Cholesterol!

Nutrition Q&A [Moderated]
1

Hello, posted this in unmoderated forums but was advised to try posting it here!

Hey all, got an inquiry involving cholesterol. My buddy and I are both attempting to eat an increased amount of animal proteins (and have been doing so now for roughly 4 months) to induce some hypertrophy (obviously). However, we both recently got blood work and our cholesterol was slightly elevated. Mine is 230 and his is 220. Before changing our diets, our cholesterol was around 185. I know in the podcasts Jordan and Austin always talks about how dietary cholesterol only plays a minor role in serum cholesterol, but it’s odd that both my and his cholesterol went up like this. I’m not sure of all of my buddy’s lipid levels, but here are mine (the numbers in the left column are mine and the numbers in the right are the normal range):

CHOLESTEROL 231 mg/dL 120 - 200 mg/dL
TRIGLYCERIDE 128 mg/dL <150 mg/dL
HDL CHOLESTEROL 46 mg/dL >=40 mg/dL
CHOL/HDL 5.0
NON-HDL CHOLESTEROL 185 mg/dL mg/dL
LDL CHOLESTEROL 159 mg/dL mg/dL
CHOL/HDL INTERPRETATION Average Risk

Our diet change basically involved;
a. eating a meal of red meat (mostly ground beef b/c it’s affordable) almost every day - this protein source used to be chicken or poultry
b. eating 4-6 whole eggs every day (and yes I have heard all the podcasts and read some primary sources about how eating whole eggs shouldn’t raise your cholesterol).
c. probably eating more overall calories - though we are not counting cals

Other than that our diet has stayed the same, we both supplement with whey and try to eat meals with protein for every meal.

My question is specifically, what could have caused the increase in cholesterol levels if not diet? The internet is rife with (probably fallacious) dietary solutions to lowering cholesterol, but how could we lower ours with non-dietary/ pharm intervention? (I am 6’1 205 and he is 5’6 185 so we are not over-fat). Perhaps what I’m most curious to know is; does dietary saturated fat intake contribute significantly to serum cholesterol even though dietary cholesterol does not? When reading primary sources for information like this it’s hard for a laymen like myself to discern the reliable info.

Thanks!

2

You’re eating more calories including saturated fat, which coupled with a hypercaloric situation probably produced these changes.

Your friend may be overfat, but I would agree you aren’t. I don’t know anything else about your diet, recent weight gain, so making any recommendations would be pretty difficult.

3

Understandable, I think I will reduce my saturated fat to do a self-experiment then, and retest the lipids in a few months.

As an aside just want to say I hope you guys keep making podcasts and see more recognition in the near future. Really enjoy learning from you and Austin.

4

Thanks man! Will do!

5

My experience is totally anecdotal, but I thought I’d chime in if it’s useful to the OP. A year ago (Nov 2016) my cholesterol was 258 (HDL 39, LDL 203). I’m 40 years old, 6’ and was 171 lbs then. In Nov 2017, I had another blood test. This time I weighed 194 and my total cholesterol was 204 (HDL 55, LDL 134). I had started lifting in the spring (just front squat, press and deadlift and HIIT kettlebell things) and then in July started SSLP, cut the conditioning out altogether, and started tracking my food (P 200, C whatever, F ~100) and trying to cut down on saturated fat (replacing some eggs with egg whites, 0% fat greek yogurt, etc). I still have work to do, obviously, trying to get total and LDL down, but it’s moving in the right direction. On Friday, before my workout, I weighed 201 (finally a real boy!).

Anyway, I’ve always had somewhat elevated cholesterol and this is the first time it’s tested below 217 in probably 10 years, all while gaining ~25 lbs and eating more than ever. Some of us are sensitive to saturated fats. It may help to cut down on them.