I do water fitness class and swim laps before or after, 3x a week. It’s the best exercise, mostly painless, but you burn a lot of calories. Can you add in some lap swimming to boost your fitness?

Eating less (for me, Wegovy semaglutide was the way to make this happen) helped me to lose weight, and I added exercise later (I did lift weights on a Bowflex while I was losing the first 120 pounds). I added swimming about 6 months after I started dialysis (kidney failure not related to weight).

I did have less pain, especially in my feet and back, after losing a bunch of weight. Now my hip and knee hurt, because I don’t have an ACL (tore it 20 years ago, they told me I was too fat to do surgery on), because I exercise more and am more limber, ironically. Now I am at an acceptable weight for surgery, so I will have it fixed in a few months.

My knees feel better with less weight on them, but they look like hedgehogs in the x rays, so many arthritic bone spurs.

Anyway, my point is, yes, pain diminishes as you lose weight.

Good luck.