How to Lower Your LDL Cholesterol when Low Carb (if that’s your thing)

2/ First, you should know that I believe the reason for this higher LDL when metabolically healthy is generally due to being powered by fat, which "ride shares" with cholesterol inside these "boats" called lipoproteins. You can find out more at https://t.co/3DWtQjmx9b

— Dave Feldman (@DaveKeto) November 23, 2019

4/ This isn't say it's a perfect, linear shift. There seems to be a kind of "tipping point" for many (including myself) at around 100g of carbs/day*. As in, if I swap out fat and in carbs, I'll see a substantial drop in my LDL. I showed this 2 years ago: https://t.co/lTJXngkytA

— Dave Feldman (@DaveKeto) November 23, 2019

6/ So yes, my most common tip is:

<1> Simply reduce fat calories to bring up carb calories. Swap, don't add.

— Dave Feldman (@DaveKeto) November 23, 2019

8/ This one is a little more controversial to me, but is in my second tier list:

<3> Reduce saturated fat in favor of mono or polyunsaturated fats (M/PUFAs).

I'm conflicted because I want to confirm the mechanism behind the lower LDL is this context is proper.

— Dave Feldman (@DaveKeto) November 23, 2019

10/ In short, I wonder if there's lower LDL total due in large part to more of them becoming oxidized and being cleared by scavenger receptors. That's hard to test for, but I have an experiment I may be doing soon to help find out.

— Dave Feldman (@DaveKeto) November 23, 2019

12/ <5> Gain more fat mass.

No, I'm not kidding. Again, this fits the energy model. If you have more fat mass vs lean mass, there's less need to traffic fatty acids globally as target tissues have more available locally (or least, this is my model hypothesis).

— Dave Feldman (@DaveKeto) November 23, 2019

14/ Naturally, there's also discussion of getting your LDL down through use of a cholesterol-lowering medication, like a statin. That topic is between you and your doctor.

— Dave Feldman (@DaveKeto) November 23, 2019