How I "Fixed" My Cholesterol Levels with a Low-Carb Diet

Diet
1

Originally published at: How I “Fixed” My Cholesterol Levels with a Low-Carb Diet

TL;DR Using 100g carbohydrates per day (usually around AM workouts), I was able to make the following lipid and metabolic changes: Triglycerides: 41 (down from 46 and 66) HDL: 56 (down from 66 and 59) LDL: 125 (down from 205 and 193) Total Cholesterol: 193 (down from 280 and 269)… …(Read more on the PricePlow Blog)

1 Like
2

Here’s what’s crazy: I originally adopted the paleo lifestyle in early 2009, thanks to Mark Sisson. He generally advised keeping carbohydrates below 100 at the time. And that seems to be about what’s optimal for me!

3

Great thanks to Ben Greenfield for mentioning this in Episode 401 of his podcast!

Direct link to the segment (OverCast link):

1 Like
4

Hi Mike. Wanted to private message you but couldn’t figure out how, hope you read this…All your n=1 tests and videos are great. Very practical, and I think many of your conclusions are spot on. I have been following similar low carb diet guardrails and probably similar metabolism, age, body type, fitness level and goals to you.

I am much looser in my experimentation, but I do periodically check blood glucose and ketone level with blood monitor in response to meals and exercise, etc. I dont track my data well, and no CGM but some conclusions Ive made over the last year + of low carb. Several observations I have match yours.

  1. Sleep and stress…seems vital for blood glucose control and dramatically affects BG swings and ketone levels, even when eating strict low carb. Guessing cortisol levels

  2. Fairly intense exercise spikes blood glucose for several hrs even when following keto or fasted. I play lot of decent level tennis. Think about 90 mins of one minute on/off trying to catch your breath then recover. From watching other videos, I assume most of this comes from glycogen getting mobilized. The harder the match, the bigger the spike (conclude this is due to anaerobic to aerobic ratio). Ive gone from 90 to 160 with no food, just a very hard tennis match. Not sure why it takes a while to come down though… maybe you have some idea. Also guessing cortisol levels may have something to do with it.

… I have a lot more observations to share and maybe we can bounce some ideas back and forth. I have read a lot and watched many other of the you tube biohackers, like feldman, siim land, ben greenfield etc, but your practical experimentation really hit home with me

I’m looking forward to how you design your CKD experiment. I generally been following a CKD to decent success (over the last year, lifts increased about 15%, while bodyweight dropped 190 to 175, waist size 35 to 32). And I have a weekly 24-36 hr carb up (includes beer)…

I can share my general routine and other observations if you’re interested. I’m also looking to change things up slightly and maybe I can better track my data better to share with you.

2 Likes