Thoughts on high LDL cholesterol
Hi all - I was hoping to get some advice here.
I am a 32 y.o. male with high LDL cholesterol numbers. I had not done lab work in a long time, and Attia's book Outlive inspired me to begin being more proactive than reactive. I did lab work in March, which came back with two pretty scary numbers:
- LDL = 162 (scary)
- APOB = 116 (scary)
- LPA = 10 (recognize fully genetic and does not change)
- HDL = 45
- Triglycerides = 75
Anyways, my diet was pretty shit at this point. So I switched it up in late March / April, started eating a ton of fruits and veggies, lean meat, eggs, beans. Got my blood done again this week. A few comments on my life style since:
I strength train 3x a week, zone 2 / 3 cardio 1x, and do HIIT about 1x a week as well
Calories are ~2300 a day
Bumped up fiber to 45-50g a day (mostly psyllium husk, beans, avocado, greens)
Saturated fat no more than 18g a day (less than 10% of total calorie intake)
Supplements are simple with creatine, fish oil, magnesium
Protein = 160g a day, carbs = 230g a day (mostly fruit, beans, oats), fat = 86g a day (fish, eggs, evoo)
Unfortunately, my numbers hardly budged! I knew I wouldn't be in "steady state" after 6 weeks of eating clean, but I expected to see some results. My new numbers as follows:
Updated numbers:
- LDL = 164 (scarier)
- APOB = (still waiting for results)
- LPA = 10 (recognize fully genetic and does not change)
- HDL = 56
- Triglycerides = 72
At this point, I am going to look for a preventative cardiologist, but if I am eating clean, exercising, and numbers hardly budging, it seems the only answer is a statin. Thought I'd crowdsource here and see if folks here have any thoughts as well:
