Is my cholesterol improvement timeline typical?
I (32M) was/am in the worst physical shape of my life, over 300 lbs (at 5’11”) and was eating whatever I wanted, whenever, and any quantity I wanted. I started having more frequent health issues (small kidney stones, onset of sleep apnea, etc.) and my primary doc noticed my blood pressure was high for the 3rd appointment in a row and put me on Losartan, and it scared the shit out of me.
So he did some labs at the beginning of April and I got the attached results. In some ways, I was relieved it wasn’t worse, but also horrified I had gotten to this point. I have reduced sodium intake to under 2,300 mg/day, tried to reduce saturated fats, and am consuming more fiber than ever in my life (MetaMucil helping me there). I’ve lost 22 lbs in just over a month.
Last week, my employer had a free wellness physical and they were able to do immediate-results labs. I reduced my overall cholesterol from 233 to 204 and LDL from 165.7 to 147. Only “bad” was that my HDL dropped from 42 to 35, but that may be due to completely changing my diet.
My question: Is a 10% drop in a month a typical change with a big swing in diet and will the progress taper off like you can expect with weight loss? Just trying to temper my expectations before my 6-month follow-up with my primary.