How many miles do you think you’ll walk in your lifetime? My Google search turned up several sites that said the average moderately active person will walk 115,500 miles in their life. How well do you think your knees will hold up for all that walking?

I came across an article involving a study about weight loss and your knees. I have a few clients who have recently been told they have osteoarthritis so I thought this was timely information.

First I want to point out that while there are no studies showing that weight loss can slow the progression of osteoarthritis, reducing the pressure on the joints appears to have impact on the disease. Since one of the most important risk factors for osteoarthritis of the knees is obesity, the best thing you can do for your knees as you age is lose weight or just don’t gain weight.

The study found that there’s a 4 pound reduction in knee joint load for every pound of weight loss. So for every pound you lose, the accumulated reduction is more than 4,800 pounds per knee for every mile you walk. If you lose 10 pounds, that’s 48,000 pounds per knee per mile. That’s huge not only for people who suffer from this disease but for anyone who needs yet ANOTHER reason to lose weight.

Think about that 115,500 miles now. Be good to your knees…they have to last a lifetime.