New to the group

bcgolfpages8695

hi everyone 65-year-old male from Vancouver and I’ve been exercising for just over a year trying to lose weight and getting in shape and I decided to join this community. Unfortunately, I’ve torn my meniscus and have not been able to exercise for the past couple weeks I hope I can heal quickly. I look forward to making acquaintances in this group.

AnnPT77

Hello, and welcome!

We have enough in common that I'm going to share some of my experiences, in the hope of encourage you and maybe even giving you ideas to try.

I empathize on the torn meniscus! Obviously, the severity of that can vary individually, but I was also diagnosed with a meniscus tear . . . probably getting on 20 years ago now. (I'm 69.) In my case, I elected not to go straight to surgery, but rather try other interventions first. My orthopedist told me I wasn't burning any bridges by going that route, and that I could put off surgery as long as I was able to do what I wanted/needed to do without unacceptable levels of pain. I still haven't chosen the surgery.

Treatments have improved since then, I'll bet. What got me over the initial hump was one cortisone shot to my knee, and a referral to physical therapy. The orthopedist told me PT wouldn't improve the condition, but when I told him a wanted to learn to modify my movement patterns in ways that would reduce knee stress going forward, he referred me for it. The PT gave me exercises that helped me walk and especially climb stairs in ways that reduced knee stress: Very helpful.

Beyond that, what helped was getting stronger/fitter (doing things I was able to do without making it worse) and reaching a healthy weight.

I admit that I'm limited in what exercise activities I can do, and I'm sure what's doable will also vary individually. For me, after an initial period of healing, I started experimenting cautiously. I found that things that involve torque on my knees or high impact tended to make things worse, and that activities that used straight-line hinging motions of my knees didn't worsen things (though sometimes there was discomfort doing the activity).

These days, my main activities are rowing (boats when I can, machines when I must) and cycling (paved trails and stationary). I can also swim and lift (with limitations on certain strength exercises), but I do those less often because I don't find them as fun as rowing/cycling, weak soul that I am.

When I lost weight, I didn't much change my exercise routine, as I'd already been active for a few years while staying obese. I did make it more of a point to life routinely, since preserving muscle while losing fat was where I was aiming.

I didn't even much change the range of foods I eat, since I already ate reasonably nutritiously (just too much). Mostly, I changed portion sizes and frequencies of calorie-dense foods to get my calorie level where it needed to be for gradual loss, then maintenance. It took just under a year to lose from class 1 obese to a healthy weight, and I've been at a healthy weight for 9+ years since.

Both getting fitter and reaching a healthy weight have been huge quality of life improvements for me, including but not limited to dramatically less frequent or severe knee discomfort/pain. I'm cheering for you to succeed, because IME the results are more than worth the effort it takes to get there.

Best wishes!