Many times patients come into the office complaining about more painful calluses as they lose weight. Losing extra weight has great health benefits for your body and feet. But in some specific areas of the body fat can work as a cushion and that is the case for the foot.
When you lose weight, your body also reduces fat around your feet, making calluses worse and increasing its pain. This is specially bothersome on the bottom of the foot, because without that extra layer the callus rubs directly against the bone.
Calluses are also more painful when people are losing weight due to increased walking, workouts and physical activities. Even though this helps with weight loss, it also puts more pressure on existing calluses and might cause new ones.
To stop the pain, patients may need calluses to be trimmed back. We don’t advise doing this at home due to the risk of cutting through the skin and increasing the risk of infection.
At Central Massachusetts Podiatry we offer same day visits to accommodate emergencies and painful situations like these (also think about an infected ingrown toenail... ouch). Just give us a call at 508-757-4003 to schedule an appointment.
If the patient has persistent pain even after trimming back the calluses, there are some specific orthotics to wear inside the shoe that take the pressure off the calluses. This has been helping our patients as they can continue to be active and work on their health goals and lifestyle habits.
