Knee replacement and diet after

photo_kyla

Hi guys! About a year and a half ago, my rheumatologist told be that I need bilateral knee replacement. While I've been going through all the fun insurance hurdles (shoot me now), I've also been working really hard at losing weight. It's all had to be through diet because I literally cannot bend my knees at all and am not supposed to do anything that puts excess strain on them (it's even recommended that I sit on a stool instead of standing for long periods). My concern is that post surgery I'm not sure what to do about the diet. Right now I'm at 1200 cal/day on the ketogenesis program and it's working! I've lost about 25 pounds in the last 3 months. But after surgery, your body needs more calories to heal, right? I'm terrified that if I up the calorie intake too much, I'll gain the weight back. My BMR is around 1700 cal according to all the calculators and TEE is 2100 with a sedentary lifestyle, but in the past if I return to eating at those levels, I have gained instead of maintaining.
Has anyone else been through knee replacement and the rehab? How many calories do you think you burned doing your recovery and rehab exercises? And do you have any other tips or suggestions about the whole experience?