No more knee pain

The number-one secret for happy knees? Stay at a healthy weight. Every extra pound you pack on puts about 4 extra pounds of pressure on your knees when you walk or take the stairs. Women often come in complaining of knee pain, and it turns out it started after they put on just 5 or 10 pounds, says Sara Edwards, MD, an orthopedic surgeon at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago. Once you shed that excess weight, though, symptoms improve and sometimes even disappear.