Comments on: How I Lowered my Cholesterol Almost 100 Points in One Year

By: randyb

randyb — Wed, 13 Aug 2014 13:10:38 +0000

In reply to CJS. That's exciting! Keep up the good work. How's it coming now?

By: CJS

CJS — Tue, 25 Feb 2014 13:42:11 +0000

Two years ago aged 47 I was at 269 total with an HDL of 41 and a LDL of 169. I weighed 240lb on my 5’10” so pretty unfit and fat! I have now lost 50lbs over those 2 years and had my cholesterol checked the other day. Total 233 HDL 49 and LDL 159 so pretty disappointing I was told I would need meds but have decided against this and found this site. I’m going to give it a go as a friend of mine took statins in his 40’s and suffered memory issues. I don’t want this for me! I currently run/jog about 2 miles every day but will increase that to 3. I like the idea of eating to better health rather than pills. I love salads but my weakness is cheese…I ADORE cheese…I must make an effort!!!!!! I will report back in 6 months! Thanks for the tips people and good luck to all!

By: OliasofSunhillow

OliasofSunhillow — Tue, 28 Jan 2014 08:22:37 +0000

Hi Lots of common sense, what you are really doing is lowering inflamation which in turn is lowering your cholesterol. I would add that taking Krill oil rather then fish oil may be better as there has been a Canadian study that showed it was far more effective than fish oil. My own experience bares this out. Good luck

By: randyb

randyb — Sat, 07 Dec 2013 15:04:37 +0000

In reply to Erdem. That's really awesome! I've kept mine down since I wrote this article years ago. It can be done!

By: hellomyeggo

hellomyeggo — Sat, 07 Dec 2013 14:04:56 +0000

…and I forgot to say, which I wanted too, and I’m sorry about it… is that the author of this article did a REALLY good job of explaining and telling you the right things that worked!

By: hellomyeggo

hellomyeggo — Sat, 07 Dec 2013 13:51:28 +0000

Okay… I just had to comment on this! I’ve been trying to lower my cholestrol for the past 3 months. The end on August I had my cholesterol tested, here were my results.

Total cholesterol… 285
LDL (bad)… sadly this box was left blank, but you can imagine it was high.
HDL (good)… 55
Triglycerides… 491

Yeah, Wow!

Okay, now before I get into it I’m going to tell you the good news! After 3 months I had it retested… just a few days ago, and here are the results.

Total cholesterol… 200
LDL (bad)… 110
HDL (good)… 75
Triglycerides… 74

3 months… people!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You can do this… but you have to WANT to do it, and you have to be SERIOUS about it!

I was NOT going to go on any medication for cholesterol!!! Never… I was determined to do this on my own. I was hoping I could do it.

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So now you're wondering what the heck I actually did, right? Well… I'm going to tell ya.

First I got a book from the library called… The complete idiot's guide to the TLC diet / by Diane A. Welland. LOVED the book!!!!!!! Read it from cover to cover, and then went back and read parts of it again! I didn't really know that much about cholesterol and what was good and what was bad before I read the book, so yeah… this was like an eye opener for sure!

Then I stopped eating cookies and crackers, and candy, and anything like that. Just stopped. Which wasn't really that hard for me because I'm more of a salt person than sweet.

No micro popcorn… no chips… the only salty chippy thing I ate was pretzels, and especially those flat smooshed ones that look like a chip, where you can dip it in things like hummus and guac! You find them in the produce section of the grocery store, by the deli.. and I eat them just about every day! To help with my salty snacky fixation.

I now eat a TON of fresh raw veggies… cucumbers/green peppers/carrot sticks… eat them plain or dip them in hummus or fresh guac. Yeah I say guac because I started buying one avacado and letting it ripen for a couple days, use it, and go right back out and buy another one. I ate one every week for sure, well.. actually I split it with my husband so I was only eating half of one at a time.

I started making homemade soup every week… chicken and carrots, and onion, and brown rice! YES I only use brown rice now, and it's very good… and high in fiber, which lowers your cholesterol… and I'm proof of that. And chili… just any ole homemade soup and add the brown rice to it!!! And kidney beans, and black beans… I started eating a LOT more of them in my homemade soups! I ate homemade soup just about every day for lunch, or supper, or even breakfast!!! Lots of veggies and high fiber in there.

I started eating cans of tuna for lunch… I especially like the lemon pepper one… sometimes I'd eat the entire can, right out of the can… for lunch. Have a few raw veggies with it, and those yummy smooshed pretzels… Lots of fiber and protien in there.

I started eating more fish for supper, not not going crazy over it… not even once a week, but that was more than I ate before. Fish, brown rice, broccoli… it was good!

I ate an apple just about every afternoon… and if I could afford the calories I added 1/4 cup of nuts! I completely gave up peanut butter, which I absolutely LOVED!!! But the sweet apple, and the peanuts at the same time was my afternoon mouth watering TREAT!!!

I lost 23 lbs in 3 months…. honest to God!!! And I wasn't like starving hungry either… it was soooo easy! And I've dieted many times before and NEVER had these results! I started keeping a food journel right off… writing down everything I ate. I went to this website and used it for a guide for my personal body. It really helped me stay on track.

http://www.webmd.com/diet/calc-bmi-plus

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AND… I started walking every single day!!!!!!!!!!!! I made up a route in my neighborhood so I didn't have to drive to the gym, or do anything really like exercise, because honestly.. I'm just not into that. I timed it the first couple times I walked it to make sure it last half an hour, walking very briskly. I went down a few blocks and then up.. and then zigzagged my way back home. I usually walked in the mornings because first off I wanted to get it over with so I made sure I actually did it, but then sometimes in the later afternoons I found myself wanting to walk again, so I did! It's a nice time to reflect and think, and whatever… I really kind of grew to like it.. believe it or not.

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So here is what I ate on a typical day…

breakfast… banana/ low fat yogurt/homemade soup
morning snack… raw veggies/hummus
lunch… sandwich on 45 calorie whole wheat bread with lettuce, tomato, cucumber, alfalfa sprouts… anything to add more veggies to my diet. And dill mustard!!! LOVE dill mustard!
afternoon snack… cut up apple/1/4 cup peanuts (peanuts are very high in calories so watch it! If you've eaten a lot of calories already today just skip the nuts.
supper… some sort of lean meat/brown rice/broccoli… or spaghetti with whole wheat noodles, or fish with brown rice and a veggie… we have a lot of salads and guac and hummus and pretzels raw veggies to dip. Be creative, have what you like.. but make sure it falls into the healthy catagory!

Also… VERY important…. I use to LOVE those heavy beers… yeah… LOVED them!!! But I never knew they had like 15-30 carbs in every beer!!! YIKES… know wonder my trigycerides were up that high! I honestly think it was the heavy beers that did it.. because I quite drinking those almost completely.. you see I wrote 'almost' because now and then I treat myself to one or two… (smiles).. but for the most part I drink Miller 64 now when I drink. Yeah.. only 64 calories and only like 2 carbs a beer!!! And it tastes pretty good for a light beer too.

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So that's what I did, what I do… and it's been 3 months and my cholesterol has dropped soooo unbelieveably, and I was sooo scared that the results would come back saying they didn't change much… and I would be discouraged because I REALLY TRIED!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But… Wow… I started laughing on the phone with the nurse because she thought I was on medication for it, and I said, "NOOOOOOO…. I did this on my own!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" And she said, "Well.. whatever you're doing just keep it up.. because it's WORKING!"

And I'm telling you this, because honest to God, you can all do this too!!! You just have to be in the right mind set, and REALLY want to do it, and stick with it and be SERIOUS about it!

You will be soooooo proud of yourself!

By: Erdem

Erdem — Mon, 21 Oct 2013 11:08:34 +0000

I just wanted confirm that all mentioned above worked extremely well for me, I have been trying to lower my cholesterol levels for more than 2 years, but I have never been so serious about it like I was in the last 6 months. I have been on a simple diet: breakfast: muesli+apple or banana, lunch: salad with chicken or fish + half a liter fresh grapefruit juice and, simple and light dinner like clean cut turkey breast, smoked fish+salad, or just pasta diet for 6 months. I gave up read meat completely for the last 6 months, I drank min of 3,5 litres of non carbonated water, I ate lots of fruit and a handfull of almonds or other nuts everyday, the only pills I used are 500 mg vitamin C pills and for omega 3-6 support I took daily 3 X 1000 mg fish oil pills. In terms of excercise I did min. 4 times a week 7-10 km (4-6,5 miles) runs. I lost 11-12 kg weight, my total cholesterol came down from 264 to 175 this week only. I wanted to share my experience but also wanted to state that with cholesterol there is no easy way of progress, it goes down very slowly and you need to be consistent. it is a bit frustrating at times not being able to eat what you want especially sweets etc, but thank god my wife is into baking healthier options like cupcakes, home made apple pie and I tasted those without exaggerating the amounts. I feel great now, once the diet becomes your norm after a month or so, you do not get cravings for other stuff. My doctor told me I could not lower it without pills as she believes that I have it in the family, she told me that I need to take Zocor. I actually bought a package and carry it in my bag all the time, everytime I reach to take something from my bag, I know it is there, so I know I have to be careful. After reading articles about side effects of Statin, I think I will stick to my boring diet and running. Hopefully I will continue to feel great, look better, still keep it under control. If you are consistent with your lifestyle, you can lower it to normal levels as well.

By: karlyn

karlyn — Tue, 16 Jul 2013 01:26:09 +0000

this was very useful info thanks.

By: Leona Smith

Leona Smith — Tue, 25 Jun 2013 03:07:50 +0000

About 3 years ago, My doctor told me that I have a high rish for heart attack and my high cholesterol was high. so at my age I have to start cholesterol medicine right away. I’m about at my age now when my dad was when he had his first heart attact. I was willing to do whatever the doctor told me. I did all the heart healthy diet, exercies, and cholesterol medicine. It was a lot of work to get used to. But my LDL dropped, and my HDL went up. And 8 months later, I was fit, I’d lost weight, and I felt great. I was golden. After a year or so of keeping up with my heart-healthy routine, I decided to make a change. “I figured I was ready to stop taking the cholesterol medicine. As long as I kept up with the healthy eating and exercise, I could keep my cholesterol down. It made sense to me, anyway.”

By: Shannon

Shannon — Mon, 20 May 2013 22:06:48 +0000

This is very helpful! Thanks for posting. I will get on the ball and have mine checked again in 6 months and see if I can do just as well as you.