Does weight loss really help relieve pain with hip arthritis ?

My pain management doctor continually harped on me about my weight and how much better my pain will be if I lost weight. I lost 84lbs before walking into his office again and told him that I had ZERO pain relief from losing 84lbs. He was flabbergasted. I found a hip surgeon to discuss THR. He blatantly told me while weight loss is the healthy thing to do for yourself as well as less stress on your joints, it WILL NOT take away or cure your OA pain. I was bone on bone, so no amount of weight loss would matter. I ended up losing 112lbs total, bringing my weight down to 144lbs (I looked deathly sick because of how skinny I was), yet still had 100% of the hip pain I had at 250lbs.

Therefore, my answer to your question, from personal experience, would be weight loss has no bearing on hip pain. 

Helen40134,

I have OA in my left hip, though still have cartilage in my joint. I have lost almost 20 lbs so far and notice a difference in my pain. Yes, I still have the ache of arthritis but have noticed a difference in my pain level. I still want to lose another 20 lbs but need to wait until I'm more compromised before my surgeon will do the surgery. Another way I justify the need to lose weight is primarily health reasons.... I'm only 5'5" and still weight 190 so I can stand to lose the weight. Good luck with your journey.

Christine

Helen,

I really believe exercise is the best pain management. My hip was always less painful when doing pilates and aerobics. Obviously if your are exercising that will help the weight as well.

Weight loss didn’t help my hip pain much but it did help reduce my knee pain! Like Jen I also found exercise & getting fitter helped more than losing weight.

Hi there, 23 years ago I had my first hip replacement and the best advice my surgeon gave me was to keep my weight within my BMI. So I exercised as much I could, I would eat small portions and everything was controlled. However, I had a fall and my hip replacement came loose and since I could not be as active, I gained about 20 lbs. The pain got a lot worse as I gained more weight and now all my joints were being taxed as they compensated for me not putting as much weight on that loose hip.. saw surgeon after a year of being passed around as no one wanted a complicated case. I started exercising only in the pool and cut off all starches and sugars from my diet and only ate fish and chicken. The pounds left and as long as I was in the deep end and no weight bearing I had no pain. They respected my left hip and for 12 weeks I was not bearing any weight since they had to add an implant where my femur had cracked and the spoke had come loose. 6onths later, my right hip was replaced and now I am walking, biking, swimming, gardening, still exercising every day, still keeping my weight under control. I splurge and have my favourite dessert once in a while and there is always a consequence of I gain weight. The pain in all my others joints in creases. I am on an anti inflammatory diet with no added sugar, high vegetables and no red meat or milk products. My inflammatory medicine was decreased and only take the odd painkiller after gardening for 8 hours. It is a life change commitment to keep your weight under control. The benefits: my independence from strong pain killers, a road leading to diabetes and heart problems. I have worked hard and I want to keep those hips going for as long as possible and I feel a lot happier and more pleasant when not in pain. Hope this helps someone.

I lost weight pre surgery, it didn’t change my hip but it did help my recovery postop. Still working on losing more as I know my right hip will need doing too one of these days