Could it be the milk?

In looking at my lipid panel from yesterday’s physical I noticed something I’m trying to make sense of. Quick background: 36yo, for the last 12 or so years I’ve been consistently around 155-160lb at 5’11. In November of 2017 I started my LP and currently at 188lb.

My diet has always been very similar for years and years. Since I started training again in November the only thing that I’ve added is a daily shake which includes oats, peanut butter, whey, and milk. In general, my protein consumption is quite a bit higher than it had been as I’m supplementing with whey where I had not been before. Also drinking lots more milk now where I was very rarely drinking milk for years before. Probably 2-3 cups a day which started with whole, now with 1%.

The higher protein consumption likely explains the elevation in BUN but I’m wondering why the pretty big drop in overall cholesterol which is good as well as HDL which isn’t good.

BUN: 22(2014), 21(2017), 28(yesterday)
Chol: 179(2014), 196(2017), 155(yesterday)
HDL: 52(2014), 63(2017), 42(yesterday)
non-HDL-C: 127(2014), 133(2017), 113(yesterday)

Family history of elevated cholesterol on my mother’s side. Doc said add some additional cardio to raise HDL.

The drop in HDL-C may be related to your weight gain. I don’t know whether the milk had anything to do with it.

Is my current HDL level something to be concerned about in the context of the rest of that panel? The plan was to gradually try to gain over the next year to the tune of 5-10lbs. Along with that, is it possible that as I maintain this weight (or even a little more) that the HDL will continue to rise barring any drastic diet changes? Would you suggest adding traditional cardio to my training now?

I am not at all concerned by the numbers in that lipid panel.

You may add conditioning work for general training purposes, though wouldn’t do it specifically to manipulate your blood HDL-C.

Sounds good - thanks Austin

I kinda wanna piggy back on this one as I had a question regarding my HDL as well. Mine tested at 28mg/dl. This was back in September last year and I weighed around 225lbs (down to 209lbs now since I got back into a proper diet and training plan a month ago, weighed at 218-220lbs when I started). Rest of my lipid tested pretty normal.
Chol: 180
triglyceride: 131
LDL: 126

My doc said it could be a genetic marker for a predisposition to diabetes. She recommended me to take fish oil (for the past month I have been, 2 pills a day (600 EPA/240 DHA).
Was my doctor correct about that genetic marker?
Would fish oil supplementation actually help any at all?
You think my weight loss may have improved it since then?

Sorry, I should add I have had a history of smoking.

  1. Low serum HDL-C is definitely associated with metabolic syndrome. It is not a “genetic marker”.

  2. Fish oil supplementation at high doses tends to lower triglycerides, but does not tend to do much for HDL-C.

  3. Yes, this is very likely.

Good to know. I don’t want full blown metabolic syndrome and I’m glad I’m doing something finally. Last month when I started getting off my ass to diet and train right again, my waist has gone down from 42.5in down to just 38.25 today! I’m aiming for 34 inch, maybe 32 if I can manage it. When I hit those numbers I’ll get myself retested, or should I even bother? Everything else came back normal (TSH, glucose, A1C all within the standard range). Only my HDL was an outlier.

How old are you? You don’t necessarily have to get it rechecked as soon as you hit a weight target, but they should be checked again at some point.

I’m 30. My height is 5’11".