Under 150 mg/dL is conventionally normal, 150 to 199 borderline high, 200 to 499 high, 500 and above very high. Unlike LDL, they move within weeks. Executive Health Edge reads them at month 0, 6, and 12 and treats a rise as a carbohydrate-range and alcohol-cap question first; anything that warrants a medical decision goes to the program physician.
What the number is
Triglycerides are the main form of fat in your blood: the fat you ate, and the fat your liver made from surplus carbohydrate and alcohol. They are drawn fasted on every Executive Health Edge lipid panel at month 0, 6, and 12.
The conventional cutoffs are under 150 mg/dL normal, 150 to 199 borderline high, 200 to 499 high, and 500 or above very high. Your physician decides what any value means for you.
Why a coach cares about this marker in particular
LDL moves slowly and is partly genetic. Triglycerides move within weeks and are almost entirely about inputs. A man whose triglycerides went from 190 to 120 between month 0 and month 6 did something right with alcohol, carbohydrates, and body composition, and the number proves it. A man whose triglycerides went the other way has a specific, fixable problem, and the coach can name it.
What moves it
- Alcohol. A common reason a man with a normal weight has high triglycerides. It gets a weekly cap, and the cap gets honest reporting.
- Refined carbohydrate and sugar. Surplus carbohydrate becomes triglyceride in the liver. The fix is the carbohydrate range and its timing, not elimination.
- Body composition. Visceral fat loss lowers triglycerides reliably.
- Training. Aerobic work such as Zone 2 lowers them, most when they start above 150, and resistance work adds to it through the fat loss it supports.
- Fasting status. The program draws fasted so the three panels compare like with like. Food raises triglycerides somewhat, so a fasted draw keeps the trend clean. The program checks this before reading the number.
How the program coaches it
A rising triglyceride value is read first as a carbohydrate-range and alcohol question, then as a body composition question. Calories and protein stay as hard numbers. The alcohol cap gets a number, front-loaded honesty when a client dinner blows through it, and a next-morning protocol instead of a guilt spiral. The month 6 retest shows whether it worked.
What the research says
The ranges and levers on this page rest on published research. The main sources:
- The cutoffs and the levers. An American Heart Association statement sets triglycerides of 150 to 199 mg/dL as borderline high, 200 to 499 as high, and 500 or more as very high; a 5 to 10% weight loss lowers triglycerides by about 20%, aerobic activity lowers them most when the starting value is above 150, and intensive lifestyle change can cut them by 50% or more (Miller et al., Circulation, 2011).
- Food moves them less than often assumed. A European consensus statement recommends non-fasting samples for routine lipid testing: after ordinary meals triglycerides rise by at most about 26 mg/dL, and fasting and non-fasting values predict risk comparably (Nordestgaard et al., European Heart Journal, 2016). The program still draws fasted so its own three panels compare like with like.
What goes to the physician
Any value the lab flags, very high values, a value that does not respond to the lifestyle levers, and any medication question route to the program physician in writing.
This page is coaching information, not medical advice. Questions about medication, hormones, or peptides go to the program physician.