Being obese puts you at increased risk for several severe health conditions, some of which may even be deadly, such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease. It also increases the likelihood that you may develop osteoarthritis and other musculoskeletal illnesses that affect the knees and hips.
Many people have problems with their bones, muscles, and joints because of their obesity the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health says that obese patients make up 33 percent of all patients who have joint replacement treatments.
There is a clear connection between being overweight and experiencing knee pain. The weight-bearing joints in your hips, knees, and spine experience more pressure when you carry extra weight.
Your joints will degenerate and get damaged much more quickly if they are put under increased stress for longer. The combination results in intense agony, making it impossible to stand or move freely and comfortably. This makes it difficult to stand.
First, let’s assess both your weight and the condition of your knees. When you walk on level ground, the force exerted on your knees equals 112 times your body weight. A man who weighs 200 pounds puts 300-pound pressure on each knee with each step he takes.
While you add an incline, the pressure on each knee is two to three times your body weight when walking up and down stairs. However, the strain on each knee is four to five times your body weight when crouching to tie a shoelace or pick something up that you dropped.
The Effect That More Weight Has On Your Knees
Even if your knee pain isn’t caused by being overweight or obese, those conditions may make any condition that causes knee pain worse. This is true even if your knee pain isn’t caused by being overweight or obese. The pressure on your knee joints equals four times your body weight.
If you weigh 150 pounds, this indicates that your knees support a force equivalent to 600 pounds each time you stand or walk. When you perform activities like walking up stairs, moving up an incline, or crouching down to pick something up off the floor, the pressure in your legs and feet might increase.
The same may be said for the advantages of reducing body fat. Therefore, decreasing even by just ten pounds might result in a change that can be seen. If you remove only ten pounds, you’ll relieve forty pounds of pressure off your knees.
The Possibility Of Developing Osteoarthritis
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, arthritis affects one in every five people in the United States. On the other hand, the proportion of Americans suffering from arthritis who are overweight or obese rises to two out of three (CDC).
Knee discomfort is a typical complaint among those who suffer from osteoarthritis, the most prevalent form of arthritis. This problem manifests itself when the cartilage that covers the ends of your bones deteriorates, which may happen with age or as a result of an accident. It is painful when two joints that do not have cartilage between them rub against one other. This may cause joint pain.
Osteoarthritis often manifests itself in weight-bearing joints, such as the hips and knees. Those who are overweight have a higher risk of developing osteoarthritis because the additional stress causes the cartilage at the ends of bones to deteriorate more rapidly. This puts people at a higher risk of developing the condition.
Inflammatory chemicals are released from fat cells, which is another factor in the development of osteoarthritis. These factors may contribute to an increased risk of developing the condition. When you have more fat in your body, you have more of these inflammatory chemicals, which may cause joint damage to become more severe.
The Risk Of Rheumatoid Arthritis Developing.
Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic condition caused by an autoimmune response that causes swelling in the joints. In most cases, the hands, wrists, and knees are the areas that are afflicted. When you have rheumatoid arthritis, your immune system is misdirected to attack your joints and other organs rather than the infections it is supposed to be fighting.
The same molecules present in fat and contribute to the progression of osteoarthritis may also be responsible for the progression of rheumatoid arthritis. Several factors may bring on inflammation of the joints.
When a person with rheumatoid arthritis also has obesity, the presence of additional inflammatory factors may hasten the progression of the illness and make it more severe.
What Role Does Weight Play In Knee Pain?
Maintaining a healthy weight is beneficial to your health in many different ways, including the following:
- Reducing the amount of stress placed on the knees
- Lowering the inflammatory levels in the joints
- Decreasing the likelihood of contracting a variety of disorders
Reducing The Strain Placed On The Knees As A Result Of Being Overweight
People who carry excess weight around their middle may lower the pressure on each of their knees by four pounds for every pound they shed (1.81 kg). This indicates that if you drop ten pounds (4.54 kg), your knees will be required to hold forty pounds (18.14 kg) less weight with each step you take.
When there is less strain on the knees, there is less wear and tear, reducing the risk of developing osteoarthritis (OA). According to the most recent recommendations, one technique to treat knee osteoarthritis is to achieve a healthy weight.
Both the American College of Rheumatology and the Arthritis Foundation believe that a weight loss of at least 5 percent of total body weight may improve the functioning of your knees as well as the effectiveness of your medication.
Reducing Inflammation Throughout The Body And Joints
For a long time, osteoarthritis was assumed to be a condition brought on by years of wear and tear. Inflammation will occur in the joints if they are subjected to excessive pressure for an extended period.
However, recent studies reveal that inflammation can be a cause rather than an outcome. The body may experience more significant inflammation due to obesity, resulting in painful joint conditions. Losing weight may help reduce the severity of this inflammation.
One research analyzed the data of participants who had lost between three months and two years’ worth of weight at an average of between one and two pounds (0.91 kg) each month. In the majority of the investigations, the inflammatory markers that were present in their bodies decreased significantly.
How To Overcome Knee Pain While Overweight
Knee pain affects around twenty percent of adults, which makes sense given that most of them are overweight or obese. Those additional pounds increase your knee pressure, which may lead to chronic discomfort and other knee disorders such as osteoarthritis or arthritis. Fortunately, regular exercise may assist you in shedding pounds and fat, building strength, and maintaining the health of your knees.
Exercise? Really? Won’t working out make my knees suffer even more? You’re probably wondering this right now.
Strengthening the muscles surrounding your knee is the most excellent approach to cure and prevent knee pain because strong muscles help absorb the shock, which relieves strain and discomfort of the knee joint. Regular exercise may help decrease knee pain, stiffness, and edema caused by being overweight or obese.
Tips On Exercising With Knee Pain
Go For Physical Therapy
It may be difficult to lose weight if you have knee pain, but physical therapy may be able to assist.
If you haven’t exercised in a long time, have significant diseases like heart disease, or if moving your joints causes extreme pain or even just the dread of suffering, ask your doctor for a referral to a physical therapist. Your physical therapist will be able to help you get back in shape. These professionals can guide you in taking measured steps in the correct direction.
If you do not have access to a physical therapist, for instance, you may not be aware that exercising your legs by lifting weights on machines at the gym, which can aggravate knee pain, is not a smart idea.
“It’s acceptable to do straight leg raises in a chair because they build the muscles above the knees. “But if you press the leg against resistance, it might harm the joint,” she explains. “It’s good to do straight leg raises in a chair because they improve the muscles above the knees.”
Water Based Exercises
Lieberman believes that “that means swimming, swimming, and more swimming for those with knee pain.” This is the ideal method to start a fitness program that you will continue with, regardless of whether you work with a therapist or do it on your own.
Because there is no gravity nor weight placed on the joint while it is moving in water, such as when doing pool aerobics or swimming laps, the joint is free to flex.
After you have built up some self-assurance and muscular mass, you may go to more advanced forms of exercise, such as walking quickly outdoors or on a treadmill or doing moderately intense exercises on an elliptical machine.
Improve Your Diet
In the past, the major responsibility of dietitians was to educate their patients and customers on a variety of subjects, including meal preparation and nutrition. It is becoming an increasingly important emphasis for many specialists who work in the field of weight reduction to assist clients in recognizing the emotional ties they have to food and finding healthy ways to deal with such connections.
According to Harris-Pincus, “People eat because they are delighted, worried, bored, enraged, or in pain,” and not necessarily because they are hungry. In other words, eating is not always motivated by hunger. We make an effort to understand the factors that contribute to the distinctive eating patterns of each individual, which may range widely.
A balanced diet is also very important. She has a strong conviction that a diet is not desirable if it cannot be followed permanently and successfully.
Both the Mediterranean diet and the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet are two of the most effective weight loss diets because they emphasize the consumption of nutritious foods such as vegetables, fruits, lean meats, whole grains, and healthy fats such as nuts, seeds, and olive oil.
Eyes On The Prize
The journey to a healthier weight is a long and tough one. In addition, much like in a marathon, you have to keep running even if there is still a long way to go before you reach the finish line. During the course of a protracted undertaking, there will be lulls that are difficult in addition to times that are thrilling.
As a means of getting through the difficult times, Dr. Lieberman recommends imagining that you have already achieved your ultimate objective, which in this instance is a decrease in knee soreness.
However, you are able to persevere through it because you are certain that the ultimate result will be a beautiful home. If you are dedicated to your exercise regimen and maintain good eating habits, you will be able to reach your target weight.
Things To Avoid
If you suffer from knee pain, you should steer clear of the activities listed below, regardless of whether you are at a healthy weight, overweight, or obese.
- Running
- Lunges
- Deep Squats
We are aware that experiencing knee discomfort might make it difficult to exercise. If you are overweight and want to start exercising but need additional support, using a knee brace is a great way to get started.
Conclusion
Prevention is better than cure, but sometimes we can be too late. Carrying less weight may help prevent long-term harm to your hips and knees. If you need to lose weight, start slow but be consistent. Get a doctor’s appointment to clear things up because a variety of disorders may cause joint pain, and a proper diagnosis is critical.