My knees hurt... :-(

Hi all. I am fully signed-up to the anti-diet lifestyle. I went into recovery from my ED in October 2020, and over the past 4+ years things have got a lot better for me in a lot of ways. I have gained a lot of weight as I've been eating more intuitively - that was tough for me of course, growing up in a fatphobic world - I've had to deal with a lot of comments and judgement. But I felt it was important to overcome this, as a revolutionary act, as a feminist, to stick two fingers up to the societal norms that meant I developed the ED in the first place.

Philosophically, I'm totally on board. I avoid processed foods, I cook a lot at home, soup and toast for lunch, and I have a very active young dog who I walk for around 60 minutes a day. I do reformer pilates once a week.

My issue is that my knees hurt. I'm late 40s, post-menopausal, and probably 280ish lbs. I'm fairly fit and apparently there's no sign of diabetes brewing yet. But I'm in physical pain. My knees, hips, glutes and lower back hurt every day. Going up and down stairs is really freaking difficult and sore. I need to support myself on the bannisters - so if I want to walk upstairs carrying a basket of wet laundry to hang up, it takes me ages.

I know that diets don't work. I know that having an ED for 30 years was very dangerous for my mental health. And I know that some physical pain is almost inevitable as we get older. But I want to put less pressure on my knees. I'm hoping I might live for another 30 or 40 years and I don't want to spend all that time in pain if possible. Do I just need to stop being ableist and get used to living in this pain? Is it ok to want to lose weight, not so that I look 'better', but so that I can go upstairs and hang out the laundry without it hurting so much?

Any thoughts gratefully received.