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#1
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Cat on a diet
Hi All,
My cat weighs 12.8 pounds and needs to loose 1 more pound. He started off with 14 pounds and has done an amazing progress in the last couple of months. I feed him 1/2 cup of Purina Cat Chow Dry Cat Food Indoor Formula (1/2 * 390 = 195 kcal). But, in the last weeks he has stopped loosing weight, although nothing has changed. Also, he has been complaining a lot more - it is really hard to ignore him since he is a very vocal siamese. So much that I felt guilty and gave him small treats (little tiny bits of chicken) to him during the weekend. The treats are so small that I wonder if this has any effect. So, I wonder what can I do to make him loose this final pound without driving me crazy. (why the last one is so hard?) I thought of substituing the food by a lighter food or by wet canned food. I am not sure what is best. Any suggestions? Minerva |
#2
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Cat on a diet
wrote:
Hi All, My cat weighs 12.8 pounds and needs to loose 1 more pound. He started off with 14 pounds and has done an amazing progress in the last couple of months. I feed him 1/2 cup of Purina Cat Chow Dry Cat Food Indoor Formula (1/2 * 390 = 195 kcal). But, in the last weeks he has stopped loosing weight, although nothing has changed. Also, he has been complaining a lot more - it is really hard to ignore him since he is a very vocal siamese. So much that I felt guilty and gave him small treats (little tiny bits of chicken) to him during the weekend. The treats are so small that I wonder if this has any effect. So, I wonder what can I do to make him loose this final pound without driving me crazy. (why the last one is so hard?) I thought of substituing the food by a lighter food or by wet canned food. I am not sure what is best. Any suggestions? Minerva My chubby guy has been doing better on a canned "light" food than he did on a dry "reducing" diet. In part, it seems to be because we've gone to a 2 meals a day routine instead of him having access to food all day long. Also, something just seems a bit more satisfying about the canned stuff. He's lost 2 pounds in slightly more than 2 months, 1.5 pounds to go. |
#3
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Cat on a diet
5cats wrote:
My cat weighs 12.8 pounds and needs to loose 1 more pound. He started off with 14 pounds and has done an amazing progress in the last couple of months. I feed him 1/2 cup of Purina Cat Chow Dry Cat Food Indoor Formula (1/2 * 390 = 195 kcal). But, in the last weeks he has stopped loosing weight, although nothing has changed. Also, he has been complaining a lot more - it is really hard to ignore him since he is a very vocal siamese. So much that I felt guilty and gave him small treats (little tiny bits of chicken) to him during the weekend. The treats are so small that I wonder if this has any effect. How many kilocalories are in the treats? He cannot lose any weight because you have achieved metabolic balance To lose weight, you would have to give less kilocalories. Actually, I'm just half joking here. Are you sure he is not losing a little bit? If he lost an ounce in a week, you would still achieve weight loss, but at a superb gentle amount. A pound over 3-4 months. I'll give you a for instance, my 11 pound cat at 160-180 kcals will maintain and possibly gain. Lack of exercise complicates matters. You may want to try some wet food. My cat also complains a lot. You might want to talk to a vet. There are Rx weight reducing foods which bulk up a bit with fiber. Wait and see if this is really a plateau. Are you using an accurate scale? You cat's metabolism may also be adjusting to the reduced kilocalories. It's sometimes not as simple as it sounds. A good vet if you can find one should help you out here. My chubby guy has been doing better on a canned "light" food than he did on a dry "reducing" diet. In part, it seems to be because we've gone to a 2 meals a day routine instead of him having access to food all day long. What "light" food are you reducing your cat with? |
#4
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Cat on a diet
Here's something Phil P. posted which is more accurate, after I bugged
him. The DER refers to Daily Energy Requirements. [whatever that is, using texts I get a wild range from 140 to 210 kcals depending on the author] There are formulas or formulae - I got some from Science Diet but the below should work. It's amazing but cats and people will adjust their metabolism downwards and it makes dieting tricky. Think winter and hibernation. It can also make it dangerous if not careful [actually hyperlipidemia or the cat's liver can't handle fat that's loose now]. Think thyroid malfunction or hypothyroidism if too fast a dieting or too little food in humans. Sometimes life is simple and sometime it ain't. "I'll give you two solutions to your problem and let you choose the one that's more complicated: Plan #1: Reduce your cat's daily caloric intake by 25% until her weight plateaus. When the reduced caloric intake becomes her maintenance diet, reduce her daily caloric intake by an additional 10% until she plateaus again. Follow the same reduce/plateau/reduce/plateau pattern in 10% increments until she reaches her target weight. Do not allow her to lose more than one pound every four weeks. If she begins losing more than 1# a month, increase her daily caloric intake by 5%-10% or as much as necessary to slow her weight loss to 1#/4 weeks. [one pound loss in 4 weeks] Plan #2: This is a sliding target weight, stepwise plan: If she weighs 11#, set her target weight at 9# and feed her the DER for a 9# cat. When she reaches the target weight of #9 she should plateau, then set a new target weight of 7# or whatever weight that will place her in BCS 5. Again, don't set target weights that will result in a loss of more than 1#/4 weeks. I said no more than 1% a week or 1# every 4 weeks whichever is less. Phil P." Thanks, Phil, you're a gem |
#5
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Cat on a diet
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#6
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Cat on a diet
wrote in message oups.com... Here's something Phil P. posted which is more accurate, after I bugged him. The DER refers to Daily Energy Requirements. [whatever that is, using texts I get a wild range from 140 to 210 kcals depending on the author] There are formulas or formulae - I got some from Science Diet but the below should work. It's amazing but cats and people will adjust their metabolism downwards and it makes dieting tricky. Think winter and hibernation. It can also make it dangerous if not careful [actually hyperlipidemia or the cat's liver can't handle fat that's loose now]. Think thyroid malfunction or hypothyroidism if too fast a dieting or too little food in humans. Sometimes life is simple and sometime it ain't. "I'll give you two solutions to your problem and let you choose the one that's more complicated: Plan #1: Reduce your cat's daily caloric intake by 25% until her weight plateaus. When the reduced caloric intake becomes her maintenance diet, reduce her daily caloric intake by an additional 10% until she plateaus again. Follow the same reduce/plateau/reduce/plateau pattern in 10% increments until she reaches her target weight. Do not allow her to lose more than one pound every four weeks. If she begins losing more than 1# a month, increase her daily caloric intake by 5%-10% or as much as necessary to slow her weight loss to 1#/4 weeks. [one pound loss in 4 weeks] Plan #2: This is a sliding target weight, stepwise plan: If she weighs 11#, set her target weight at 9# and feed her the DER for a 9# cat. When she reaches the target weight of #9 she should plateau, then set a new target weight of 7# or whatever weight that will place her in BCS 5. Again, don't set target weights that will result in a loss of more than 1#/4 weeks. I said no more than 1% a week or 1# every 4 weeks whichever is less. Phil P." Thanks, Phil, you're a gem I forgot to add, don't reduce the cat's total daily caloric intake by more than 25% of the cat's DER at one time. Most commercial diets are designed to contain a small/moderate excess of each nutrient for safety. If you restrict caloric intake by more than 25% of the cat's DER you might exceed the safety margin which could create nutrient deficiencies. Phil |
#7
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Cat on a diet
I did an extensive search in this discussion group and found some very
useful messages from Phil. In fact, I based the first reduction on the dry food on his formulas. But, this text on the plateau issue, I had not seen. Thank you for pasting it. I do believe that the winter might have some to do with it since he has been looking for warm places most frequently. But, maybe the fact that he is getting closer to his ideal weight is also having an effect. It may be easier for a 20lbs cat to loose 1 lb than for an 11 lb cat. For a lighter cat 1 lb it represents a higher percentage of his body weight, right? This is only a hypothesis, of course. I am not using a very accurate scale. I am using a regular digital Tanita. I have tested it with bags of litter weighing similarly to my cat and it seems accurate, but I would not bet my life on it. I actually weigh him in pounds and kilos and do as many measures as he allows me. My intention is not to track every ounce. I am interested to see a decrease over time in a rate that is not too dangerous. So, I keep a chart (using excel) of his progress. He actually lost 2 pounds since August. This is not bad, uh. It basically means he is loosing 0.5 lb per month. It way below the recommended! Anyway, yesterday we changed him to wet food. I am thinking of giving half of the larger can (~75-95kcal) and a little bit of the dry food in the morning (~70Kcal ). He seemed more satisfied . Funny, because in terms of calories this meant he is eating less calories. He is also in a better mood because wet food used to be a special food for him. It is too soon to draw any conclusions, but I am optimistic. Concerning the treats, they basically consists of 1-3 tiny bits of chicken (the size of the little balls of the dry food) Saturday morning and one table spoon of milk that he adores (although I know that is not exactly good for him!) once or twice a week. I keep wondering how much is this compromising his diet. Anyway, I will stop giving him these for now. Thank you for the suggestions! Minerva |
#8
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Cat on a diet
wrote in message oups.com... Concerning the treats, they basically consists of 1-3 tiny bits of chicken (the size of the little balls of the dry food) Saturday morning and one table spoon of milk that he adores (although I know that is not exactly good for him!) once or twice a week. I keep wondering how much is this compromising his diet. Anyway, I will stop giving him these for now. There's nothing wrong with giving him treats as long as they don't comprise more than 10% of his daily caloric intake. Just be sure to include treat calories in his daily caloric allowance. Good luck, Phil. |
#9
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Cat on a diet
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#10
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Cat on a diet
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