Can weight loss cause joint pain?

lucymccorkindale13

I am a 55 year old female on a 3 stone weight loss journey. Since January, I have lost 1 stone. I am on a 1200 cals per day diet with lots of healthy foods and cooking from scratch. I have had knee pain for years and the weight loss is partly to sort this out. However, I have not made it to the gym since before I started my diet. This is because my joints are getting increasingly painful the more weight I lose! I thought the opposite would be true! By mid afternoon today I was almost hobbling around the supermarket. Can anyone shed any light on this strange phenomenon please? Am I alone? If so, I guess I’ll need a blood test or something. Thanks for reading xx

kimny72

I'm no expert on this, but I can't imagine why weight loss would cause that. I'd check with your doctor to be sure!

lucymccorkindale13

Thank you for your reply. It really sucks! I was looking forward to being healthier as well as slimmer!

frogmommy

Go see a doctor. Please.

I am 50 and last year I lost 25+ pounds - my joints feel better than they have in years. Losing weight has helped them tremendously. So please go rule out any RA or autoimmune issues.

123juliaj123

Losing weight should certainly be helping to take the load off your joints, so what ever is going on you are certainly better off being more slim so well done.

I wonder if there is some correlation between the kind of foods you now eat and the joint pain. I seem to remember that there are some foods that are recommended to reduce joint pain. Perhaps these foods were previously in your diet and have been reduced or replaced since you are changing the way you eat? An online search might help you see what foods are recommended, so you can see if they have been removed from your diet.

Have you started any new exercise, cycling, hill walking, dancing that could be irritating your joints?
good luck and do ensure that you get checked out

AnnPT77

If you've lost 14 pounds so far, that's a fairly fast rate of loss, though not maybe crazy-fast. How is your nutrition: Are you getting enough protein and healthy fats, especially?

I agree with those suggesting you see your doctor.

I'll just make three observations:

1. Nutrition is important, and protein especially can have an effect on muscle retenton while losing weight. We also need more protein as we age, typically, as we tend to absorb it less well. (I'm 63.)

2. One thing that can happen with weight loss is that the distribution of weight around one's body can change. (Simplistically, say one starts losing fat first in the buttocks area; that could tend to shift one's weight forward.) Weight distribution changes can affect gait and other body mechanics, and change the stesses on joints.

3. One symptom that led me to a hypothyroidism diagnosis was joint pain and stiffness. I'm not diagnosing you with that (I'm not a doctor, and wouldn't practice over the internet if I were). All I am doing is suggesting that there are easily treated conditions, common as we age, that can manifest in part as joint issues. In other words, I'm repeating myself: See your doctor.

If your doctor doesn't have any super-great insights, consider asking him/her for a physical therapy referral. Physical therapists are good at figuring out whether we're unnecessarily placing stress on our joints via our movement patterns.

Best wishes for a quick solution!

magnusthenerd

To get a definitive answer, you're almost certainly going to need to work with a doctor or other healthcare professional.
There are way too many possible explanations whether assuming weight loss is related or not.
Weight loss related causes could be:
* Increases in eating foods while dieting that cause this response.
* The above can include things like increases in protein cause more uric related actions, or changes in oxalate levels.
* A reduction in nutrients (such as calcium).
* An increase in substances that are fat soluble being released because of lipids being mobilized out of fat cells.
* Pinched nerves that have less weight on them now having an increased blood flow so they're sending more signals.

It is also possible the timing is just coincidental.

CSARdiver

It is impossible for anything other than conjecture without a trained physical review.

Is it likely that this pain was masked by something else? Has your activity increased and this is soreness from your body creating the new tissue in response to this activity?

As an n=1 my joint soreness went away almost completely after I implemented a progressive resistance program.

RoyalGenes

Maybe you have you decreased your dietary fats too much? Fat is needed and helps to lubricate joints. Would be simple to increase fat intake (could consider fish oil supplement) and see if it makes a difference.

biggs097

Over the last 15 years or so, I realized that my quest toward health has left me deficient in certain areas. Nutrients I may have picked up when I was grossly over eating, are now in short supply.

For joint pain, consider looking into your vitamin D intake. Deplete your VD levels enough and the soft, flexible coating of your joints will dry out and lose elasticity. Causing some serious pain and discomfort.

For me, it’s vitamin B1 and protein. It’s not always easy getting what you need when you’re cutting calories! And synthetic vitamin supplements, often aren’t properly absorbed by the body. I used to think popping a multi vitamin every day had me covered. Couldn’t have been more wrong.

Chieflrg

frogmommy wrote: »

Go see a doctor. Please.

I am 50 and last year I lost 25+ pounds - my joints feel better than they have in years. Losing weight has helped them tremendously. So please go rule out any RA or autoimmune issues.

This would be my concern having a autoimmune disease myself. The cause of most flare ups to the joints is stress. Losing weight can be stressful depending how you go about it e.g.- high impact long cardio sessions, large caloric deficits, etc.

At your age just by increasing your physical activity without utilizing proper load management we can have a go through spells where our joints/tendons are more irritated as well.

How long of a time period have you perceived joint pain?

What novel activities have you started recently around the time going to gym and weight loss?

Have you implemented a strength training routine?

saraonly9913

Anemia can make you feel like you are in pain. I also say see your doctor!

Vailara

Well done on the weight loss! I'm the same age as you and also have long-standing knee problems. I lost about 60lb a few years ago and have kept it off, and I found that the knee pain has got worse over time, regardless of weight. I'm told that menopause can make joint pain worse, so maybe that's the culprit! I have definitely become stiffer too. All exercise is painful! I agree that it's worth getting it checked out just in case there's a less obvious cause, and I like the point Ann makes about weight distribution changing. I also think it's worth doing some sort of strength training to try to support the knees, and being careful with "form" for any exercise. I hope it improves for you!

ETA: I definitely notice knee pain is worse if I'm more active, and better if I'm less active (the only good point about having flu!), so it wouldn't surprise me if an increase in exercise rather than weight loss itself would cause knee pain. But that doesn't seem to be the case for you if your exercise levels haven't changed. Also, did some phsyiotherapy for the knee problems a while back. I wouldn't say it was terribly helpful, but it might be worth a try.