Almost 6 months out, Low HDL levels.

I just had a wellness screening and found out that while my total cholesterol is 166, my HDL cholestoral is 28 and should be greater than 40.  
I'm actually pretty stunned.  I've lost nearly 100lbs and I'm exercising.  What's with the low HDL levels?  
Anyone else suffer from low HDL levels despite still excersising? 

Did they recommend that you add good fats in?  I think it has more to do with intake than exercise, and of course the lovely genetics!!!

She actually only recommended exercise when I asked how to increase it. I've been scouring the interwebs for ideas how. So, monounsaturated fats? (....googling foods that contain that!) haha

http://heartdisease.about.com/cs/cholesterol/a/raiseHDL.htm This has a little bit of info.



So the good fats like Olive oil, nuts, ummm... exercise, lose weight, stuff that we've heard for years and are working on already:)

 Awesome!  Thank you, I will check out that site!

Some foods may have a healthy effect on blood cholesterol levels. Some options include:

• Whole grains, such as oatmeal, oat bran and whole-wheat products
• Nuts, such as walnuts, almonds and brazil nuts
• Plant sterols such as beta-sitosterol and -sitostanol (typically found in margarine spreads such as Promise activ or Benecol)
• Omega-3 fatty acids, such as fatty

Mayo clinic has more info...

I get very good HDL readings when I include a lot of nuts, olive oil and avocado in my diet - pistachios, almonds etc - really anything that is high in Omega 3s, including salmon, mackerel, sardines, will help. Exercise helps a bit too!

 Thank you!  I will look into getting some nuts into my daily diet.  I'm not much of a strong fish flavor girl.  Will tuna twice a week work?

I like tuna and eat it pretty often, but it isn't particularly high fat - and it's the fatty acids you want to improve your cholesterol ratio!

 Rawr!  Maybe I'll just start doing shots of vegetable oil.  lol!   (seriously joking though..)
http://nutritiondata.self.com/foods-000032000000000000000.ht ml