Fatty liver concerns? (Megathread - LOCKED)

John Mitchell said:My LDL is sitting at 3.6, but the lab report says it needs to be under 3.
My HDL is 1.6, though the reference range on my results says anything up to 1.2 is considered normal.

I'm a little confused because I see everyone here mentioning that a total cholesterol level of 5 is fine?

Essentially, LDL and HDL are just lipoproteins—low density versus high density. Think of LDL as the bad stuff and HDL as the good stuff. In plain English, you want your LDL as low as possible and your HDL as high as you can get it.
Total cholesterol is its own beast with its own specific limits, usually around 190 mg/dL. 👋

Kenneth Hernandez67 said:It is quite an interesting observation that two extremely slender individuals in my immediate office circle—people I know for a fact maintain perfectly balanced diets and abstain from alcohol—have been flagged with alarmingly high cholesterol levels. These weren't just outliers on a home test, either; they were confirmed during specialist consultations.

Conversely, we have several noticeably overweight colleagues who indulge in poor dietary habits and excessive drinking, yet their lab results look as pristine as a newborn's. 😁

Perhaps those who are thin are thin simply because they are acutely aware of their genetic predispositions, leading them to exercise a much higher degree of self-discipline regarding their health.

Anthony Harris14 said:Maybe skinny people stay that way because they know their genes are working against them, so they actually watch what they eat.

I mean, seriously, if I'm genetically built to be thin, what am I even supposed to worry about!?
I eat pretty much everything, and honestly, quite a lot of it. I don't really go for greasy stuff, but I definitely don't sit there counting calories or anything like that.