One of the most common reasons that patients seek weight loss treatment is knee pain. Most of this pain results from osteoarthritis causing degradation and breakdown of the knee joint. This knee damage results in knee pain, tenderness, stiffness and locking. Weight loss brings hope for many people with knee pain.

A recent study showed that an 8 week-long diet with protein shakes and soups, followed by regular foods that were low in calories yet high in protein, helped those with knee pain from osteoarthritis lose weight. The resultant weight loss helped them to improve their joint pain and therefore improve their quality of life.

The study goes on to report that dieting may also help those whose weight makes it impossible to exercise. Losing weight helped more than 60 percent of the study participants decrease their knee pain and improve their ability to walk!!

Many people relate that as they originally gained weight the increase in joint problems and other orthopedic complaints made weight gain come quicker. Over time they were able to exercise less and less. This therefore led to more and more weight gain.

Walking is an important part of  daily activities. A relaxing walk is a great way to decrease stress, work out the day’s problems, spend some time with a friend or spouse, and burn some extra calories at the same time.