Ok, so I've been doing the low carb thing since January, I'm down 55 lbs, feel great, etc.

Then I go in for my annual checkup, and my cholesterol is up to 350. Dr puts me on cholesterol meds and tells me to go off of Atkins. Says that for about 10% of the population, this happens.

So, I'm back to the eating less, counting calories.

What have you been eating?

Cheating much?

Cholesterol is _NOT_ and indicator for heart disease.
There are many people with high cholesterol who never
develop heart disease and also people with very low
cholesterol who have it. (long story)

What was your triglyceride count? What is your
blood pressure?

:cool: TJ :cool:

I don't have the Triglyceride/HDL/LDL counts. I saw them, but don't remember the details (sorry)

Blood pressure was 150/75. The 150 is probably due to the fact that I had a nasty cold when I went in, and felt like shit, although I'd purposly not taken anything sudafed related because I didn't want it to be inflated.

The cholesterol (which was a 12 hour fasting test) was probably not helped by my wife dedicing to make fried pork chops in Pork Rinds the night before the test.

Weird. I've known lots of people who really dropped cholesterol by being low-carb. Do you know what your count was before the diet?

I've seen some have increased total cholesterol numbers on
low-carb diets. However, it's mostly because HDL (good)
increases.. Not because of LDL (bad). Get your blood work
numbers from your doc. I wanna see 'em.

To be honest though, the triglyceride is a better indicator of
heart disease.

One, predominant, reason for this kind of action is reduced
fiber in low-carb diets. You need to make sure you eat enough
raw veggies and raw/unsalted nuts to keep fiber intake up.

That's the only way we get rid of excess cholesterol (via
bile acids..)

Also, make sure you're getting plenty of antioxidant vitamins.
This includes vit. C, E, and beta carotene. I usually take 2-3g
of C daily..

:cool: TJ :cool:

I'll get the numbers.

There was no cheating for me, though. When I make a decision like this, I stick to it. Willpower is one of my gifts. Once every 2 weeks or so, I'd do a cheat meal.

Here was my typical diet:

LARGE Coffee for breakfast, with about half a cup of whipping cream in it (YUM)

Lunch was usually the equavalent of a Chicken Caesar salad (grilled chicken breast over lettuce of some variety, no tomatoes, no carrots, no croutons, with regular Ranch on the side, please). Some days it was Lettuce with Cheese, bacon bits and Pepperoni slices. Lots of roughage at lunch time.

Dinner was a variety of things, grilled chicken breasts to hamburger patty to pork chops to Brats, with a salad.

One-a-Day vitamins every day.

My cholesterol before the diet was 220, but my thyroid replacment was a bit low, so it's possible that had an effect on it. The DR wasn't worried. Triglycerides were high, I remember that much.

Interestingly enough.. I've been real carefull since going off the diet, and have been watching what I eat, mostly in the quantity end of it, and I'm down 5 lbs since I went off the diet. Go figure.