just over a stone in 5 months i would take a serious look at my diet,that being a key factor in lowering cholesterol levels.I lost 2.5 stone in that time frame doing both and it really works.
I would say good for you for losing any amount of weight and it's very unfair that your readings have gone up!
It may be genetic factors outside your control with your cholesterol. Keep going and you will be much healthier in all sorts of ways regardless of your cholesterol, but maybe a more targeted cholesterol lowering diet may help. I am a bit of a sceptic on this, but it has worked for others on this site. Look up the UCLP diet on the HEART UK website.
I suspect there's a lot more to this cholesterol business than eating 'healthily'.
Bizzarely my husband who has in the past year been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes had his latest test results recently. His cholesterol has fallen from 5.7 to 4 in 3 months even though he has put on over half a stone in weight. (he's still within the 'normal' range for his height). He has cut a lot of sugary stuff from his diet BUT has been eating loads of extra thick double cream with bananas because he's not allowed ice cream any more. He takes medication for diabetes but not for cholesterol. The doctor can't explain it!
Hi.
Unfortunately It might be just one of those things, possibly genetic. My cholesterol was 5.5 for a long time then went up to 6.3 then 7.5. During this time I have always eaten very healthily less than 10 gramms of fat a day, I cycle around 100 miles a week and weigh 8st 7. My cardiologist just shakes his head as theres nothing more I can do. I resorted to statins in the end which are fine for me as I have no side effects.
Good luck!
Well, it sure does make you wonder about all this cholesterol stuff, fats etc
What exercise were you doing? Have you knocked yourself or had minor injuries? This will increase your levels as the cholesterol rushes to heal the damage. The arguement re sugar versus fat is recognised - if you have a higher than average sugar intake (too many fruit juices and smoothies are a prime example) hence the change from ice cream to natural double cream has LOWERED the levels as mentioned above, your diet may just need a sugar lowering tweek to make the changes and reduce the numbers. Have you asked your DR for your figures broken down to LDL, HDL and Triclycirides. Worth getting to know your numbers and see if your LDL and HDL levels change over the next few months. Keep in touch and best wishes.
Thanks everyone - lots of 'food for thought'. To patch 14 - I started cycling a lot and then switched to running - have done a couple of races (a 10k & a 7-mile) since Christmas - thoroughly enjoyed them & will do more. Really can't remember any knocks.
I've tried 3 or 4 types of statins in the last year but they all seem to give me headaches. Guess I'll start taking them again.
Thanks again...
I'm not sure that the 'healthy' diet recommended by so many doctors is really that 'healthy'. We need fat in our diets, it's vital for so many life processes (like transporting fat soluble vitamins). Eating fat may not raise cholesterol levels, my husband has a level of 4.5 and eats butter, cream and lard. Refined sugar and flour can cause your cholesterol levels to rise.
webmd.com/cholesterol-manag...
It depends on your age, but if have no history of heart problems or raised BP, are statins a good idea?
I'm not carb loading - just sticking to a healthy diet. I've never had heart problems, but my blood pressure can be a bit high at times & I'm diabetic. I've been vegetarian for 30 years - I'm trying to scale back on my cheese. Not really sure what else there is left to give up!
Thanks again for your comments everyone - they help, although I am more than slightly confused by it all!
Hi,
I am afraid I also hve similer question, My unmbers are going up but my weight is coming down?
Took my first medication last night to lower cholesterol.
After 2 days I've stopped taking statins again. They just give me terrible headaches.
First of all you should know that TC= HDL + LDL + 0.2TG ! So your total cholesterol is affected by HDL, LDL and triglycerides cholesterollevels.net/. Secondly, you should know that exercising and losing weight can increase HDL (good) cholesterol cholesterollevels.net/hdl-c.... So, the increase in your total cholesterol may be due to an increase of HDL. I think you should not worry too much.
