Disappointing (?) cholesterol numbers

[Tom Dylan]

Greetings,

After 8 weeks on the McDougall Diet (strict compliance), I visited my family doctor. I had lost 24lbs, my chest pain had gone away, as well as my asthma, and my blood pressure was so good that she lowered me down to one tiny dose of medication per day.

My cholesterol numbers were a bit puzzling, however.

My overall cholesterol had dropped from 212 to 197, so that's the good news. However, my triglycerides had jumped from 227 to 294! The doctor asked if I had been eating oil for salad dressings, which I have not. I did allow some very minor traces of oil when I first began the diet, but I had been completely oil free for at least 5 weeks. My "good" cholesterol also dropped, but after reading some of Dr. McDougall's info, I'm less worried about that.

My doctor did seem concerned about it, and recommended that I take fish oil. I had to remind her that I'm a vegan.

I'm trying to figure out why my triglycerides were higher...it doesn't make any sense to me. Is it common to see higher triglycerides during the weight loss phase of this WOE? Maybe my veins are just chock full of the junk that's breaking off the walls of my arteries?

One thing that changed other than my diet: no more supplements. So my previous test 7 months prior included taking fish oil and beta sitosterol, and a big handful of other supplements. I'm wondering if they were helping my numbers--giving me an artificial sense of security.

I'm planning on getting my cholesterol checked again in six months; it will probably look a lot better.


Tom

[Gweithgar]

I know that my experience was that as my weight and total cholesterol dropped, my trigs went crazy. My doctor assured me that they would drop too with time. Burning your own body fat apparently liberates trigs. Basically, watch the fat (keep it low, low, low), eliminate any processed sugars (including honey, maple syrup, agave syrup), no alchohol at all ('cause that will raise your trigs like nothing else!). If you are eating a lot of fruit, McDougall suggests cutting back to 2-3 servings a day. Get your carbs in the most complex form you can---from whole, unprocessed plant foods. I've been avoiding blood tests for awhile, so I don't know where my trigs are these days and can't tell you if they have dropped.
One other thing is that trig levels seem to be very volitile and can rise or fall dramatically for seemingly no reason. Pesky things!