If you are obese and have high cholesterol, losing weight should help lower your cholesterol, as well as the risk of other obesity-related conditions, such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Losing just 10 pounds may be enough to improve cholesterol levels. If you are overweight or obese, get rid of extra pounds.
Weight loss
helps lower LDL cholesterol.Even a small to moderate weight loss of just 10 to 20 pounds can have an impact. Start by reducing portion sizes. Try filling half the plate with non-starchy vegetables, a quarter with whole grain starch, and the other quarter with lean protein. Instead, choose calorie-free drinks as your primary source of fluids.
Keep your hunger levels in mind to limit the extra calories from meaningless snacking. A person who is overweight or obese can help lower their blood cholesterol levels by reaching a moderate weight. According to the Mayo Clinic, you may be able to significantly lower your cholesterol levels if you lose 5 to 10% of your body weight. First, although comparisons between weight loss groups clearly showed that the degree of improvement in risk factors was related to the amount of weight loss, the observed improvements were not necessarily attributable solely to weight loss.
While the absence of long-term data represents a shortcoming, examining the relationship between the degree of weight loss and changes in risk factors that occur in a relatively brief intervention is a novel contribution. One of the reasons why being overweight or obese increases your chances of having high cholesterol is because it affects how the body produces and delivers lipoproteins, including cholesterol and triglycerides, another fatty substance, or lipids, that the body needs in small amounts. Losing weight can help with cholesterol levels because it can reduce the amount of fat you have in your body and lower your chances of getting inflammation. Weight loss was calculated as the difference between the participant's initial weight (visit) and the weight in the last week of attendance.
The current study expands on these findings by evaluating the benefits of varying degrees of moderate weight loss among a heterogeneous sample of participants in a moderate-intensity, relatively short-term, community-based obesity treatment program. Meanwhile, current results support the message that 5-10% weight loss is good and greater loss is even better. Every 10 pounds you are overweight causes your body to produce up to 10 milligrams of extra cholesterol each day. In one study, people who lost at least 5% of their weight significantly reduced their LDL, total cholesterol and triglyceride levels.
Significant major effects were further explored with Tukey's post hoc HSD tests between pairs of weight loss groups. Among a small sample of hypercholesterolemic women who had lost weight in an intensive 48-week program, subjects who maintained a loss of 5 to 10% and those with a loss of 10% showed significant improvement in total cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol. Change in risk factors by weight loss group and sex, in patients with elevated baseline risk factors. Weight loss of 5 to 10% resulted in improvements in cardiovascular risk factors, but greater weight loss was associated with even greater improvement.
The overall decrease in HDL cholesterol in the present study was somewhat disappointing given the commonly assumed weight loss benefits of this cardioprotective lipoprotein.
