Can eating Sterol spread make you lose weight?

Posted , 4 users are following.

Hi all!

I'm new to Cholesterol issues, having been told by my Doc that I have slightly high levels. Given a 4.5% chance of heart problems (low, I know, but he was still concerned).

I have IBS, which means I can't eat the usual cholesterol-reducing foods.

I thought I'd try a cholesterol-reducing sterol spread, to see if it would reduce the levels.

However, two months in, and I find I have lost about a stone in weight, which is not good news for me, as I only weighed about 9.5 stone before! I'm down to 8.5 stone and getting worried!

Can sterols inhibit the absorbtion of fat to such an extent that I'd lose this amount of weight? I don't eat a lot of fat anyway (cheese and butter being about the only things. Oh, and the occasional sausage!)

I'm a 45-year-old male, incidentally!

Any advice of insight would be great. 

1 like, 3 replies

3 Replies

  • Posted

    Hi FroodyDude

    plant sterols shouldn't cause such extreme weight loss, in fact all they are is plant cholesterol. They work simply by replacing human cholesterol with plant, this means our bodies are lead to believe we have enough cholesterol so production is slowed down. When a test is done our human cholesterol is lower than previously but all we've done is replace it with plant cholesterol, which I may add might not be a good thing. There have yet to be any studies to show how our bodies react to taking in plant cholesterol so I personally wouldn't take them in any form.

    as far as weight loss can I ask if you've been advised ( wrongly) by doctor to cut out fat? Or eat low fat? If yes then this could be your weight loss problem.

    all animal fat is good for us, by animal fat I mean saturated, so sausages and in fact all meat is fine to eat. Man made fat like sunflower oil, vegetable oil etc is a no go, they are very bad for us, 

    full dairy is also good, full cream, milk and cheese etc and the best thing to use on bread is old fashioned butter, no marg or spreads.

    the medical profession are finally realising how wrong they've been to discard saturated fat so please research on Internet to find I haven't lost my marbles 😄.

    your weight lost could have something to do with plant sterols as I mentioned earlier there has been no study to establish exactly how our bodies react to plant cholesterol apart from showing a lower human cholesterol reading.

    id suggest not using any plant sterol for at least a month and see if there's any further weight loss.

    hope that helps

    sonya

  • Posted

    Hi FroodyDude

    I wouldn't have thought just switching to a sterol spread would cause such weight loss, unless of course you are allergic to the sterolds.  Perhaps it's the IBS that is causing the weight loss.  I say this because although I haven't got IBS, I have got high cholesterol and recently embarked on a daily Flora Pro-Active drink.  Within a couple of weeks I started experiencing bowel changes, having to visit the loo more than once a day, so I gave it up.  A couple of months later I thought I would try it again but I experienced the same side effect.  I am assuming that perhaps I am allergic to the plant sterols in the Flora drink.  I keep meaning to try one of the other makes to see how I react, in case it isnt actually the plant sterols but something else in the Flora drink.

    If you eat a lot of red meat, you could try reducing that to see if it helps with your cholesterol.  Oily fish is good because of the beneficial omega 3 it contains.

  • Posted

    Hi FroodyDude,

    I have read your comment and I think it could very possible that your weight loss is linked to cholesterol-reducing sterol. I have found in many experiments that Plant sterols could produce significant weight loss. Could you tell me more about your story? I am veri intrested in knowing what have happened to you in these two years sin your last post.

    Regards,

    Marco Antonio Vazquez Elias MD. 

Report or request deletion

Thanks for your help!

We want the community to be a useful resource for our users but it is important to remember that the community are not moderated or reviewed by doctors and so you should not rely on opinions or advice given by other users in respect of any healthcare matters. Always speak to your doctor before acting and in cases of emergency seek appropriate medical assistance immediately. Use of the community is subject to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy and steps will be taken to remove posts identified as being in breach of those terms.