In this video, the creator recounts a personal n=1 experiment where he switched from a high‑fat, animal‑based ketogenic diet to a vegan ketogenic diet for one week. Despite cutting saturated fat, total fat, and adding fiber, his LDL cholesterol increased by 14%. He attributes the rise primarily to a substantial calorie reduction (from ~3,480 to ~2,050 kcal) that caused short‑term weight loss, invoking the lipid energy model and the "lean mass hyper‑responder" phenotype: lean, active individuals on low‑carb diets tend to see LDL rise as the liver produces more cholesterol‑rich particles to transport fatty fuel. He supports this with a meta‑analysis of 41 RCTs (co‑authored with Prof. Adrian Sotomayor) showing an inverse relationship between LDL change and BMI on low‑carb diets, and cites anecdotal cases (including Dave Feldman) where LDL spikes when weight drops into a healthy range. The video also emphasizes the broader goal of democratizing metabolic health through n=1 experiments, encouraging viewers to use at‑home lab kits (SiFox) to track their own data, and promotes curiosity over any specific diet.
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I just went on a vegan diet and my cholesterol actually went up. Not down, but up. In fact, despite eating less saturated fat, more fiber, and even more seed oils, my LDL cholesterol increased by 14%. What the fennel? That's a lot. 14% is actually a pretty big increase. Now, are you surprised? My cholesterol went up on a vegan diet? Are you fully in disbelief? Or, if you're plant-based yourself, are you even a little angry with me? Good! Channel that emotional charge into curiosity, because this wasn't a fluke, it's physiology. And I'm going to show you how I increased my LDL cholesterol on a vegan diet, like a magician revealing his secrets. And then I'm gonna explain to you why you should care. But first, let me start by describing my baseline diet, which I ate for 1 week strictly before going vegan. It featured beef, eggs, fish, cheese, butter, Greek yogurt, and was almost entirely carnivore except for some extra virgin olive oil and macadamia oil I use as some of my personal favorite added fats. But then I switched and went full vegan keto for the next week and switched my diet to one focusing on tofu, with some added vegan protein powder to control for protein between the dietary phases, green vegetables like spinach and Brussels sprouts, some dark chocolate admittedly, and macadamia butter because wouldn't it be a shame to uncouple dark chocolate from nut butter? Mmm, yummy. And then for my added fats, I had macadamia oil, extra virgin olive oil, and some toasted sesame oil, high in PUFA and linoleic acid, as my primary fat sources. Now, my macro breakdowns were as follows. For the animal-based, mostly carnivore ketogenic diet, I was eating 320 grams of total fat per day, with 121 grams of saturated fat per day, 9 grams of net carbs with zero fiber, and 135 grams of protein. Then, for the vegan ketogenic diet, I was eating 158 grams of fat, 29 grams of saturated fat, way, way less than the 121 grams of saturated fat I was eating on my carnivore keto diet, 29 grams of net carbs, 21 grams of fiber, and 135 grams of protein. So protein was controlled. Honestly, my stomach got pretty upset on the vegan diet, as I suspected it would given past attempts. That's just me, my biology, my microbiome, whatever. And it's why I didn't do this vegan phase for longer. Truly, I actually love Brussels sprouts. Especially some Brussels sprouts with some walnuts, maybe a little bit of cranberry. Oh, so good. But Brussels sprouts don't love me. But that's besides the point. Despite eating less total fat, less saturated fat, and more fiber and zero cholesterol, on the vegan keto diet, my total and LDL cholesterol actually went up. Now, are you ready for me to reveal the magic trick? Are you sure you can handle the truth? The reason my LDL cholesterol went up on the vegan keto diet as compared to the carnivore-esque keto diet was calories. Yes, I said it, calories. On the carnivore-like keto diet, I was eating 3,479 calories, which is around maintenance for me, and my weight didn't change. And on the vegan keto diet, I cut to 2,054 calories per day. Now, while I don't adhere to the idea that calories "cause obesity," quotes there, physiologically speaking, that doesn't mean that calories don't matter, and that an acute drop in calories, an acute dramatic drop, wouldn't cause some weight loss in the short term. And if you want more on the reconciliation of this logic, see this video. Anyway, after controlling for fecal matter thanks to some methodologically necessary laxatives, on the latter diet, I actually lost 4.2 pounds on my keto vegan diet, driving up my LDL. Wait, what? Okay, let's unpack that a little bit. In fact, we already know from a set of meta-analyses of 41 human randomized control trials published by myself and colleagues, including first author Professor Adrian Sotomayor, good friend of mine, that there is an inverse association between LDL cholesterol change and body mass index on low-carb diets. In fact, if you do the meta-analyses broken up by BMI categories, only healthy weight lean populations with BMIs less than 25 as a population see increases in LDL. And the leaner the person is, the higher their LDL goes up, all things being equal. Now, to take a relevant tangent, on the individual level, This is quite shocking. For example, I've seen clinical cases where a patient with a BMI of 42, in the severe obesity range, and an LDL around 80 went keto, and their LDL remained around 80 as they lost weight until they got into the lean healthy range for BMI, and in this case, around BMI of 25, their LDL shot up. Boom! It went from the 80s to the 200s. When they hit that healthy range, healthy BMI range, despite a similar diet. They didn't really change their diet, but as soon as they got into the healthy lean range, their LDL just shot through the roof. Isn't that interesting? Now, our explanation of this phenomenon, the inverse association between LDL cholesterol and BMI on low-carb diets, is at a high level the lipid energy model, which explains how when lean people shift from carb burning to fat burning, the liver makes more cholesterol-containing particles to traffic around fat fuel to muscles to fuel muscles and replenish little fat cells. And the leaner you are and/or more active you are, the greater the demands on this system and the higher your LDL goes up on a ketogenic diet. And if you want more nitty-gritty on that, you can chase the rabbit hole of links I'll provide below. But that's what was likely at play in me here. While saturated fat and fiber can influence cholesterol, including in lean people on keto diets, in lean people on keto diets, the major driving forces for high LDL are how lean and how active the person is. And here my activity was controlled at about 1 hour of resistance training daily. So when I got even leaner from the restricted keto vegan diet, my LDL jumped up, overpowering the comparatively meager influences of saturated fat and fiber on my LDL cholesterol. Now, to be clear, I'm a metabolic outlier in more ways than one. However, this response in a controlled setting should be generalizable to other lean active people on low-carb diets, the so-called lean mass hyper-responder phenotype. And in fact, my friend Dave Feldman did a similar experiment recently where he went from a standard American diet to a vegan ketogenic diet. And if you want his results, you can check out the video that he did linked below. So my results, our results, they aren't flukes, but predictable responses based on understanding of physiology that actually was first demonstrated in n=1 settings. Before being demonstrated in interventional trials, including those past, those present, and presumably those that are being planned and executed on right now. So I want to return to my challenge to you at the beginning of the video to check your emotions. Are you still surprised? Are you excited? Are you angry? Are you confused? All emotions are valid, but not all are adaptive for you. So I suggest you lean into the curiosity. You can feel free to take or leave this advice, but that's what I suggest. Now, I also said I'd explain why you should care, irrespective of if you're carnivore or vegan or anything in between. It's because what I, what we are doing here with N=1 Science represents a democratization of science. With more tools available to me and you, and more information and community resources available, I believe, I truly believe, we can all take charge of our metabolic health and fully and deeply immerse in our own lifelong individual n=1 metabolic health journeys. Doesn't that sound fantastic? It's not about eating tons of eggs or Oreos or going carnivore or vegan. Frankly, I don't care what you eat. I just want you to feel empowered because your health is in your hands. And with that, I actually wanna give a quick plug to SiFox. From the Oreo versus statin study to the 720 eggs to 600 strips of bacon, I do a lot of self-experiments, which also means I get a lot of labs. And going forward, I'm gonna be utilizing SiFox as my n=1 support, and I wanna offer you my discount code, NICK15, because this is a really great and easy platform where you can get loads of data from easy-to-use at-home mail-in kits that are way cheaper than standardized lab tests. This is the democratization of science. It's putting your data in your hands. And if you want more details on checking out that platform, it's really great, just check the links in the video, uh, description. But returning to my main point, you can live every day curious about how your lifestyle impacts your metabolism and how it impacts your physical and mental health. And when you unlock the pleasure in that metabolic health journey. Well, truly, I think that's the secret to health. Not any superfood or supplement, just everlasting metabolic curiosity. Your data in your hands. Your empowerment. That's why we do these n=1 experiments. To inspire you. To inspire us. To start a dialogue about n=1 science, citizen science, and to demonstrate that the scientific process, especially with respect to metabolic health, is something we all can engage in for our individual and community benefits. So anyway, hope you found this fun. Let me know also what other n=1 experiments you might be interested in seeing, because me, Dave, and others, we're gonna be scaling this up big time since there's been a very positive response. And with that, stay curious, live your own n=1 lifestyle, and irrespective of what dietary pattern you choose— carnivore, vegan, anything in between— I would like to just celebrate your successes. Because it truly is about metabolic health. And the proof is in the pudding. Your results there. Doesn't matter how you achieve those results. If it's working for you, nobody has the right to tell you otherwise. Oh, lost it.
