I have been having problems with my knees and legs lately. I know I need to lose weight for them to feel better. How do you guys handle the sore and stiff muscles with adding exercise into your daily routine? Ibuprophen? Aleve? Herbal Supplement? Any advice?

I did and still do candlelight yoga by Sara Ivanhoe. I had to adjust some of the stretches to accommodate my size but it feels great and my body responds well. Also swimming..is wonderful. I now work out about 2 hours everyday and have very little pain if any at all.

I had a lot of knee problems when I was in the 300's. This knee brace helped a lot. http://www.amazon.com/Wellgate-Ultra...ize+knee+brace

I also slept with a heating pad almost every night. I was sore everyday, but I just plugged through. The pain eventually subsided the more muscle I gained and the more weight I lost.

Also never skip stretching and cool downs. They are vital. Don't be afraid to take rest days either. Our bodies need a break sometimes.

I actually started my weight loss a number of years ago at 343 lb. Exercise was very difficult for me at that weight. I could walk on the treadmill and swim - and I did for a while - but any exercise was exhausting in a way that it's not when you are thinner.

My answer to that was not exercising. I ended up losing 100lb without exercise. As long as I was eating around 1500 calories a day, weight loss wasn't a problem at all.

In the two years since I lost that weight I ended up gaining back about 50lb. In part I think that's because I didn't replace my negative coping strategies (eating) with more positive ones (exercise). Once I hit 250lb I plan on starting exercising as a way of dealing with stress to prevent regain and not as a tool for weight loss.

So I would suggest that you be kind to yourself. If your knees hurt when you exercise and you're able to stay on a weight loss plan, consider not exercising for a while. If you enjoy exercise and think it's great fun, follow the great suggestions you're getting here. The only right answer is the answer that will allow you to continue with and maintain your weight loss.

I've had knee problems, even an injury from going down stairs too quickly. I find that doing non-weight-bearing leg exercises makes a huge difference in how happy my knees are. I do leg lifts, lying on a couch: one-half of them on my back, one-half on my side. In order to be able to exercise every day and yet give my muscles time to recover, I alternate legs: on the odd-numbered dates I exercise my left leg, and on the even-numbered dates my right leg. I do the lifts in groups of 20: 20 on my side, 20 on my back, and so on. In the beginnning I could only manage 40 per set, and only 3 sets a day (resting until I could breathe easily between sets). I increased the numbers slowly, until these days I do 120 lifts per set, 5 sets a day. I like doing my exercises to music that has a good beat, but that's up to you...

I repeat: these exercises make a huge difference in how happy my knees are. I've never had to wear a brace because my strong thigh muscles act as a natural brace.

Good luck!

I would consider physical therapy type exercises. Squats (with proper form!) and cycling, especially. Cycling will loosen up your knees, and squats will strengthen the muscles that support your knees.

It's been studied that fermented cod liver oil should help as well, but it's gross and expensive. Still, it's worth it if it helps.

i'm currently 364 at last weigh in. I've been back to working out for about a month..For me doing weight (squats & lunges) helped. The first 2 weeks my knee swelled and I had pain, but eventually that went away. I don't go super deep, but working my knees gently helped them eventually be ok. Good Luck

Thank you everyone! I think I did it with doing squats wrong then stopping when my knees started to hurt. Getting back at it today. Mini goal of 18 pounds to get under 350