dr doing a great job of scaring the s##t out of me

Obviously cannot know all the details, but why discount doc's advice about YOUR case? Body weight adds significant stress to the joints while running, so the advice is logical.  HOWEVER that does not mean giving up.  Ask about water running, which is much less stressful on the leg joints.  Or concentrate on swimming or cycling (easier gears to minimize knee strain).  There are many athletes of all levels who had to give up one sport for a time due to injury, or sometimes just to get much better at their weaker sports.

Good luck & speedy recovery!!!

It sucks when our desires don't line up with the Dr.'s advice.  

If you genuinely think he's wrong or misguided you can always get a second opinion.  Also, if he's just saying cut some weight to run I think that would be a huge motivator for me.  There's a lot of training you can do that will get your conditioning and endurance up besides running.  Aqua jogging and elliptical would be thing's I'd look into.

Either way, good luck and don't be discouraged.

Not to thread hijack too much, but I see this a lot too.  I had a step mom who weighed over 400 lbs. and she'd come back from the dr. bragging about how he said she had the heart of a 20 year old.  omg

I encourage you to lose the weight.  Anything that makes running easier is good advice.

-Ken

You think the doctor was lying to her?

Losing weight is a very good idea for your knee. But losing weight will also make a huge difference for reducing your chances of getting a whole series of acute and chronic (and deadly) diseases. Also, it is very, very smart to let your knee FULLY heal before loading it again with any training.

Another way to look at it, if you really love tri training and tri lifestyle: do you want to train for the next 20 weeks, or the next 20 years?

My answer is to always take the long view ...

I had surgery for torn meniscus last year, healed okay but not fully back to my normal self..did an IM 5 months later. Now 7 months after last IM, I walk with a limp often, had rapid onset arthritis, have 3 bone on bone spots, will need knee replacement just trying to put it off, may have surgery to realign my leg so my weight is on part of my knee I have cartilage on, opted to stop running to keep my knee as long as possible and avoid pain.

Losing weight is easier when we can be active for me especially running.

I had to pull out of IMLP and debating if I will do IMFL that I'm signed up to do...walk the run or DNF after the bike.

My life improved greatly as I started tri'ing in '04 and to lose my ability to participate te way I want to was pretty devastating.

Today I did a relay with my 15 year old and we came in first female relay.

I have found aquabike races and signed up for them. Reorienting my goals has been a journey.

Sometimes hard to keep in mind that every one is different. 

You obviously have desire to do tri, which is fantastic.  And remember proper diet is critical for all, inc elites.  Pro cyclist Chris Horner's breakthrough win of TdC (California) was attributed to improvement of his admittedly bad diet.

Best of luck, and keep us posted on your progress.

training for Tri and eating right are not 2 separate things.  When I am eating fruit at work, eating a healthy lunch, it is 100% a continuation of the run/bike/swim that I have done in the morning.  Tri training is not just the sports, you can make it a lifestyle.  <sermon over>

-Ken

No, but people hear and repear what they want to hear.  My MIL is the same way--she's in terrible shape, overweight, diabetic, and has had one knee replacement.  She goes to the Dr, comes home and  tells us about the one positive such as "My blood pressure is good!"  The leaves out that the doc followed that statement with something like "...for someone 100 lbs overweight and diabetic."

Well that sounds like a small victory for your MIL.  I think people should get to have their little victories.  Also, your family might only tell you the positive because you've come off so critically toward them in the past.  Just my assumption from what you've said.  Nobody wants to be constantly beat up for their weight. 

===

To OP:  I know where you're coming from. Last December, I had surgery on my foot (non-weight related) and was AWOL from jogging for about three months.  So when March came around and I found out I could run again, I got really excited and over did it.  I signed up for two marathons (November 2011 and Feb. 2012.)  Got back into my, pretty advanced, running group and started upping my mileage -- too quickly.

Result?  Knee injury - overuse...yada, yada, yada.  So I went from 66 mpm to 25 mpm.  I've been in A.R.T. therapy and physical therapy for three weeks, but I am starting to see results.  I can run two miles without any pain.

As much as it annoying me, because really I like to run, I'm taking it really painfully slow this time .  I'll be happy if I can do a half-marathon in November.

So my advice, is to take it easy.  Lose the weight.  This does help as it takes pressure off the knees. Just make it a long term goal, be patient, celebrate small victories, give yourself some slack, and remember that you have other parts of this silly sport to focus on - like swimming and cycling (if you can do that during your recovery.)

Oh and, if you really like to run, look into pool running (aqua jogging).  Get a waterproof mp3 player and run around the pool.  This has helped me (at least psychologically).

I believe your assumption would be false.  My MIL and I have never had a conversation about weight--we have plenty of other things to disagree about!  And my wife and I both struggle with our weight but give each other positive reinforcement about being healthy--something my MIL is not interested in.

Little victories can be good if they are accompanied by realism, and if they create encouragement to address problems and make difficult changes.

That's not what most people do, though. More common is to magnify the little victory, forget about the problem list and the to-do list, and stop by Diary Queen on the way home from the doctor.

Everyone needs Grace and Truth. All Truth and no Grace, and we're just getting beat up. All Grace and no Truth, we're living in fantasy land and sooner or later reality will intrude.

How about walking?  When I was coming back from plantar fasciitis, I started out with walking and it made a world of difference.  Sure, you don't burn off calories as quickly on a walk but you can still get your sweat on, burn some calories and produce some endorphins.  Then, once you have recovered and as your knee tolerates it (and really slowly), you can add some run intervals into the walks.  Walking with a book on my i-pod helped me because I could focus on the story instead of how much I wanted to run.

Even now, if I have a problem that prevents me from running (injury, strain, whatever), I just do a walk of equivalent duration.  I read in Bob Glover's "Guide to Competitive Running" that it is important to have time on your feet and that is what he does when injured.

Oh, and, when you walk the whole marathon in your IM, you know what they call you?  Ironman.

Was yoru mfx patellar? 3 weeks is not too bad of a go on crutches--it could be a lot longer for some wb-areas in the knee (non-patellar).

Long story short...sure, you may be able to run again. And sure, less weight is always good on the knee.

Every case is different. I was able to run again after mine, but I did have to cut back significantly. Mine was also in a WB area, and I had other stuff going on, however.