HDL dropped mid-cut — did yours bounce back?

Welcome. Seeing similar numbers in this corner of the forum—38, down from 205 to 188 over 14 weeks.

HDL slid 12 points on the bloodwork too, and it climbed back after a month of just holding weight steady. Nothing fancy, mostly tracking food, sleep, training, and the lab draws every few months.

Worth noting for anyone staring at a lipid panel mid-cut and panicking.

Did yours rebound just from maintenance, or did you change fat intake?

That 18 lb in 12 weeks is pretty aggressive. I saw lipids tank when I was losing >1.5 lb/week. Slowing to 0.75/week fixed mine.

Aggressive is relative. 1.5 lb/week at 214 isn't crazy. What matters is waist and lifts, not just scale.

My HDL dipped from 62 to 41 on a cut and rebounded to 55 after 8 weeks at maintenance. LDL stayed low because I kept fiber high.

Fiber from what? I struggle to get enough without bloating.

The fasting glucose 92 isn't concerning to me, but sleep 7ish could be 6.5 real. That wrecked my lipids more than diet.

Same here. Tracking sleep honestly was humbling. I was averaging 6h10m and thought I slept 7+. HDL improved when I added 30 min.

I've done four cuts over the last six years and my HDL always dips. The pattern for me is it drops during the deficit, bottoms out around week 10-12, then climbs back once calories return to maintenance. LDL usually follows a milder version.

The one time it didn't rebound was when I stayed in a deficit too long and kept cardio very high. Your bench going up is a good sign that your recovery isn't completely shot.

If I were comparing notes, I'd look at waist, sleep, and whether the weight loss was mostly from fat. Not medical advice, just my n=1.

Did you chekc ApoB or just standard lipids? My HDL moves, but ApoB stayed stable and that mattered more to me.

No ApoB yet. Adding it next draw. Thanks for the n=1—gives me a timeline to compare.