“What impact can my excess weight have on my knees?”
I have been overweight for around 3 years and have been incorporating more moderate exercise to get to a normal weight. What is the impact my excess weight likely to have on my knees?
15 Answers
It will aggravate any symptoms you might have. Diet management is a much more efficient way to lose weight. An adult has to walk or run a mile and a half to burn the calories from a single chocolate chip cookie!!!
There is now clear medical evidence that particularly in females obesity substantially contributes to the development of knee arthritis. I encourage weight loss and exercises including bicycling, treadmill and brisk walking for my patients.
Low impact exercise is preferred to minimize load on the joints, especially in overweight patients. The increased weight can accelerate cartilage loss.
Low impact exercises include bicycling, elliptical machine, swimming, and some weight machines.
Low impact exercises include bicycling, elliptical machine, swimming, and some weight machines.
Your knees may wear out faster, developing arthritis earlier.
Nabil A Ebraheim
Orthopedist
Excess weight can cause stress on the knees. In order to prevent damage to your knees, you will want to reduce your weight and implement a healthier diet. If you are concerned about the weight impact on your knees you should see your Physician or Orthopaedic doctor. They may refer you to see a dietician if necessary.
Excess weight can have a negative impact both biomechanically by increasing the load on the joint, but also because the leptin levels in the blood go up and that has an association with progressive arthritis.
For each pound over your ideal weight your knees 4 pounds of increased stress which over time will increase the chance of wear and tear osteoarthritis. So each pound you lose is 4 ponds off your knee. Low impact exercise, healthy anti-inflammatory diet consisting of lean protein including wild salmon 1-2x per week, fruits, and vegetables, and avoiding starches and sugar is essential to maintaining healthy joints. Also, make sure to get some healthy fat with each meal from sources like avocado or coconut oil. Also, it is better to eat 2 or 3 meals a day rather than 5-6 small meals because this leads to better control of insulin secretion which is key to keeping inflammation down in the body
Obesity accelerates knee arthritis. Best solution (recent US News World Report "best") is Mediterranean diet/lifestyle.
The secondary osteoarthritis increases with overweight, but there is exercise.
It can lead to knee pain and even knee osteoarthritis.
A moderate amount of excess weight should not be damaging to your knees, especially if you are exercising. Most damage is due to repetitive trauma or a severe injury.
Excess weight can put more pressure on your joints during weight bearing and motion. It is hard to say if this will have an impact on the health of your knees without an evaluation. Regardless, maintaining a healthy weight is a good personal decision.
Paul J. Cagle, MD
Paul J. Cagle, MD
Excess weight puts increased pressure of compressive forces on the cartilage in your knees and premature wear. For every extra pound on your waist, your knees feel 3 extra pounds. This extra pressure can lead to early arthritis and pain. Non weight bearing exercise such as cycling or swimming is best for your knees.
Dr. Bose
Dr. Bose
Excess weight will increase pressure through your knees and therefore increase damage to the joint surfaces. Weight loss is important to help decrease the chances of the formation of arthritis or decrease the pain associated with arthritis. High impact exercises such as running/jogging or jumping are not recommended for arthritic knees. Low impact exercises such as walking, bicycle, elliptical machine, or aquatic exercises are great ways to stay active with less damage to the articular surfaces of your knees.
Not good for your knees.
