Two Years of High Fat/Low Carb

Well, here’s the results show.  I’ve lost 90 pounds since I started this little adventure on March 1, 2010.  I still remember the grave warnings my doctor gave me after I did my blood work.  Basically, I needed to do something or go coffin shopping.  He broke out his pen and pad and began writing out prescriptions.  I promptly told him I didn’t want his meds.  Especially the statin he wanted me to take.  Why did he want me to take a statin?  Let’s take a look.

Bloodwork 2/15/2010

Total Cholesterol: 298                                                                                                                       Triglycerides: 762                                                                                                                               HDL: 28                                                                                                                                                       LDL: Couldn’t measure because my triglycerides were so high

You see, the total cholesterol is what got him in a tizzy.  Of course he still buys in to the cholesterol myth.  What should have really disturbed him, and to be fair it did, were my triglycerides.  I bet if he actually did particle size tests, he would have seen un-Godly amounts of small particle LDL which is the bad stuff.  People get all worked up about LDL, when in reality it is the small, VLDL that you want to panic about because they are the ones that get caught up in the blood vessels and get oxidized which creates the heart attack causing plaque.  But on with the story.

Bloodwork 6/7/2010

Total Cholesterol: 236                                                                                                                       Triglycerides: 420                                                                                                                               HDL: 28                                                                                                                                                       LDL: Still can’t be measured due to high triglycerides

You see, the test they do is really just a mathematical equation, so if your trigs are too high, it throws the equation off and you can’t solve for LDL.  This test is really garbage again because it doesn’t look at particle size.  The letter that came with this bloodwork shows how dumbed down the priests of health make it for us.  It labels LDL as “lethal” cholesterol.  Poppycock.  You need LDL.  Without it you would die.  Just sayin’.  Again, its the particle size that matters, but my doc won’t run that test.  Let’s move forward, shall we?

Bloodwork 11/3/2010

Total Cholesterol: 210                                                                                                                                Triglycerides: 185                                                                                                                                       HDL: 30                                                                                                                                                      LDL: 143

Now my doc is starting to get more comfortable with my results.  Of course when I started he was a little wigged out about my fat intake (about 70% of daily caloric intake), but now I had proof that what he had been taught was a lie.  Didn’t matter.  He didn’t believe me.  I even had the data on my phone.  You see, I religiously tracked everything that went in my mouth.  I could tell you grams and calories.  I tried to show him, but you could tell he was in a hurry to get to the next patient.  Especially since I couldn’t possibly be telling the truth.  But, since my blood work had improved, he gave me the ok to go another year without a blood test.  So let’s get to that one.

Bloodwork 11/11/11

Total Cholesterol: 196                                                                                                                             Triglycerides: 139                                                                                                                                       HDL: 38                                                                                                                                                      LDL: 130

So my total is now normal.  Of course, what is considered “normal” is a totally made up benchmark of 200 but hey, it is at least one area in my life where I can say I’m normal.  My trigs are in the normal range too.  I am a little irritated that my HDL is taking so long to come up, but at least it’s headed in the right direction.

Now many people who read this are probably what I like to call fatophobes.  They fear eating fat because they think it will cause their heart to seize with cholesterol.  I am living proof that that is simply not the case.  The best indicator of impending heart doom is your trigs/HDL ratio.  Mine is still not what I would like, but its getting better.  You know what raises your trigs?  It’s all those heart healthy whole grains you’re eating along with the sugar that replaced the fat you eschew.  It also happens to be what raises your blood sugar which over time leads to type 2 diabetes.  I forgot to tell those stats.  When this all started, my fasting blood sugar was 131.  Pre-diabetic.  One of the meds he was going to give me was metformin.  I refused that one too.  Just like all the other symptoms of metabolic syndrome, I cured it naturally with a healthy high fat/low carb diet.  At the last blood test, my blood sugars were 89, aka normal.

I have a theory that nobody ever tells you how easily you can cure all the symptoms of metabolic syndrome with a proper diet because it would hurt the pocketbooks of big pharma.  Instead, you have groups like the American Diabetic Association telling diabetics, with insulin resistance no less, to load up on the very stuff that will further spike blood glucose: grains.  Give me a break.  If it weren’t so deadly, I would seem like a joke.

One thing I haven’t mentioned is weight.  When I started I weighed 268 lbs.  I have no idea what I weigh now.  I go off of how my clothes fit and how I look.  The last time I weighed, I weighed 175, so that would be 93 lbs lost.  But I know since I have started working out with crossfit I have put on some pounds, but they are the good kind.  I have some before-ish and after pics to show you.  I say before-ish, because these were taken in June of 2010, three months after I started.  I was down to the 230’s at that point.  This year is going to be about toning all that flab that years of stretched out skin can create.  I am excited that I can see the beginnings of abs.  Who knew I had those?

Before-ish/after (turn your head sideways for the after.  I can’t figure out why they pics come in sideways)

 

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So what does high fat/low carb mean?  For me it started with Atkins.  That has since transformed to a more whole foods approach that excludes all legumes and grain.  That is based on Mark Sisson’s Primal Blueprint.  Lately I have been flirting with full on paleo, doing away with dairy too, but I gotta be honest.  Eggs taste better with cheese and coffe is much better with cream compared to coconut or almond milk.  We’ll see what the year brings!