What is Non-HDL Cholesterol?

Those particle classes are the ones that leave cholesterol in artery walls, and LDL is only part of them. VLDL and the remnants carry cholesterol too, and cholesterol left in a wall does the same damage whichever particle delivered it.

ApoB counts those particles instead of adding up the cholesterol they carry. Triglycerides indicates how much of the Non-HDL figure is riding in triglyceride-rich particles rather than in LDL.

Insulin resistance and related metabolic conditions increase the number of triglyceride-rich particles the liver puts out. Saturated fat in the diet raises the cholesterol the liver packs into LDL particles. Weight gained or lost moves both the LDL and the triglyceride-rich particles, so it shows in Non-HDL Cholesterol more than in LDL alone. Inherited differences in how fast the liver produces those particles, and how fast it clears them again, set where a person's figure sits to begin with.

LDL Cholesterol is normally calculated using an estimate based on triglycerides, and a recent meal moves that estimate. A meal does not move Non-HDL Cholesterol, which subtracts one measured figure from another. Non-HDL Cholesterol moves instead with diet, body weight and insulin sensitivity, over weeks and months, and successive yearly readings follow that movement with no meal-driven swing sitting on top of it. This is Do Health's monitoring schedule, not a general recommendation for everyone.