I am not sure if there is an audience for this here, however, I feel a need to tell my success story so maybe somebody will benefit from it.
I am 37 years old male. 177 cm high, 82 Kg (now 79), waist circ. 90 cm (now 87). My blood pressure is constantly very low. Around 100/70. My resting heart rate is around 40. I have high LDL for at least last 7 years. In 2011 it was in normal range. In 2014, 2018 and November 2021 it was high:
2014
LDL 160
HDL 45
Non HDL
Total 241
Triglyceride 131
2018
LDL 174
HDL 46
Non HDL 178
Total 224
Triglyceride 105
2021 (November)
LDL 169
HDL 53
Non HDL
Total 256
Triglyceride 135
2021 (December)
LDL
HDL
Non HDL
Total 179
From the results above, it is clear that my cholesterol was consistently high throughout the years. The only reason why I ignored it all these years is that I wasn’t aware at all that something is wrong, since all the doctors kept saying that everything is fine. All other parameters like kidney, liver, sugar… were perfectly fine. I never smoked nor drank alcohol, I have some muscles and a little bit of fat around waist. For years, I regularly do resistance training 3 times a week and cardio 2-3 times a week. I sleep well and feel perfectly fine and energetic. I suppose that whole picture was contributing to the fact that doctors didn’t take my high cholesterol as something significant. I do however eat around 400-600 calories of junk (sweets, ice-cream, cookies, crackers) on a daily basis.
This time, one month ago, was different. This time I am aware of Barbell Medicine and aware of the numbers and I wanted to try to fix it. My father died at 50. from heart attack, his brother had his first heart attack at 44, second at 60. Although he is still alive at 71, I have somewhere in the back of my head that I should take an extra care.
Although my diet for years is constant and compared to majority pretty decent, I wanted to additionally optimize it. I already ate a lot of fruit and vegetables on a daily basis so I continued to do that. I do often eat oats, but now I decided to eat oats with nuts, blueberries and raspberries every single morning. I did eat fish(salmon) once a week before, now I ate 2 times a week salmon and 2 times a week white fish. As a side dish, I ate boiled or baked potato or rice. I started eating lentils two times a week with whole grain brad. Two times a week, I ate salad with olive oil, plenty of vegetables and grilled chicken breasts. Between meals I snaked unsalted pistachios or almonds, on a daily basis. In 3 weeks I ate twice in McDonalds but have chosen the most healthy version of meal that you can get. Chicken wrap without any sauce and with salad without dressing and skipped french fries.
I completely cut off sweets and any sort of junk like chips, crackers etc. I didn’t add any salt to the meals. I drank only water. I used only olive oil. I didn’t eat red meat. No butter. I didn’t change anything in fitness regimen. As a result, I lost 3 kg and 3 cm in waist in 3 weeks. Unfortunately, due to misunderstanding, on a repeated blood work, I got only total cholesterol. However, even without knowing the LDL/HDL ratio, it is clear that it is better that it was anytime in last 7 years.
I will defenitely continue with this lifestyle changes and will repeat the blood work in next months.
@BarbellMedicine
I know your opinion on doing unnecessary tests. However, would you recommend going further and do additional checking of blood vessels, EKG etc?