I am male, 36, and my total cholesterol with a diet of lots of fat and high carbs is 185. I have HDL of 54, LDL is 123, and triglycerides of 41. I exercise about 10 hours a week so I think this must be a small help, at least for my HDL. For a few weeks before I had this latest test with these numbers, I was eating 3 egg omelettes five times a week on average. Does this mean I don't have any reason to change my diet or worry? I have no other risk factors for heart disease.

The exercise probably has been helpful in keeping your HDL up and it sounds like you are at minimum risk for heart disease. Recommendations are HDL above 55 for men so there is room for improvement. However, the high fat diet can lead to other health problems such as cancer. Yes, I would say there is good reason to change at least the diet.

pws,

I think your lipid numbers are quite excellent and at a low cardiac risk.
Next time have them do homocysteine and C-reactive protein (CRP) to round out the whole picture, especially with regards arterial inflammation.

Just on principle though, I'd vary the breakfasts a bit. Eating anything on a near daily basis is apt to cause something untoward eventually....if only an allergy.

Isn't a daily omelette DULL? I'm an avid egg eater but 2 eggs every second day seems like a lot of egg meals to me. Fifteen eggs a week is REALLY a lot.

[This message has been edited by zip2play (edited 09-18-2003).]

I agree that certainly any diet should have plenty of fiber in it and not too much saturated fat. Probably not enough fiber is what has caused my parents to have advanced cases of diverticulosis even though they are at that age when almost everyone shows some of it.
It's the cholesterol and fat angle that I have been questioning, primarily since I think that the majority of this stuff is determined by genetics. I guess by the newer standards, my LDL is good but not great and maybe should be closer to about 100.
Oh, I love omelettes because I get them at this great place that specializes in only breakfast thru lunch and then they close early. They make like 12 different ones and they are brilliant. Sometimes I get their French toast which has wheat germ sprinkled on, is much lower in fat and cholesterol, and it is topped with a bunch of natural fruit.
Regarding HDL, I can certainly vouch for the connection between exercise and raised HDL. When I used to be an inactive teenager (and of course, loaded with testosterone), my HDL showed 29. As I exercised more and more per week as the years went by, my HDL has risen and finally is at that 54 number. I cannot say that this isn't because my really high testosterone numbers fell over the last 15 years... but my HDL certainly started rising fast after I began a lot of exercise.
Thanks for the replies.