Lipedema and Exercise

Painful limbs are typical symptoms of lipedema that make it hard to stay active and manage a healthy weight, especially in combination with overweight. This, in turn, can result in a loss of muscle strength. However, exercise or being active in general positively influences your body and mind and can also improve your lipedema symptoms. Together with balanced nutrition, exercise helps you to maintain a healthy weight. In contrast, a lot of diets focus on short-term effects but fail in the end. This can result in even more weight in the end and should be avoided.

Increase your activity step by step

“Graded activity” is part of the holistic treatment of lipedema. It combines exercise with psychological support. The goal is to increase your activity step by step with a personalized plan. In the beginning, exercise can go along with pain. But in the long-term, regular exercise improves your lipedema symptoms.

How exercise improves your lipedema symptoms

The reason why lipedema causes pain is not entirely understood. Experts explain that inflammation within your fatty tissue is the most likely reason for your pain. Regular exercise reduces inflammation, increases your blood flow, and supplies your body with oxygen. Being active is also beneficial for your emotional well-being; it acts as a natural antidepressant.

What kind of exercise works best?

Your healthcare professional (HCP) can help you to create an exercise plan. Lipedema exercise programs include a mixture of building muscle strength and aerobic exercises.

Good examples for aerobic exercises are Yoga, Pilates, Nordic Walking, cycling, or exercise in water. Swimming or water aerobics reduces the strain on your joints and muscles and also improves lymphatic flow. Although you may be concerned or feel embarrassed about wearing a swimsuit, you should give it a try. Yoga and Pilates are perfect for improving your flexibility.

Another part of your lipedema exercise program should focus on building muscle strength. You can start to implement resistance bands in your training that can gradually increase your strength. After a while, you can also use weights, but you should only increase the impact step by step.

You should always wear your compression garments during exercising. One exception is training in water because this would damage the material of your compression garments.

Need some motivation?

Here are a few tips on how you can motivate yourself:

• Set realistic goals and increase your activity step by step. Make a plan – schedule your exercise at the beginning of each week and stick to it. Share your plan with your family and friends. If possible, exercise together with a friend. Listen to music that motivates you when you exercise. Change activities when you don’t like them. If it is not swimming, maybe Nordic Walking or Yoga works for you. Look back at what you have achieved at the end of each week and think of new goals for the upcoming week. Treat yourself – enjoy a massage or facial mask as a reward.

Besides exercise, balanced nutrition is another key element of a healthy lifestyle.

The role of Manual Lymphatic Drainage (MLD) in lipedema treatment

If you break down the word ‘lipedema’, it means ‘fat swelling’. In contrast to lymphedema, there is no fluid accumulation in the tissue of lipedema patients that causes swelling. Therefore, MLD has no proven effect for treating lipedema. Nevertheless, MLD can be beneficial for other reasons: the massage may reduce stress or anxiety. However, MLD is not a regular part of lipedema treatment.