Devised by National Institute of Health, TLC or Therapeutic-Lifestyle Change Diet plan is approved and endorsed by American Health Association. The diet plan will effectively lower your cholesterol level in mere six weeks by reducing your consumption of unhealthy fats such as animal proteins, dairy products, red meat etc. 

Consumption of these fats enhances the formation of bad cholesterol in your body, which makes you become victim of heart problems such as heart stroke, heart attacks, and other terrible diseases.

What Your Ideal Diet Should be?

TLC diet plan aims to lower your blood cholesterol level with the help of healthy diet regime. Without any medication, the diet schedule will lower your blood cholesterol level and will bring you in enviable shape.

Ideal calorie consumption for men is 2500 calories and for women it is 1800 calories. And if you are seeking to shed weight, women can go along with the plan while consuming 1200 calories and men while consuming 1600 calories in a day.

Let’s find out what kinds of foods and nutrients are allowed in the diet program.

• Less than 7% of calories consumed by you should come from saturated or trans fats. Poultry skin, sausage, whole milk, butter, cream, bacon etc. have high content of saturated fats. You should prune their consumption.
• You are allowed to have up to 20% of monosaturated fats and 10% of polysaturated fats in a day.
• Carbs should have 50-60% participation in adding the number of calories in your diet. You can consume fibrous fruits, vegetables, whole, nuts and seeds etc. to get healthy carbs.
• There should be less than 200 mg of cholesterol and 2400 mg of sodium in your diet. Cheese, egg yolks, fatty meat, shrimps, crab, lobster etc. come under high cholesterol food items. In addition to that, avoid the intake of foods providing more than 300 mg of salt in one serving.
• Minimum 5 to10 grams of fiber consumption should be there in a day.
• 15% of calories should come from proteins.

How Much Cholesterol Your Body Requires?

Liver in our body naturally release cholesterol which is sufficient enough to meet cholesterol needs of our body. Technically, we don’t need to feed our body cholesterol from outside. Excess of cholesterol gets mixed into the blood stream, and when it finds no other way to pass, it starts being deposited around the wall of arteries, blocking the flow of blood to heart. Blocked arteries elevate your risk of heart attack and heart stroke.

Low density lipoprotein (LDL), which is almost two third of body’s cholesterol is actually bad cholesterol. High density lipoprotein (HDL) being good for your body garners cholesterol from blood and takes it to liver.

Causes of High Cholesterol Level

Obesity undoubtedly is the main reason responsible for increasing cholesterol level in people. Let’s have a look at some other reasons responsible for increasing cholesterol level.

• Prolonged use of oral contraceptive methods come under one of the chief reasons leading to high cholesterol level in women.
• Should you have hereditary record of the disease and your parents or grandparents had been the victims of disease, you too are likely to suffer from the disease.
• As you grow older, release of LDL also increases in your body, leading to increased cholesterol level. Males above 45 and females above 55 are susceptible to suffer from high cholesterol level.
• Menopause in women is also responsible for increasing cholesterol level in people. There is excess release of estrogen hormone in women at the time of menopause, which increases their blood cholesterol level also.
• Addictions such as smoking and alcohol also hinder your body from producing HDL, and thus stimulate the release of LDL.

What TLC Diet Plan Will Do?

TLC diet plan will rid you from the problem of increased cholesterol level in three ways.

Healthy Meals – TLC diet plan has designed meal plans in such a way that without counting the number of calories and without keeping an eye on the portion size of foods, you will be able to get the benefits of healthy eating habits. Inclusion of healthy fats and high fiber foods in the diet plan will transform your body.

Workouts – Workouts have been given supreme importance in the diet plan. With the help of different kinds of workouts, the plan will trigger the formation of HDL and mitigate the formation of LDL in your body. All you need to do is to practice workouts for 30 minutes in a day. Besides making chemical changes in your body, workouts also trim down your waist.

Weight Loss – Weight loss is one of the integral parts of the diet plan. Exclusive meals and workouts of the diet program will melt pounds from your waist and will make it slimmer. Since higher LDL in your body is directly proportional to heart problems, break on its release will save you from becoming victim of cardiac diseases.

Preventive Measure

TLC diet plan will deal with your problem of high cholesterol level in a very proficient way. That being said, should you take few preventive measures, you can uphold your health forever.

After the age of twenty, all adults should get their cholesterol level checked after every six months. While having your check up, you shall ask some important questions from the doctor such as how fair are your chances of having heart problems, should you use cholesterol reducing drugs? You should also enquire whether you can adhere to TLC diet plan or not.

Sample Menu Plan

Let’s have a look at one of the sample menu plans of TLC diet plan.

Breakfast (300 calories) – you can have ½ cup of oatmeal, coffee, one fresh banana, orange juice in your breakfast.

Lunch (400 calories) – Your lunch can be comprised of sandwich prepared from lean meats such as chicken, turkey, beef, tuna fish and topped with tomatoes, and lettuce, or you can have whole grain bread having mayonnaise spread over it.

Dinner (400 calories) – You can have cooked salmon with carrots or green beans, brown rice, lean poultry, lean fish etc. in your dinner.

Snacks (100 calories) – You can have air based popcorns, crackers, fresh fruits, and vegetables etc. in your snacks.

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