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High Cholesterol

Old 04-02-2011, 09:25 AM
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Default High Cholesterol

Hello everyone. I have a question.

Does anyone here have experience lowering your cholesterol through diet and exercise? If so, what specifically worked for you?

I am a female, 30 years old, 23 lbs away from my goal weight (about 5 lbs away from being on the high end of a normal BMI if that matters). I don't smoke and rarely drink. I work out 3 times a week (30 minutes cardio, 30 minutes strength training and stretching) But I just recently found out I have high cholesterol anyway (278). My good cholesterol is also high which is great, but I'm interested in lowering the bad.

Anyway, thanks for reading and any tips would be greatly appreciated.

Last edited by Andrea3030; 04-02-2011 at 09:29 AM.
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Old 04-02-2011, 12:38 PM
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I'm guessing that when you lose the weight, your cholesterol will go down as well. Your doctor gave you the result - what did he or she say?

Low-carb dieters will tell you to go on a low-carb diet. Vegetarian diets also lower cholesterol. Any diet, including simple calorie-cutting, is going to improve your lipids, especially since you are physically active.

There is no one solution. Not only is there not a single diet solution, but one diet (level of calories or mix of protein, fat, and carbs) works for one person but not another. You have to try what makes you feel healthy and what you can live with for years and years. I assume that once you lose the weight, you'll want to keep it off!

When you lose 5 or 10% of your body weight, there's usually a change in your blood chemistry results that reflects that. So look at how much weight you started at, figure out about 10% of your starting weight, lose that and recheck your cholesterol at that point. You should see significant improvement.
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Old 04-02-2011, 11:35 PM
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Yeah I agree. I don't know of any normo-weight person with a high cholesterol, unless you have it heritable. I would just say to keep doing what you're doing (congrats by the way!!) and see if it goes down when you reach the "mid" normal range.
Hang in there!
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Old 04-03-2011, 10:27 AM
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Hi Andrea,
That does seem high cholesterol for someone your age. I know my family has high cholesterol also, and I'm trying to avoid what's happen to some of my family members. I've managed to find something that works where i can to avoid taking medication. So far I've had success and feel that I'm taking the healthy way to do this along with successful weight loss!

It's out there, if you want to connect, please email me at [email protected].

Good Luck!
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Old 04-03-2011, 11:26 AM
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I've had a drastic change in my cholesterol by dieting and exercise. Walking daily, weight-lifting, and watching closely what kinds of food I eat.

I have a very slim brother-in-law whose cholesterol is far higher than mine. He exercises, but he also consumes vast quantities of beef, cheese, mayo, fried foods...because he is slim he feels he can eat it all.

What changed my numbers around was a serious elimination of certain items in my diet. I'm not telling anyone to do this, just sharing what I've done and what has worked for me. The foods that are gone for me are: Ground meats, including beef, pork, turkey, chicken, lamb, all of it. Seemingly healthy proteins are listed here, but I cannot control the fat content of what's been ground. Too often turkey has been ground with the skin and it's fat content is high. This leaves fish, meats with the suffix "loin" in them, but small amounts.

I eat eggs. Rumor has it they contain cholesterol. I was told by Dr. Frackelton a chelation treatment doctor and graduate of Case Western Reserve Medical School that eggs' cholesterol becomes harmful when the yoke is broken before cooking. It is the scrambled yoke oxidation in the cooking process that causes the cholesterol to be a concern. The answer then is don't break the yokes. Hard boil, poach, over easy, over hard, are all fine to eat. It is ok to break the yoke while eating, just not while cooking.

Steel cut oats and any oatmeal that does not contain added sugar. Keeping fat and sugar low help as well. I limit how much bread I eat a week. Fish oil supplements, vitamin d, garlic, vegetarian enzyme such as papaya, all have helped me.

Keeping ourselves healthy is a huge chore. Everyone here is amazing. It's the greatest gift we can give ourselves and our loved ones by caring about our health and doing what it takes to keep us around for those who need us.

Good luck!
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Old 04-03-2011, 11:49 AM
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I do not have high cholesterol, but my husband does, or at least he used to. He does several things to help combat this. Firstly he watches his diet and does not consume foods that contain more cholesterol than about 5-10% RDA in a serving. He also watches his fiber intake, and in fact uses Metamucil as well. I want to say he takes 1/2 a does of it every morning, mixed with OJ. The Metamucil dose was on the advice of his doctor and seems to be helpful (in more ways than one). He also loves oats and eats them pretty much every morning for breakfast, either one of the "high fiber" packets mixed with boiling water or in the form of a hard granola bar. He does not eat eggs or bacon - ever.
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Old 04-03-2011, 01:15 PM
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Thank you everyone for your responses.

I haven't met with my doctor yet, this information is from the results of a life insurance exam. I have a physical set for this week with my doctor, just wanted to research in the meantime.

I believe high cholesterol is a genetic factor for me. Both my dad and my paternal grandmother have high cholesterol even though both are slender, active, and eat relatively healthy (although both have been known to have a major sweet tooth...as do I...I'm thinking highly processed sweets with unhealthy fats may be a big culprit). My grandmother is 86 and my dad is 58, neither have health issues so that is a good sign.

I keep finding conflicting information about whether or not cholesterol and saturated fat in diet contributes to high cholesterol. I know I need to eat more fruit and vegetables and that can't hurt. I don't eat much red meat anyway but I'm trying to cut out fast food.

shibaluvr- That is very interesting about eggs. I will have to research that!
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