Frustrated with my doctor

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I'm really frustrated with my doc. His answer for everything seems to be lose weight, I know I need to lose weight. I have about 30 more pounds of excess weight I have no need of that I can lose. That's wonderful. My problem is that my right knee is messed up. It hurts so much sometimes that walking and using an elliptical can be excruciating. The Doc's answer, is you might have guessed it, to lose more weight.

I already diet, eating a lower than 1200 calories a day, I eat small meals every few hours to cheat my stomach on feeling full. I take appatite suppressants to cheat my stomach when the small meals don't do it. I stay away from known food allergies. I prepare my own food for nearly all of my meals through the week. The food is healthy. Except for some seasoning mixes(curry seasoning, hot sauce, etc...), nothing is pre-mixed/pre-made and I put everything together.

My weight has been plateaud for the last year with a fluctuation of a few pounds. The only thing I can do more of is to further restrict my caloric intake which may actually make my body hoard calories which has happened before so I'm leary of that. Or I can increase my activity which is very very painful to do in any way that will have an impact. I guess I could work on upper body and core strength, but I'm MTF Trans, so I don't want to do this without doing the same on my legs.

The Doc I'm seeing is also the doc that I see for being Trans, and he's the only one in the area that I know of that has any experience with this. I'm looking to see if there are others, but I have got nothing back so far.

It's just so frustrating that I'm not getting any help on this from the one person who should be helping me on this when I ask about it. I really want to drop this weight, and I should be able to without resorting to going under a knife. I've gotten more help from the Masseuse I see once a month than my Doc. That shouldn't be the case.

There, I've vented. I feel somewhat better now.

Try completely dropping grains (especially wheat), animal products (or at least dairy), all types of added sugar/sweeteners, and processed oil from your diet. So basically, eat nothing but vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, legumes, and spices. Also, I would suggest you avoid taking appetite suppressants. Drugs can affect your weight in ways that even the manufacturers don't know about.

I do have a large group of food allergies which consist of chicken, wheat, soy, corn, cow dairy, and a few others. For food, my meals basically consist of variations of non-grain vegetables with beans, fish, or pork as protein. For the most part I stay away from everything else, but on the weekend, when I'm out gaming with friends, I tend to eat things I'm not supposed to. I am getting better at that, and it's only for two meals worth of food, so I guess it could be worse.

I'd suggest trying your best to sleep as much as you can, rest and manage stress. I follow a strict diet and workout everyday, which has always kept me pretty thin until the past year and half when I suddenly gained 10 pounds out of nowhere.

I attribute the weight gain completely to chronic sleep disturbances/insomnia and increased stress levels this last year or so. Seriously. These things will increase your cortisol levels and screw up your hormones over time, which will lead to weight gain, no matter how you eat or how much you exercise.

I tried walking at lunch with several coworkers yesterday. I didn't make it 100 ft before my knee was letting me know I should not do this, but I walked it off. It still hurt at the end of the 1.2 miles I walked. I had to resort to limping/walking funny in order to lessen the pain which just made my abs, hips, and ankle hurt, but my knee didn't hurt as much. I really want to go back to exercising but I feel like I'm really f*****g my knee up everytime I try to do anything more than walking a few dozen feet. I just wish my doctor would give me a pill, or refer me to a specialist or something, but he only goes, lose weight, which I've almost given up on because it can be quite painful. I've lost 60+ lbs since he became my doctor three years ago. And now my knee is jacked, and I didn't have this problem when I was 60 lbs heavier. I'm just so frustrated.

Have you had anyone check, that you use your feet right? Overpronation or the oppiste can cause a considerable wear on you knees.
What about swimming? That wouldn´t hurt your knee and it can be taken to very energy burning levels.

Drop grains and bread. Eat a small amount of lentiles or beans everyday and lots of vegetables. Only one piece of fruit.
Have a water- and whey proteine drink once a day and a small, high proteine evening meal. See, that you get at least 15 grams of oil every day.
That ought to help, unless your body is used to it already.

Knee trouble really makes exercise difficult. Do you have a YMCA or something like it near you? Sometimes they have water aerobics classes, which will be easier on the joints but still a good workout. Swimming (as a previous poster mentioned) or water-walking (in, not on, the water) are also gentle on the joints. A college may make their pool and other gym facilities available to local residents on some days, so it'd be worth a call if you're close to one.

I dieted to lose weight a couple years ago. No starches, no added sugars, but all foods strictly low-glycemic-index, so even beans were a no-no, all fruit, and some vegetables. It was a bit boring, but I lost weight! Exercise has never led to weight loss for me; I just get hungrier and eat more.

Being sleep deprived makes it massively difficult to lose weight. Have you tried cycling? I built a bike for someone with similar physical issues to you, with pedal cranks from a kid's bike, so shorter, gentler strokes. They swore by it!
Swimming is also good.