Lipids worse on Reta??

[Minkster]

Anyone had their cholesterol numbers get worse on Reta? I've been on Reta for 6 months, lost 25lbs probably have another 15lbs to go. My HDL dropped over 10pts and is too low and my LDL & nonHDL went up a couple points and was already high. Not at all what I was expecting. Only improvements were triglycerides, fasting glucose, and A1c.

 

[WeezinDaJuice]

What is your diet like? Other supplements and are you working out regularly? Reta has helped drive my lipid and glucose numbers down in 3.5 months.

 

[woundcarping]

Anyone had their cholesterol numbers get worse on Reta? I've been on Reta for 6 months, lost 25lbs probably have another 15lbs to go. My HDL dropped over 10pts and is too low and my LDL & nonHDL went up a couple points and was already high. Not at all what I was expecting. Only improvements were triglycerides, fasting glucose, and A1c.

Weight loss can suppress HDL, so can TRT. I’m doing both, my HDL is marginally low, the rest of my last lipid panel was ok (last month). If not before, I’ll be getting labs again next month. I have earlier labs but they’re garbage capillary draws from the home kits before I knew better so they’re not directly comparable.

I started taking fish oil last month, specifically 3-4g/daily of EPA/DHA.

3/16/26

 

[Minkster]

My diet is pretty good but fiber intake could def be better. I'm 58F. I do cardio and fairly heavy weight training 4 days a week. I was just really expecting some improvement in my LDL.

 

[tendency]

My diet is pretty good but fiber intake could def be better. I'm 58F. I do cardio and fairly heavy weight training 4 days a week. I was just really expecting some improvement in my LDL.

Reta didn't do shit for my LDL, in fact, that may have gone up a bit. My triglycerides dropped 25% and my HDL was up 15% so my Tri/HDL ratio is now quite good. LDL is ~200 however.

 

[Minkster]

Reta didn't do shit for my LDL, in fact, that may have gone up a bit. My triglycerides dropped 25% and my HDL was up 15% so my Tri/HDL ratio is now quite good. LDL is ~200 however.

Yeah, my ldl is 154 but my Hdl dropped 12 points and needs to be higher so made my ratio worse. My triglycerides dropped from 110 to 93.

 

[emsjustin]

HDL is very difficult to increase on its own. Most endurance athletes have high HDL due to aerobic activities.

Omega-3 won't help you much...

What made me see great results with my HDL was the combination of 25 minutes of cardio every day + a proper diet.

Another detail: it's more important to check the cholesterol ratio (LDL/HDL). We shouldn't analyze the numbers in isolation.

 

[tubby]

Anyone had their cholesterol numbers get worse on Reta? I've been on Reta for 6 months, lost 25lbs probably have another 15lbs to go. My HDL dropped over 10pts and is too low and my LDL & nonHDL went up a couple points and was already high. Not at all what I was expecting. Only improvements were triglycerides, fasting glucose, and A1c.

A few points (assuming we're talking mg/dL) doesn't really mean anything for LDL or TG. They'd naturally vary a few points from day to day (or probably even hour to hour).

Since HDL is generally on a narrower range and a far more important marker, a drop of 10 mg/dL there is relevant. Have you cut back on your saturated fat intake, perhaps? Many people buy into trying to minimize that and tank their cholesterol levels in the process. Here is an example of what is possible with a saturated fat-maximizing diet (e.g. butter/dairy and coconut oil as primary fat sources).

My HDL level had already been pretty good (I suspect partially due to eating lots of cheese), but switching to a low-carb/keto-style diet and the weight loss that came with it really improved things quite a bit with HDL increasing significantly and TG decreasing significantly over about an 18 month period. I'm skipping an in-between lab result (where everything looked better) since that was taken during a period of weight loss, and both results shown were from periods where my weight was relatively stable, making it a more appropriate comparison.

There's been too strong of a push towards getting LDL down rather than getting HDL up and a significant increase in HDL is far more valuable than a modest reduction in LDL when it comes to cardiovascular health.

 

[tubby]

Should also add (for some reason it won't let me edit the last post) that those results are all pre-GLPs for me. Obviously adding GLPs to the mix would throw another wrench into interpreting before and after lab results.

 

[Minkster]

A few points (assuming we're talking mg/dL) doesn't really mean anything for LDL or TG. They'd naturally vary a few points from day to day (or probably even hour to hour).

Since HDL is generally on a narrower range and a far more important marker, a drop of 10 mg/dL there is relevant. Have you cut back on your saturated fat intake, perhaps? Many people buy into trying to minimize that and tank their cholesterol levels in the process. Here is an example of what is possible with a saturated fat-maximizing diet (e.g. butter/dairy and coconut oil as primary fat sources).

My HDL level had already been pretty good (I suspect partially due to eating lots of cheese), but switching to a low-carb/keto-style diet and the weight loss that came with it really improved things quite a bit with HDL increasing significantly and TG decreasing significantly over about an 18 month period. I'm skipping an in-between lab result (where everything looked better) since that was taken during a period of weight loss, and both results shown were from periods where my weight was relatively stable, making it a more appropriate comparison.

There's been too strong of a push towards getting LDL down rather than getting HDL up and a significant increase in HDL is far more valuable than a modest reduction in LDL when it comes to cardiovascular health.

I'm def probably eating less sat fat, lots of baked chicken breast and broccoli dinners. I was shocked to see my Hdl go from 52 to 41. I've always had borderline high ldl but fair chol/hdl ratio under 5 now my ratio is 5.2.

 

[birdwhacker]

I haven't seen any change in my biomarkers at all. This is because I haven't had labs done in like 5 years. Feels great.