Losing weight to have more knee surgery

genevalil

Hello everyone - I'm a long-time MFP user and first-time poster. I am currently having to undergo medically-supervised rapid weight loss, due to accelerated knee joint degeneration following a partial meniscectomy in November 2016 (after tearing the meniscus in an accident in March 2016). Four weeks after this usually minor surgery, my knee completely destabilised, resulting in excruciatingly painful bone marrow edema in both the femur and tibia, stage 4 cartilaginous lesions (it progressed from stage 2 in 6 weeks), and a macerated meniscus - basically, I can barely walk and now have the knee of a 90-year-old!

So I've been on crutches full-time since early January because of the pain and overloaded joint and my knee specialist has urged me to accelerate my weight loss and lose 20kg more as quickly as possible to be able to do a corrective osteotomy to realign my lower leg. With the supervision of a dietician, I have had to reduce my calorie intake to 1,000-1,050 per day, along with physical rehab 30 mins x 5/week (mostly stationary bike and weights, which is all I can manage with the pain), and am trying to maintain a calorie deficit of 750-1,000 calories a day. In just over 6 weeks, I've managed to lose 7kg through careful weekly meal preparation and planning, eating the highest nutritional foods I can within my calorie limit, such as quinoa, black rice, brown rice, spelt grain, baked salmon and tuna, poached turkey breast, roasted and steamed veggies, Skyr (the wonder food from Iceland!), nuts, seeds, etc (along with nutritional supplements).

I have had many attempts at losing weight over the years (the biggest was a 42kg loss about 9 years ago) and, like many, most of it crept back up again and again. However, this is the first time it's no longer been a choice and I can no longer afford to take my time with it. As you can see from my stats below, I took a little under 6 months to lose 11kg after letting my weight climb again, then gained 3kg while travelling for two months, then had to hit the hard reset button after my knee collapsed.

So that's my current story - I am hoping to reach my GW by July to be able to undergo the surgery and reclaim my life from my stupid knee, as I am usually very active, constantly on the go and travel extensively (usually 130-150 days away to 20 countries per year). I really want to be able to walk unaided again, live without pain, and get out and about in the world again!

A few stats: 46 years old, 164cm, female

SW1: 94.5kg (25/4/16)
IW: 83.5kg (8/10/16)
SW2: 86.5kg (1/3/17)
CW: 79.6kg (15/4/17)
GW: 66kg - July target