308 lbs with arthritis in knees,hands and feet

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rob_spitzer
rob_spitzer Posts: 54 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I retired after 20 years active duty in the Army and Uncle Sam really beat my body up over the years, I'm 44 years old but my body aches and pains resemble someone in their 60's. Hurts to walk, hurts to bend down, hurts to stoop or squat. My current weight is 308, I work for a Ford Dealership as a mechanic and am very active during the day....alot of lifting,squating, bending....my dealership is so big I have to cover at least 8 to 10 miles a day walking. What would you guys recommend for weight loss for a guy like me....exercise is generally painful...thanks in advance

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  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,910 Member
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    Another vote for holding off on increasing activity for right now and instead focusing on food logging. I find a food scale much easier to use than measuring cups, and it is quicker and more accurate.

    I spent 4 years in the USAF and Uncle Sam didn't beat me up at all. Chair Force! :p
  • rob_spitzer
    rob_spitzer Posts: 54 Member
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    That's good advice, my thought process was similar so I feel like I am on the right track
  • nvmomketo
    nvmomketo Posts: 12,019 Member
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    I find foods affect how much my joints hurt. I'm a 44 year old who is putting off my hip replacement for as long as possible, never mind the knees. I find if I avoid certain food types, it feels noticeably better.

    For me, it's carbs, especially refined and highly processed carbs. If I eat cake or fruit or too many veggies, I can be pretty guaranteed of needing a fair bit of pain medication to sleep through the night or get going in the morning. If I eat mainly animal products my pain is quite reduced.... Annoying to me because I am not a huge meat lover. ;)

    Good luck. I know it is frustrating to not be able to move the way you were used to.
  • julubeet
    julubeet Posts: 14 Member
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    Start swimming. You need some exercise that's not going to beat up your joints.
  • cowleyl
    cowleyl Posts: 169 Member
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    I was 280 lbs. I've lost about 65 lbs and have about another 40 to go. I'm about to have a double knee replacement and in preparation I bought a recumbent bike and have used it most days since the beginning of the year. It cost me about $600 (Aus). There's no pressure on my knees from the bike. The strength in my knees has increased and the pain in my knees has improved out of sight to the point I'm almost pain free.
  • cowleyl
    cowleyl Posts: 169 Member
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    P.S. I work in a hospital and apparently every 1 lb you're overweight adds 4 lb of pressure to your knees. If you are to undergo knee replacement, they like you to have done pre-hab to hasten your recovery.
  • 1houndgal
    1houndgal Posts: 558 Member
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    julubeet wrote: »
    Start swimming. You need some exercise that's not going to beat up your joints.

    Swimming is great for folks with joint problems. Other options for folks with joint issues are recumbant bikes and recumbant ellipticals.
  • Tedebearduff
    Tedebearduff Posts: 1,155 Member
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    rob_spitzer wrote: »
    I retired after 20 years active duty in the Army and Uncle Sam really beat my body up over the years, I'm 44 years old but my body aches and pains resemble someone in their 60's. Hurts to walk, hurts to bend down, hurts to stoop or squat. My current weight is 308, I work for a Ford Dealership as a mechanic and am very active during the day....alot of lifting,squating, bending....my dealership is so big I have to cover at least 8 to 10 miles a day walking. What would you guys recommend for weight loss for a guy like me....exercise is generally painful...thanks in advance

    Exercise is painful for everyone when they first start. You could think of it like this, the more you workout the less it will hurt and the better you'll feel.

    I started at 355lbs, I use to walk funny, have special shoes cause of feet pain all the time... I just sucked it up and put int he work ... no longer walk funny, no special shoes anymore and feel 10,000,000,000,0000 times better.

    For general weight loss, track your calories using the app and you'll start to lose weight. best of luck to you brother
  • kommodevaran
    kommodevaran Posts: 17,890 Member
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    Weightloss will probably reduce the pain.
    You don't have to exercise to lose weight, and you're already active, and that's what counts.
    You can shoot for a healthy BMI, but don't worry about that now, focus on eating less, consistently, so you can do it for as long as it takes to reach a healthy weight and not regain.
    Set up your account to lose 2 pounds per week, and aim to hit the calorie target you get. You can prelog your meals. A food scale is a great tool for accuracy, but consistency, honesty and patience is what's most important.
  • Spencerport
    Spencerport Posts: 270 Member
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    I was 300lbs with a bad left knee (rugby injury from 2000) when I first started losing weight. Losing the weight will definitely help with the joint pain, less stress having to move less weight. As others have suggested, swimming would be ideal exercise as their is no impact shock with swimming.
  • ruqayyahsmum
    ruqayyahsmum Posts: 1,514 Member
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    I have arthritis and a starting weight of 387lb
    I'm down to 220lb
    I've gone from being unable to walk unaided to walking a couple of miles (had got up to 9 mile hikes but had a bad flare)

    I'm waiting on seeing physio to help with exercises to strengthen my legs and hopefully some ideas on how to lessen the pain in my arms too

    Your already very active, your focus currently needs to be diet

    Input your information into mfp and choose how much you would like to lose per week to get your daily calorie goal and work at tweaking your diet to meet that number
  • jennifer_417
    jennifer_417 Posts: 12,344 Member
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    Exercise isn't strictly necessary for weight loss, all you need is to consume fewer calories than you burn.
    However, if you want to exercise, then swimming is probably the best place to start, since it tends to be easier on the joints than anything.
  • AnvilHead
    AnvilHead Posts: 18,344 Member
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    I'd agree with the others who said diet should be your main concern at this point. Set a reasonable calorie goal, log as accurately as you can (a food scale for solids and measuring cups/spoons for liquids) and be consistent about hitting your calorie goals. Be sure to account for your activity level when setting up your calorie goals, so you're not underfeeding yourself. It can both make you unnecessarily hungry and cause your energy levels to suffer if you're not fueling adequately.

    If you want to add exercise to your routine on top of what you're already doing all day, there are a lot of low-impact modalities you can use - swimming/aquacise, rowing, stationary/recumbent bike, elliptical trainers, etc. A light strength training program would be helpful also, but it would be a good idea to get with a physical therapist to create a routine which works around your existing conditions (and it may even help improve them).

    On a side note - exercise always hurts when you first start doing it. You're pretty active in your daily life, but any form of exercise will find you using muscles you didn't know you had, and it will be painful at first. Start off easy and gradually work your way into it, don't go barging in full tilt like a bull in a china shop (don't ask me how I know - I've made this mistake far too many times in my life!).
  • fitoverfortymom
    fitoverfortymom Posts: 3,452 Member
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    I was 256 when I started out, and basically swore off exercise. I stuck with the calorie deficit that MFP gave me for about 6 months before introducing any other meaningful exercise besides walking. Read the threads in this post: https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10300331/most-helpful-posts-getting-started-must-reads#latest, get yourself a food scale, and get the party started.

    It took me a little more than a year, but I'm down 100lbs and now I can exercise because I *want* to.

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