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Vegan Cholesterol levels!


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I just had a health screening and got my cholesterol levels checked... my LDL (bad cholesterol) was so low the machine assumed error! Total cholesterol should be less than 200 and mine was less than 100 but I couldn't get an exact number because the machine doesn't calculate that low (what the screener told me). And my good cholersterol was 54 (for women optimal is 50-60). So I am so pleased (but not surprised) by the screening!

 

Everything else was really good as well (blood glucose, blood pressure, etc.) The only thing I found odd was that I had a good BMI but only "acceptable" Body Fat percentage. The screener said that is likely because I do much more cardio than muscle building workouts so even though I am "fit" I don't fall into that category because of less muscle mass. I'm still a bit baffled by the explanation but I suppose it makes sense. I'd better hit the gym more for some weight-training to balance out my mountain-climbing cardio I guess!

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awesome news! on the body fat thing most healthy women have body fat between 20 and 30 percent. athletes come in at 15-20 percent. I believe it is hard for a women to get under 10 percent. So your probably in the 20ish area even though your lean so I wouldn't worry about it. sounds like your doing great.

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Yeah, I get the total cholesterol below 100 thing, and they always tell me it is an error. My friend Ted says the same thing happens when he gets his checked. The assume it is impossible to have cholesterol that low, even though a large majority of the non-Western world has cholesterol below 150 and below 100 is very common.

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awesome news! on the body fat thing most healthy women have body fat between 20 and 30 percent. athletes come in at 15-20 percent. I believe it is hard for a women to get under 10 percent. So your probably in the 20ish area even though your lean so I wouldn't worry about it. sounds like your doing great.

 

This is the chart I was presented with (female):

12-15% Essential fat

16-20% Athlete

21-24% Fit

25-31% Acceptable

32+% High

 

I think my exact % was 27.

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awesome news! on the body fat thing most healthy women have body fat between 20 and 30 percent. athletes come in at 15-20 percent. I believe it is hard for a women to get under 10 percent. So your probably in the 20ish area even though your lean so I wouldn't worry about it. sounds like your doing great.

 

This is the chart I was presented with (female):

12-15% Essential fat

16-20% Athlete

21-24% Fit

25-31% Acceptable

32+% High

 

I think my exact % was 27.

 

That's great. If your working out and feeling good I wouldn't get worried about it because your in a good range.

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Cool with your cholesterol! However I must say that I have friends who have screwed up numbers since they eat so much refined products (read margarine and sugar) but I guess if you work out and eat mostly whole foods you don't need to worry.

 

27% isn't dangerous at all but it might be worth trying to get it down since you don't have much "jiggle room", if you know what I mean...Metabolism slows down when you get older and muscle gain gets harder and harder so usually BF% increases. So for now you're fine but who knows if you're going to keep living this lifestyle your whole life?

 

Below 10% for a woman is seriously unhealthy...

 

Can someone please explain what is so seriously unhealthy? I'm not dissputing it's just that I hear it ll the time without someone backing it up with serious science. I've heard that it messes with hormone levels which makes it harder to get pregnant and there's no red week, but if you don't want to get pregnant that wouldn't be an issue. lease back it up, cause I really really want to read about this.

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Can someone please explain what is so seriously unhealthy? I'm not dissputing it's just that I hear it ll the time without someone backing it up with serious science. I've heard that it messes with hormone levels which makes it harder to get pregnant and there's no red week, but if you don't want to get pregnant that wouldn't be an issue. lease back it up, cause I really really want to read about this.

Why wouldn't the disruption of hormone levels in itself be considered unhealthy and undesirable? If a major system of the body is messed up, that's not a neutral thing. If really low body fat in men messed up their hormone levels and made their testosterone drop and their reproductive systems stop working, would that really be seen as neutral and nothing to be concerned about?

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Why wouldn't the disruption of hormone levels in itself be considered unhealthy and undesirable? If a major system of the body is messed up, that's not a neutral thing. If really low body fat in men messed up their hormone levels and made their testosterone drop and their reproductive systems stop working, would that really be seen as neutral and nothing to be concerned about?

 

Well we don't exatcly now what optimal hormone levels look like I think but we do know that women produce too much estrogen and it causes various diseases. So maybe the "disruption" acctually is a good thing. Most mammals that I know of is only fertile a certain period of each year, it wouldn't be the strangest thing if it was the same for humans. Besides I was only saying what I've heard, I want to see some studies please.

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From what I understand, a female naturally stops menstruating at low body fat levels because the body thinks food is scarce and doesn't want to bring another mouth to feed into the herd, tribe, pack, etc. I don't have any studies, but it makes sense to me. I use this fact against hunters who say they control populations. Animals control populations themselves. Only humans have a problem controlling their population.

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  • 2 weeks later...
Below 10% for a woman is seriously unhealthy...

 

Can someone please explain what is so seriously unhealthy? I'm not dissputing it's just that I hear it ll the time without someone backing it up with serious science. I've heard that it messes with hormone levels which makes it harder to get pregnant and there's no red week, but if you don't want to get pregnant that wouldn't be an issue. lease back it up, cause I really really want to read about this.

 

This article seems to be what you are asking for:

 

http://sportsmedicine.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?zi=1/XJ&sdn=sportsmedicine&cdn=health&tm=107&f=10&su=p284.9.336.ip_p736.8.336.ip_&tt=2&bt=0&bts=0&zu=http%3A//71.18.91.123/downloads/FAT2007.pdf

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  • 4 weeks later...

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