Lowered my Cholesterol

Two months ago I had my cholesterol checked: HDL 46, LDL 158. Doc wanted me to get the LDL down, so he recommended an Ornish-type diet or the “Portfolio Diet”. Basically, these are very low in saturated fat and total fat. I tried my own version of a cholesterol-lowering diet and incorporated Cy Willson’s advice from his old “bad blood” article. Got re-tested yesterday: HDL 46, LDL 106. Had a CRP test done and that was 0.2mg/L. Yes, many people question the correlation between cholesterol numbers and heart disease, but I was pretty damn happy to see those numbers go down. A nice side effect was a 20 lb. weight loss (mostly fat) over that 2 month period.

Rosheem please tell us exactly what you did.

Thanks.

Nice job Rosheem! So how did you achive this…change in diet or exercise or both?

Do you have a link to that Bad Blood article? I get nuthin’ searching the articles.

Nick

Okay, here are the details. Stats: 30 years old, 6’ tall, starting weight 205 lbs. Training before May 1 consisted of lifting 3x/week in the 3 set, 8-12 rep range. I was doing fairly low-intensity cardio about 3x/week consisting mostly of slow treadmill running. Training since May 1: Running outside 4x/week, 30 minutes/day. I was doing 10 minute miles at the beginning, and now they are more like 8 minute miles. Lifting was done 1 or 2x/week just for maintenance. The toughest part of my training was the 12lb. medicine ball/jumprope workouts 3x/week. I did 4 circuits (with a partner) consisting of 4 different medicine ball throwing movements. Each circuit also contained a set of double-jumps with the jumprope. Started with 50 double-jumps/set, now I’m up to 80. Diet: I was very, very consistent-sticking to 2250 calories/day. The diet was very low in saturated fat. Staples included omelettes (4 whites/1 whole egg), tuna, multi-grain bread, Low-Carb Grow!, chicken breasts, lean fish, lots of baby spinach salads with light balsamic dressing; beans, almonds, and lots of grapes, strawberries, blueberries, oranges, and cherries (fruits with high fiber/calories ratio). Supplements included 2 caps fisol (enteric-coated fish-oil) 3x/day, double servings of metamucil 3x/day, and a multivitamin. Most days, no alcohol, but maybe 2x/week I would have 2 light beers. I did have probably 3 big booze nights over the 2 month period, but even then I would eat less that day so my overall calorie consumption stayed within range. My diet before May 1st was generally good on about 3 or 4 days/week and then piss-poor on the weekends (eating out at restaurants, weekend barbeque food, pizza, etc.). Weight today is 185lbs. Most of what I lost was fat. Even though my lifting has not been a priority, I haven’t lost too much strength. My cardio fitness has improved quite a bit. For example, resting heart rate May 1 was around 65, now it’s 46. The challenge now is not to be lulled into a sense of satisfaction and let things slide…instead the goal is to make these lifestyle changes permanent. By the way, about 5 years ago I acheived a very similar weight loss: from 205 to 185, using a drastically different approach. T-dawg style diet with heavy lifting and very little cardio. Let me know if you’re interested and I can highlight the differences between the two approaches in terms of results and my overall observations.

Something must be up with the search function. I couldn’t find it either. Use the “Archives” link at the top of the page and go to 2001. The article was from 6/29/01.

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