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We studied the biological variability and responsiveness to dietary fat of plasma lipoprotein cholesterol and triacylglycerol concentrations. Ten normal persons were studied on 3 consecutive days while they were eating their unrestricted usual diets and after 8, 9, and 10 d of eating a constant high-fat and low-fat diet administered in a crossover design. The changes in plasma low-density-lipoprotein (LDL)-cholesterol concentrations from baseline with the high-fat diet were inversely correlated with the changes from baseline with the low-fat diet (r = -0.74, P = 0.01), as well as with the changes from the low-fat to high-fat diet (r = -0.93, P < 0.001). The extent of increases in plasma LDL-cholesterol concentrations from the baseline to the high-fat diet were positively correlated with the increases from the low-fat to the high-fat diet (r = 0.93, P < 0.001). The responses of high-density-lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol were not consistently correlated. The within-person between-day CV of LDL decreased from 10% with the unrestricted diet to 6% (P < 0.05) with the high-fat diet and to 7% with the low-fat diet (NS). The CV of total triacylglycerol (22%) and very-low-density-lipoprotein (VLDL) triacylglycerol (48%) on the unrestricted diet significantly decreased by 51-59% during both controlled diets (P = 0.03-0.06). The CV of HDL cholesterol was 5.3% during baseline, 4.2% during the high-fat diet, and 3.2% during the low-fat diet (P = 0.4, 0.19, respectively). In summary, individuals have a reproducible plasma LDL-cholesterol response when changing their dietary fat intake. The day-to-day variation in total triacylglycerol, VLDL triacylglycerol, and LDL-cholesterol concentrations decreases when day-to-day dietary variation is eliminated. (c ) 1996 American Society for Clinical Nutrition [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]