I follow Jimmy Moore regularly on twitter and a few months ago he tweeted something that really got my attention: he managed to normalize his cholesterol!
The thing is, he hasn’t been posting his results in the typical blog format and instead has been reading them off on video-logs (vlogs) on Periscope which I’ve been too lazy to install.
I’ve finally hunkered down and figured out how to use Periscope and watched the episode where he revealed his results. Of course I took some notes and will share them here.
Jimmy’s been struggling with high cholesterol since at least 2008. Despite going keto (and being the person who introduced it to me), his cholesterol never improved. If you’d like to read some more about his background, I’ve written a few posts on his blood test results here:
- Thoughts on Jimmy Moore’s Latest Health Test Results (From Fall 2014)
- Thoughts on Jimmy Moore’s Summer 2015 Health Test Results
If you’d like to learn more about Jimmy you can check out his blog at LivingLaVidaLowCarb.com or read his books Cholesterol Clarity and Keto Clarity which I’ve reviewed here and here.
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Jimmy Moore’s Periscope Notes:
- He went on a 17.5 day fast where he only consumed:
- Bone broth with sea salt
- Water
- 1 Kombucha
- Total calories per day is around 100.
- He planned to go longer, but ended it at 17.5 days because he was feeling hungry and woozy, which he partly attributes to stress and his travel schedule.
- No exercise
- Lost about 19 lbs over the course of the fast
- He checked his blood prior to the fast and then immediately after the fast
Fasting Insulin: 10 —> 13.9
Jimmy thinks this went up because of his weight loss, with glucose being released along with all of the fat stores he’s mobilizing, subsequently inducing insulin release.
HS-CRP: 1.6 —> 0.94
NMR Lipoprofile
Total Cholesterol: 295 —> 195
LDL-C: 216 —> 131
HDL-C: 61 —> 50
Triglycerides: 90 —> 68
LDL-P: 2889 —> 1664
Small LDL-P: 1446 —> 587
Lp (a): 441 —> 143
He’s never seen changes like this without drugs.
People that have a high Lp (a) can do the best with fasting according William Davis.
Jimmy ends the vlog by saying that he does expect some of these numbers to go up when he ends the fast, but he plans to fast every couple of months and eat keto in between.
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My Thoughts
Seeing these changes in his numbers is truly astounding. Good for him. As with my prior posts, I’ve compiled his numbers into a table here:
When viewed in the context of all of his prior blood tests, WOW. His total cholesterol and LDL-C are at the lowest they’ve ever been and his LDL-P and Small LDL-P have returned to their 2008-2009 levels.
Now I haven’t watched the prior JimmyScopes to see why he decided to do this fast, but it’s certainly interesting to see how fasting can affect his lipids.
The funny thing is that around this same time, I had brought my own cholesterol down (Did My Anti-Cholesterol Game Plan Work? YES!). After coming up with My Anti Cholesterol Gameplan, my lipids improved to a similar degree as Jimmy’s… without the pain of having to fast.
Now it’s important to mention that our cholesterol issues may be due to different causes. I’ve discovered that I’m both a cholesterol hyperabsorber and a hypersynthesizer (Reviewing the Labs My Lipidologist Ordered), and to the best of my knowledge I don’t think Jimmy has ever taken a sterol absorption/synthesis test.
He does mention many times that he’s attempting to address his underlying insulin resistance, so I’m guessing that he attributes his lipid issues to hypersynthesis… but this is all speculation on my part.
Now I don’t have what it takes to fast for 17+ days, especially with all the BJJ and weight lifting that I do, but I’m glad Jimmy took it upon himself to do this experiment and publicize his results. It’s definitely another tool to add to the toolbox.
What do you think? Would you fast for more than 2 weeks to bring your cholesterol down?
If you want to see Jimmy’s full video for yourself, check it out here:
So he goes off his fast – guess what – his TC goes back up to 278 and his LDL-C to 200.
Learns nothing – BTW – when he started his 17+day fast his weight had gone up to 330 lbs – if you look at his 12/31 video of his DEXA scan it shows his weight at 295 – add the weight he claims to ahve lost and kept off from his first 2 fasts and you get 330+ lbs.
SO – his diet DOESN’T WORK at all
I didn’t realize that’s what his weight went up to… wow. Kind of scary.
Jimmy Moore was the very first person that I followed and have read all of his books. He has taught me a lot.
I follow Jimmy and all of his podcast and I believe their are a couple of things he has been doing for the last year plus that i believe is the cause of his issues specific to weight and particles:
My opinion:
1. He eats unlimited amount of saturated fat without any regard for volume control. Same problem that you have on an Atchins Diet.
2. Per Dr. Davis, when you have high particiles being on a keto diet then you must restrict your saturated fat to bring down the particle numbers.
3. Also when you are trying to lose weight food intake needs to be moderated. The Podcast he conducted in May 2015, last show before summer break, where a DR analysized his numbers online was very good analysis that he dismissed.
4. When trying to lose weight we need to track food intake and this will bring to the forefront his cause.
5. The reason why Dr. Fungs fasting worked for him and his particles dropped is because there was a reduction of saturated fat.
5. I am still a follower of his.
5. I am still a follower of his.
Why??
Jimmy teaches a lot of folks how the keto diet works and really is a one man team on the keto cursade. I have followed the diet and has lost signficiant amount of weight and off all meds. Each person needs to lean how to use the diet and taylor aspects of the diet to fit their situation.
I am no longer a diabetic because of this diet.
Jimmy continues to publish his struggles and accomphisments and I respect this.
I think Jimmy M is blind to the issues that are killing him. Then again, if you make your living off of promoting your diet plans and podcasts then you have to die by it too. Getting to the root cause of why the cholesterol is high is the question we should all be asking. Maybe it’s high because you need more cholesterol? Maybe it’s high due to a gene defect? What if you have a nutritional deficiency? Gut dysbiosis? Etc…Anyway, low carb is a great way to go but if I’ve learned anything from this blog and my own labs, ketogenic is not for everyone. To find out more about what could be causing the issues there are better tests. I like the NutrEval from Genova and the OAT (organic acid test) from Great Plains. This could be really helpful for those that are stuck. I also agree with the comments above. His lipids dropped because he wasn’t eating sat fat.
One more note:
Heavy focus on Cholesterol vs. partical count in this thread. Particles and small LDL way to high and after reviewing it again, look at the A1C of 6 which means a fasting GL of 125. This means he is eating lots of carbs and/or protein intake extremely high and being converted to sugars. FG of 125 is very key to the situation.
For the record, I had a bad month of eating during the holidays and my particles and smLDL balooned as well.
I am hoping for the best for him.
Jimmy Moore blood work a/o a few days ago – Note the extremely high LDL-P and small LDL-P, and the very low total testosterone
https://katch.me/livinlowcarbm…
Jimmy Moore’s latest blood work
LDL-P 2663
Small LDL-P 1277
TG – 129
HDL – 51
TC – 312
Total Testosterone – 378
Iron – 197 Ref Range 40-155
hsCRP – 0.67
Didn’t give his LDL-C, wonder why not? My guess is 200+
Thanks for providing the link and info. This will probably become a future post for me!
Jimmy Moore’s belief that his diet – whichever variant of low carb it happens to be this week – is working lends support to the idea that delusional thinking is another side-effect of keto. As I’ve demonstrated time and again (even with my own stunning weight loss successes), it’s all about CICO. Nothing else.
Yup. Eat less, move Moore…
I agree, there are delusionals in the keto world, and it seems to be getting worse now that keto is becoming more popular, but then again, deluded folks can be found in all corners of the internet in all varying ways of eating, so in my mind it’s just par for the course.
I’d have to agree that calories matter, energy intake matters, and energy output matters… but I’d also have to add that things are a little more nuanced than eat less and move more. When you eat, what you eat matters. How what you eat affects your hormonal milieu also matters. And how each of these affects each of us individually also matters. It’s just complexity upon complexity.
Low carb isn’t the answer for everyone. Neither is high carb. Everybody is different… and it can be damn hard to figure out what works best for your own individual body.
Unfortunately this doesn’t sell and doesn’t bring in the page views.