Bulking and Cholesterol

Diet and Nutrition
1

I have been steadily making progress gaining weight mainly because I changed from drinking skim to whole milk and changing to beef/bison from chicken the past year in order to get in more calories. I also consume about 6-7 eggs every day. The only problem I have now that I have gained significant weight/muscle (6’1 238) is that my cholesterol has gone from 170 to 218 and ldls to 140.

My question is what do you suggest I try to change in my diet or would adding in some cardio help with this? All other bloodwork stuff is normal. Thanks

2

VItamin D3 in OIL form, is the best cure for high cholestrol, but its

MUST BE D3
AND OIL form not dry tablet form.

3

Oats also help lower cholesterol.

4

[quote]300andabove wrote:
VItamin D3 in OIL form, is the best cure for high cholestrol, but its

MUST BE D3
AND OIL form not dry tablet form.

[/quote]

I researched which foods this vitamin is found in and wild salmon seems to have this vitamin as well. I am thinking eating more salmon could help with my cholesterol?

5

Update:

While I always like getting advice from more experienced guys on this site, I did find a useful article called “Bad Blood” by Cy Wilson.

I think adding a little cardio might do the trick for me.

If anyone else (particularly bulkers who have gone through this) has some more advice, keep it coming in. Thanks.

6

coq10 has also been shown to lower cholesterol at 100 - 300mg per day.

7

The culprit is almost certainly high saturated fat intake. Stop just looking at what to add in and look at what to take out. Some people can eat a lot of saturated fat without negatively affecting their blood lipid profile and others cannot. Saturated fat can effectively change how well or poorly your liver processes stuff.

Dietary cholesterol itself has very little effect on blood cholesterol in most people.

But for both saturated cat and dietary cholesterol there is going to be huge individual variation.

I am guessing you are gettin a lot of sattys between all the red meat and eggs and cheese and need to cut back and balance your diet better. It sucks but that’s just the way it is.

Get some fish oil too.

8

I’m pretty sure it would. The omega 3s in it should help too… Add some extra good quality fish oil caps (e.g Flameout) in the mix too if you don’t already take them.

9

[quote]iamthewolf wrote:
coq10 has also been shown to lower cholesterol at 100 - 300mg per day.[/quote]

Good cholesterol is between like 180 and 230 or something… where are you getting this number? You’d have negative cholesterol numbers.

10

[quote]msd0060 wrote:
iamthewolf wrote:
coq10 has also been shown to lower cholesterol at 100 - 300mg per day.

Good cholesterol is between like 180 and 230 or something… where are you getting this number? You’d have negative cholesterol numbers.[/quote]

Read what he wrote one more time

11

[quote]actionjeff wrote:
The culprit is almost certainly high saturated fat intake. Stop just looking at what to add in and look at what to take out. Some people can eat a lot of saturated fat without negatively affecting their blood lipid profile and others cannot. Saturated fat can effectively change how well or poorly your liver processes stuff.

Dietary cholesterol itself has very little effect on blood cholesterol in most people.

But for both saturated cat and dietary cholesterol there is going to be huge individual variation.

I am guessing you are gettin a lot of sattys between all the red meat and eggs and cheese and need to cut back and balance your diet better. It sucks but that’s just the way it is.

Get some fish oil too. [/quote]

Thanks for the info. I will definitely cut down on the saturated fat, add a little extra cardio and see what happens.

Since I am cutting down on the fat intake, in order to get more calories from something else, do you recommend that I raise my carbs instead?

12

Cut down on the Sat fat, up your Unsat fat. Calories stay the same.

13

[quote]300andabove wrote:
VItamin D3 in OIL form, is the best cure for high cholestrol, but its

MUST BE D3
AND OIL form not dry tablet form.

[/quote]

Reference?

14

[quote]Footsolider88 wrote:
I have been steadily making progress gaining weight mainly because I changed from drinking skim to whole milk and changing to beef/bison from chicken the past year in order to get in more calories.

I also consume about 6-7 eggs every day. The only problem I have now that I have gained significant weight/muscle (6’1 238) is that my cholesterol has gone from 170 to 218 and ldls to 140.

My question is what do you suggest I try to change in my diet or would adding in some cardio help with this? All other bloodwork stuff is normal. Thanks[/quote]

What has your doctor recommended? Remember, there are skinny and ‘ripped’ people with high cholesterol, too (genetic propensity for high cholesterol).

What was your triglycerides number?

I eat what you posted (ie lots of eggs, steak, whole milk) on the order of 3-4000 cals and my cholesterol plummeted. What you posted-- how many cals does that add up to daily? I’m asking because are you being honest in that the weight you gained is muscle or is it fat.

How much are you cheating (chips, sweets, etc) from what you posted? What’s your green veggie intake (and fiber) like?

15

[quote]SteelyD wrote:
Footsolider88 wrote:
I have been steadily making progress gaining weight mainly because I changed from drinking skim to whole milk and changing to beef/bison from chicken the past year in order to get in more calories.

I also consume about 6-7 eggs every day. The only problem I have now that I have gained significant weight/muscle (6’1 238) is that my cholesterol has gone from 170 to 218 and ldls to 140.

My question is what do you suggest I try to change in my diet or would adding in some cardio help with this? All other bloodwork stuff is normal. Thanks

What has your doctor recommended? Remember, there are skinny and ‘ripped’ people with high cholesterol, too (genetic propensity for high cholesterol).

What was your triglycerides number?

I eat what you posted (ie lots of eggs, steak, whole milk) on the order of 3-4000 cals and my cholesterol plummeted. What you posted-- how many cals does that add up to daily? I’m asking because are you being honest in that the weight you gained is muscle or is it fat.

How much are you cheating (chips, sweets, etc) from what you posted? What’s your green veggie intake (and fiber) like?

[/quote]

I am picking up a copy of my bloodwork tomorrow because I like to keep them for my own personal records as well and I will look them over.

I’ll check to see what my triglycerides were as well but the only order from the doctor was to watch my diet (yeah I know pretty generic) and everything else she said was normal.

I eat a lot more than 3000 calories and the amount of other foods besides the milk, steak, eggs you eat/drink might be different than me. Yes I eat vegetables and on days when I get maybe two servings in, I make sure to at least get some V-8. As far as fiber goes, I make sure to eat blueberries,apples and I mix plenty of oats in with my shakes.

Obviously any sane bulker knows that some fat will be gained and I did gain some fat but the amount of muscle I gained was more significant. I also didn’t just start eating huge amounts of food right away. I have been gradually increasing the food I eat since I started and I was below 200 lbs 3 years ago.

But I made much more progress/gains after I stopped worrying so much about minutia and whether or not my drumming would be affected by weight gain(and it hasn’t been, actually it has gotten better).

I also stopped writing down what I was eating after a couple of years and instead took pics every month, went by my progress in the weight room and weighed myself every other day (as well as asking questions and listening to experienced people on this site) along with getting routinely checked at the doc.

I guess I should start posting comparison pics from when I joined close to three years ago. It would give people an idea of the difference and the work I have put in but I am posting honestly, truthfully and would not even think of exaggerating what I have worked hard for.

As far as cheats go, I don’t eat empty calories i.e donuts, cake, chips, etc but I will have a few slices (and few means 3 or 4 the most) of pizza once or twice a week and it is never more than that but now I will cut it down to once a week or none depending on my progress and bloodwork stats.

16

Jun 06 173lbs

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July 3 2007
202 lbs

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Dec 1 2008 236 lbs

19

Oats do not lower ldl.
Vitamins do not lower ldl.
Saturated Fats do not raise ldl.
Dietary cholesterol does not raise ldl.

Having poor carbohydrate tolerance and poor insulin sensitivity(Read: Being a fatass) leads to increased ldl.

Stop eating so many carbohydrates, consume significant* amounts of EPA and DHA(Fish Oil is not the same thing as omega-3 is not the same thing as EPA and DHA).

Eat appropriate* amounts a soluble and insoluble fiber and include balanced* fatty acid intake in your diet.

*what is significant, appropriate, and balanced is a few dozen hours of research and several separate threads worth of questions and answers.
“WHY” is several hundreds of hours of research AT LEAST

Luckily, you have the internets including, of course, T-Nation at your disposal.

Good luck.

20

looks like the anti-fat/high carb dogma people are trolling the forums more these days