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I'm a 25-year-old, 6'5", 185 lb. guy and just had my first batch of blood work done.

  • Glucose 82
  • HDL 68
  • LDL 192
  • Tri 36
  • Total Cholesterol 267

Safe to say that this is my body on paleo. I've been paleo-ed out for about a year.

The LDL is pissing me off, mostly because I can't stop thinking about it. So like most folks on here would do, I went to PubMed. And great news: I found a paper that said exactly what I wanted it to say! Namely that LDL particle size can be inferred from HDL (positive correlation to particle size), triglycerides (negative correlation), and ratio of HDL to triglycerides (negative correlation).

Question 1: My LDLs are probably fluffier than Jimmy Moore. Is there any reason I should seek to lower my LDL count?

Question 2: I've been trying to lose the last 6-8 pounds of abdominal fat for a couple of months now. Is my triglycerides level going to be of any use in figuring out why things are taking so long down there?

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4 Answers

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Your LDL-C level is likely not a risk to your health in the least bit. All cause mortality is apparently lowest in the 200-240 range (based on epidemiology studies, but still), so you're only just above it. If you'd still like to lower it however, consider removing butter and cream from your diet. If you don't eat dairy, you may just be a susceptible individual.

TGs are great and would have no correlation to abdominal fat. A possible cause is elevated cortisol if you are VLC, but if that's not the case, it may just be that your fat deposition pattern, like most other people, deposits first in that region and leaves it last.

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For the past month, I've been doing vegetables and salad but no fruit. I don't really know what is considered VLC, but I'm probably there. Travis, are you of the camp that would recommend adding back some carbs to ditch the plateau? If so, would you mind throwing me a couple of helpful links? – tonysolo Aug 27 2011 at 13:27
Try doing exactly what you're doing now, but eat a sweet potato right before bed. It won't interfere with appetite or insulin during the day and it will decrease cortisol and replete some glycogen. I stuff myself with a lot more sweet potato than that right before bed (and after a 2 mile walk in the morning). Then throughout the day I only eat meat. Works surprisingly well. – Travis Culp♦ Aug 27 2011 at 17:52
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The last 5 lbs is the absolute hardest to lose. It CAN NOT be done with diet alone. It will have to be a combination of very strict diet and intense exercise. In my experience, (I weigh 172 lbs down from a fluffy 210. It is taking longer to lose the last 2% of BF than it did to lose the other 35ish lbs. Consistency, COnsistency, Consistency. I am slowly chipping away at it but it can and will get frustrating. So if you aren't working out, start. If you can clean the diet up some more, do it. Cortisol gets mentioned a lot but I don't know anything about it. Stay focused and it will happen one day.

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Your current BMI and waistline would be helpful here....I couldn't lose weight below 27 BMI with diet alone, and the lower my weight got the more I became dependent on exercise to lose. I called it quits at 25 BMI and 35" waist, which puts me in healthy range for control of visceral fat. As far as the high LDL I'd recommend getting the particle size run if you can afford it.

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Paul Jaminet over at PHD has had done some very interesting posts on lipids in the last couple months. http://perfecthealthdiet.com/?cat=136 I think you might find some of his work interesting. He also had a commenter on one of his recent thyroid posts who reduced his ldl with T3, suggesting thyroid problems might be behind some cases of high ldl.

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Cool, thanks for the link, Kate. – tonysolo Aug 27 2011 at 13:28

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