keto and cholesterol levels

[snakelady]

Hi, I have been on keto for a couple of months and have lost 30 lbs. I love it i know alot of people bash it and say its hard to stick to but its the first diet that has really worked for me. Anyway the reason i am posting is because i want to get some blood work done to check cholesterol and triglyceride levels. I eat about 2 dozen eggs in the week, and i have concern about all the fat and cholesterol i am intaking. I would hate to lose all this weight just to have a heart attack. I don't have health insurance right now due to husband starting a new job (takes 90 days). Has anyone ever had lab work that they had to pay for out of pocket? How much was it? I googled some stuff and came up with this site which i might be able to use, but never done lab work from anywhere other than a doctor's office.


tl:dr
I want to get blood work done but don't have health insurance, what do i do?

[Boss Man]

I wouldn't bash a Ketogenic diet per se, but it's recoomendable for people who compete in muscle sports, but for most people I'd reccomend between 20-30g Carbs becasue Carbs help stabilise blood sugar, provide energy and affect positive hormones like relaxation type hormones.

If energy expenditure was higher then energy intake from things like Carbs, the body could source additional energy from fat, but in some case perhaps protein and may resort to muscle burning too.

The body can convert around 40% of Protein intake into Glycogen, the stored form of glucose, particularly in muscles.

You might find it beneficial to find sticky topic on Cholesterol and see if there is anything you might find useful, to glean from it .

Good luck whatever happens and let us know what happens won't you, becasue we may be able to learn something from your experience(s).

[ultimatehlth]

You might want to consider changing to egg whites or at least less yolks. People on a ketogenic diet usually see there triglycerides and cholesterol numbers drop, but if you cheat that changes dramatically. As for cholesterol testing the new gold standard is called a VAP test. Not only does it breakdown and measure all categories it also measures particle size which means more than your total number does. Large particles don't form plaque and are therefore safer than the small ones that normally do form plaques.

[Boss Man]

Good point. There has been talk recently about something called small dense LDL, as a potentialy major player in formation of arterial plaque and atheromas.

[jbob]

Some info on cholesterol, which a lot of people think is a bad thing and will make you die from cardiac arrest. Cholesterol is not a bad thing. You need cholesterol every day. It has a basic function in your body. Keep in mind that the recommended intake of cholesterol with food is no more than 200 mg (0.007 oz) per day. If you eat more than that than your results will not be as good as they could be. You say you're eating 2 dozen of eggs per week. That's more than 3 eggs per day. One large egg has about 186 mg of cholesterol — all of which is found in the yolk. Therefore, if you eat an egg on a given day, it's important to limit other sources of cholesterol for the rest of that day. 2 eggs per day is a bit too much. Do you eat eggs because of protein? Try to eat 3 eggs, but only 1 yolk (remove the 2 yolks).
Here are recommended cholesterol levels:
For EU:
Normal cholesterol level is anything under 5 mmol/l.
Normal HDL cholesterol level is anything above 1,1 mmol/l.
Normal LDL cholesterol level is anything below 3 mmol/l.
For US:
Normal cholesterol level is anything under 200 mg/dl.
Normal HDL cholesterol level is anything above 40 mg/dl.
Normal LDL cholesterol level is anything below 100 mg/dl.
As far as your social security goes: you can buy cheap cholesterol testers online or you can go to a local laboratory where they will measure all your cholesterol levels and triglycerides levels. Good results are displayed above. Best of luck to you.
And, reduce the intake of eggs (yolks).

[Boss Man]

Why necessarily reduce Egg Yolk intake? Many eggs contain good fat because the chickens are fed flaxseesd or grain these days.

The ones with cholesterol are reputed to have little to no effect on the blood cholesterol anyway, but people could reduce them if concerned, but many eggs now would not require the consumer to consider reduging their yolk intake.

[jbob]

Why necessarily reduce Egg Yolk intake? Many eggs contain good fat because the chickens are fed flaxseesd or grain these days.

The ones with cholesterol are reputed to have little to no effect on the blood cholesterol anyway, but people could reduce them if concerned, but many eggs now would not require the consumer to consider reduging their yolk intake.

I wouldn't be eating eggs primarily for quality fats. For quality fats you can eat nuts or fat fish. You can also use flax seed oil instead of eating egg from chicken that was fed with flax seed. But that's just opinion.