I am a 26 year old 5’11 170lb male who lifts very frequently, runs 3xper week or plays soccer and wrestles still. I feel like i am in good shape with some improvements needed. I was told i needed to eat more in order to grow. In the past 3-4 months i have gained 5 lbs and still under 11% body fat. But after my yearly physical my cholesterol is 385… YAH 385… Part of it is hereditary but what are some good things to eat and drink all while keeping my Cholesterol low. Any help is appreciated…
Nice, someone with higher cholesterol than me. Mine was initially 361. My first question would be whether you fasted properly and the test is accurate.
second, you can eat big and keep it clean. There is a lot of stuff coming out recently in this regard. Turns out beef fat isn’t so bad for cholesterol. It isn’t as simple as saturated vs. unsaturated.
There is a lot of great info on this site.
I would also say that the refined carbs should be avoided.
Lastly, If you are a drinker, you probably should cut back. a drink or to is fine (even helpfull for hdl levels) more than that and it can dramatically raise ldl.
Edit: I’m assuming you’re keeping in communication with your doctor, you probably should if you aren’t.
Has he prescribe a statin or zetia or anything yet?
From what i gathered, My carb intake is ok. Usually whole grains pasta or Basmatti Rice. Yam’s sweet potatoe and an english muffin those are cycled 5-6 days a week (in the am and right after workout). Drinking is low maybe a beer or wine here and there. The Biotest GROW! Whey is high in cholestrol and looks like it needs to be avoided and use the Metabolic Drive instead. Biotest Since i have high Choles do you think you can cut me a better deal on your protein???
Anyways, i am going tostart by staying away from Whole Eggs, Smoked Salmon, I have a red meat once a week only. I am a big seafood eater as well, everything else is a form of chicken or pork.
One bit of other information. I did not fast the correct way and possibly skewd the score. Either way my dr has said it will be still some what hihg. I had an egg and egg white on an english muffin with milk and cheese at 730am the test was done at 1pm.
Eat lots of oatmeal and soy. Thats it.
I don’t know that dietary cholesterol really has that big an impact. If you are that concerned about your protein, try to stick to one that is mostly or all whey isolate (it’s going to be more expensive). If you are going to cut out your dietary cholesterol, you may want to look into what seafood you’re eating. most of the crabs and shrimp and stuff are probably going to be rather high in it.
You can start taking some niacin too. resveratrol is a good one too, but pricey.
Did you get checked for familial hypercholesterolemia? That’s stupendously high. There may be a genetic basis for your issue – and if that’s so, your diet isn’t going to fix it.
[quote]Res Judicata wrote:
Did you get checked for familial hypercholesterolemia? That’s stupendously high. There may be a genetic basis for your issue – and if that’s so, your diet isn’t going to fix it. [/quote]
It can certainly help. But a lot of the stuff like exercise, eating healthy, resveratrol, est. are about keeping your heart and arteries healthy outside of cholesterol numbers.
Google Hulda Clark & Liver Cleanse. I used to have high cholesterol, like 300 and now it is 180. Also diet and Exercise of course.
After i switched to grass-fed beef, my cholesterol dropped big time.
[quote]DoubleDuce wrote:
[quote]Res Judicata wrote:
Did you get checked for familial hypercholesterolemia? That’s stupendously high. There may be a genetic basis for your issue – and if that’s so, your diet isn’t going to fix it. [/quote]
It can certainly help. But a lot of the stuff like exercise, eating healthy, resveratrol, est. are about keeping your heart and arteries healthy outside of cholesterol numbers. [/quote]
Getting a good diet will certainly not hurt. But 300+ is incredibly high for a young, fit guy with an already decent diet – and that suggests something else is going on. Familial hypercholesterolemia is a serious genetic disease and requires drug therapy. Familial hypercholesterolemia - Wikipedia There are also a couple of other genetic diseases that produce similar symptoms and also require drug therapy.
[quote]Res Judicata wrote:
[quote]DoubleDuce wrote:
[quote]Res Judicata wrote:
Did you get checked for familial hypercholesterolemia? That’s stupendously high. There may be a genetic basis for your issue – and if that’s so, your diet isn’t going to fix it. [/quote]
It can certainly help. But a lot of the stuff like exercise, eating healthy, resveratrol, est. are about keeping your heart and arteries healthy outside of cholesterol numbers. [/quote]
Getting a good diet will certainly not hurt. But 300+ is incredibly high for a young, fit guy with an already decent diet – and that suggests something else is going on. Familial hypercholesterolemia is a serious genetic disease and requires drug therapy. Familial hypercholesterolemia - Wikipedia There are also a couple of other genetic diseases that produce similar symptoms and also require drug therapy. [/quote]
I know, I probably have it. what drug therapy are you talking about? I was able to make substantial changes in my ldl levels without drugs though.
Here is a sample days diet well what it was…
1)2 Eggs 2 slices of center cut bacon or turkey bacon, 1 piece of whole grain toast 2 cups of milk
2) English Muffin with Smoked Salmon 4 egg whites
3) Baby Spinanch with broc, goat chesse, walnuts, chicken or fish, cucumbers. Drink 1 scoop of Grow! Whey Protien
4) 2 sccops of Grow! Whey Protein
3pm WORKOUT
5) 1 cup of basamatti Rice 1 whole chicken breast
6) Dinner Mix of veggies and source of protein (Chicken, Beef, Seafood, Lamb, Pork etc) with a startch
Usually equates to 160-240g protein, less than 150g carbs, less than 33g fat. 1900-2500 calories.
I do excersise minimum 4 days a week.
I have a family history of high choles, blood pressure heart attacks.
My BP is good 118 over 61.
A wendy’s triple 1 hour before the test is known to send Cholesterol levels over 700. My chol. is 230 and my Dr. was like forget diet and exercise you need lipitor. He chases numbers
[quote]DoubleDuce wrote:
[quote]Res Judicata wrote:
[quote]DoubleDuce wrote:
[quote]Res Judicata wrote:
Did you get checked for familial hypercholesterolemia? That’s stupendously high. There may be a genetic basis for your issue – and if that’s so, your diet isn’t going to fix it. [/quote]
It can certainly help. But a lot of the stuff like exercise, eating healthy, resveratrol, est. are about keeping your heart and arteries healthy outside of cholesterol numbers. [/quote]
Getting a good diet will certainly not hurt. But 300+ is incredibly high for a young, fit guy with an already decent diet – and that suggests something else is going on. Familial hypercholesterolemia is a serious genetic disease and requires drug therapy. Familial hypercholesterolemia - Wikipedia There are also a couple of other genetic diseases that produce similar symptoms and also require drug therapy. [/quote]
I know, I probably have it. what drug therapy are you talking about? I was able to make substantial changes in my ldl levels without drugs though.[/quote]
The usual drug therapy given for high LDL levels if dietary changes don’t work. Statins are the drugs of choice these days, and that’s what most physicians would use as an initial therapy I believe. The really strong statins like Crestor and Lipitor do wonders. (I’m not a doctor but I’ve had to read many of the papers in this area for work). Statins can reduce the production of cholesterol, lower LDL, raise HDL, etc. Crestor has even been shown to decrease atherosclerosis.
Depending on the particular lipids that need to be modified, other drugs are things like bile acid sequestrants, nicotinic acid derivatives and maybe fibrates.
Also, folks who actually have the genetic disease are probably at higher risk than others even with the same lipid levels – since their lipids have been high all their lives.
I hope the OP is working with his doctor who (hopefully) will have him retested soon to make sure its not an anomalous result.
[quote]Res Judicata wrote:
[quote]DoubleDuce wrote:
[quote]Res Judicata wrote:
[quote]DoubleDuce wrote:
[quote]Res Judicata wrote:
Did you get checked for familial hypercholesterolemia? That’s stupendously high. There may be a genetic basis for your issue – and if that’s so, your diet isn’t going to fix it. [/quote]
It can certainly help. But a lot of the stuff like exercise, eating healthy, resveratrol, est. are about keeping your heart and arteries healthy outside of cholesterol numbers. [/quote]
Getting a good diet will certainly not hurt. But 300+ is incredibly high for a young, fit guy with an already decent diet – and that suggests something else is going on. Familial hypercholesterolemia is a serious genetic disease and requires drug therapy. Familial hypercholesterolemia - Wikipedia There are also a couple of other genetic diseases that produce similar symptoms and also require drug therapy. [/quote]
I know, I probably have it. what drug therapy are you talking about? I was able to make substantial changes in my ldl levels without drugs though.[/quote]
The usual drug therapy given for high LDL levels if dietary changes don’t work. Statins are the drugs of choice these days, and that’s what most physicians would use as an initial therapy I believe. The really strong statins like Crestor and Lipitor do wonders. (I’m not a doctor but I’ve had to read many of the papers in this area for work). Statins can reduce the production of cholesterol, lower LDL, raise HDL, etc. Crestor has even been shown to decrease atherosclerosis.
Depending on the particular lipids that need to be modified, other drugs are things like bile acid sequestrants, nicotinic acid derivatives and maybe fibrates.
Also, folks who actually have the genetic disease are probably at higher risk than others even with the same lipid levels – since their lipids have been high all their lives.
I hope the OP is working with his doctor who (hopefully) will have him retested soon to make sure its not an anomalous result. [/quote]
I’ve taken most of the drugs and I can tell you I’d avoid them at all costs. They can do as much damage as good. Also remember, you may end up with muscular cell damage, they can literally destroy your lifting. Not to mention start taking CoQ10 if you start taking a stain.
Further, lay off any drinking because statins are pretty rough on the liver. I think most doctors don’t consider them the wonder drug they once did. Especially starting really young, you need to keep an eye out for these things.
I made the personal decision that the drugs weren’t for me. That would be between you and your doctor.
Plant sterols are another thing you can supplement with:
To lower cholestrol we have a coffee grinder. It is smaller than a blender, put a table spoon of FLAX SEEDS and grind them to a powder. Mix with V 8, mix in oatmeal after it is heated and before you put the milk in, stir/mix and eat. Do not heat the flax seed or the powder or it will loose it effectiveness.
It is suggested that we consume 1/4 cup of this day, but it is too much for me. The 1/8 cup, which for me is a rounded tablespoon, works out just fine. I can’t wait until my next blood test.
I do agree the drugs wouldn’t be for me, so i guess i have to cut a few things out …Shrimp, whole eggs (2X week max) Keep the red meat to once a week. Switch from Grow! to Metabolic Drive, stay away from BACON, add some flax seed shake it all up wait for 3 months and take the next blood test and see what happens… Who knows… Now have to plan a whole new diet… Thanks for the help thus far. Side note my old man was using liptor and muscle damage is a common thing andit sucks, so no statin for me…
Non-statins like zetia can have similar muscular side effects by the way.
My biggest issue when I was on the a statin was that my hdl went down proportionally to my ldl meaning, it may not have really been helping at all.
All drugs have side effects. And in fact what you’re looking for from food are drug-like effects. You have to figure out whether the benefits outweigh the risks.
Here’s the deal: lipids that high at that age are bad. I hope your doctor told you that. Like stroke/heart attack at 45 bad. You can’t predict how any individual will end up, but statistically that’s where someone like you would be headed if things don’t change. Take your detailed numbers and put them in here and see what your cardiac risk looks like: http://www.framinghamheartstudy.org/risk/coronary.html (These are results from a GINORMOUS study that’s being ongoing for 50+ years)
You need to keep in touch with your doctor and get retested regularly – at the very least you need to see if the changes in your diet are having any effect. If they are, great! If they’re not, you may need to reconsider what you’re doing.