Enter my latest psychosis: the ketogenic diet.
I adopted the diet and faithfully followed the protocol only refusing to stick myself with glucose meters ketone test strips. I wrote down everything I ate and spent a full 6 weeks at an average intake of 1500 calories, 66% from fat, 28% protein, 6% carbohydrate. For me this was a calorie restricted diet that took me from 138 lb to a low of 127.6. A good portion of this was fat loss, as I could that my belly fat rapidly disappeared. In addition, I was never hungry, could easily fast, comfortably skipping some meals entirely.
The downside was that my energy levels were all over the place, sometimes extremely high but usually extremely low. I wasn't sure how much of this was caused by low carbs or just low calories, but I was consistantly dropping weight. I decided to write off the fatgue to calorie restriction.
Enter the fatal diagnosis : Total cholesterol of 307.
At the approximately the 6 week mark I went to the doctor for a blood test. While my cholesterol into the diet had not been low at 240 it was now over 300. The doctor's office was alarmed. "10mg of Crestor, start immediately!" they said. I decided to speak to the doctor personally before starting statins.
I panicked, abandoned ketogenisis and reached for the oatmeal. I made matters worse by dosing on Italian Bread, glasses of wine and piles of Hershey's kisses. I fell into a stupor and awoke feeling awful.
It hit me that alchohol and carb fests might not be the answer I was searching for.
LDL on a Keto Diet.
I was frustrated. All my blood markers had improved on a keto diet except two: blood sugar snd LDL Cholesterol. (Triglycerides yet to be determined).
I started researching the literature to discover that LDL levels on a keto diet where just as likely to rise as to fall!
HDL seemed pretty consistently fall, along with triglycerides and blood sugar. But LDL was all over the map. What the keto adherents wanted you to belive is that a rise in LDL was essentially meaningless in terms of risk for heart attack or stroke. That one belief was more than my doctor could bear. "I want your LDL down to 110," she said. "I won't accept any thing kess."
