The FastDay Forum

I feel there must be some explanation but I can't see it??? After 3 months on 5:2 I had a blood test and my overall cholesterol had dropped from 6 to 4 so my doctor recommended and I enthusiastically agreed to stop taking statins. Now after 9 months on 5:2 the dr suggested another blood test as I needed my thyroxine checked . It was a fasting blood test after my second fast day, the same as before but my cholesterol was much higher and the dr was concerned and rang me last night to consider taking statins again. I really don't want to do this. My weight has dropped by 33 lbs in 36 weeks, my best weight loss has been in the last 2 months, so why has this happened and has it happened to anyone else??Suggestions please?
I am on thyroxine and I wonder if this could change this as my thyroxine levels are way out of line with minuscule TSH.

Hi:

There is a video posted on this site with two doctors talking about low carb dieting - .the-5-2-lab-f10/topic6811.html One point they made is after a large weight loss, such as yours, cholesterol counts go way up and stay that way until the weight loss stops for a period of time. It seems that fat cells contain cholesterol but don't give it up until they have otherwise been depleted for some time. I'm going from memory, but I thought when I watched it that it was very interesting that the count can go up so high simply because you've lost a lot of weight.

New research is also indicating there is nothing inherently wrong with a high cholesterol count (see this recent thread : resources-links-f3/australian-tv-program-catalyst-cholesterol-t9118.html), so I guess I wouldn't worry until you've stopped losing weight for a couple or three months and the count is still high.

Good Luck!

Cholesterol is stored in fat, the fat cell breaks down releasing cholesterol and other uglies like excess hormones etc. so you have excess cholesterol in your blood stream causing an artificially elevated rise. This will continue as simcoeluv said until there is no more excess cholesterol to dump into the bloodstream.

[carorees]

Plus what's your ratio of total to HDL cholesterol? Just total cholesterol value tells you v little about risk as you don't know how much of it is the good cholesterol. Ask the doc for a full breakdown of the lipid results, and tell him about the research mentioned above, plus explain that fasting itself raises cholesterol and the latest guidelines say an overnight fast before taking blood for cholesterol measurement is not considered necessary and request a retest with full lipid panel.

Beavergong OK I saw the doctor today and my thyroxine levels was way too high so the dr said you reduce the thyroxine or stop the 5:2. I chose to drop my thyroxine by 25 % It will make weight loss harder but I managed when I dropped by the same amount in May. Also my LDL has gone to 5.2 whilst my HDL remains unchanged. It could be my thyroxine being out so much but the dr will review in 3 months as it was so good on the last test. Any ideas out there?Why has my LDL gone from 2.2 to 5.2?

[carorees]

It's likely to be the hypothyroidism and the thyroxine being out. See this: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/24032604

I would wait and get retested once you're established on the new dose before worrying about cholesterol levels.