Help/Advice/Whatever you can offer lol

[u/DelaySimilar]

My cat Bella is stuck at 16.8 pounds seemingly no matter what we do. She gets 3/4 of a can of wet food in the AM and the PM, of the prescribed Purina Pro Plan overweight management food - about 170 calories a day. She also is not really the most food motivated - doesn’t always eat all the wet food or will leave it as a little snack for later, so I don’t think the problem is overeating.

I’ve had her for going on four years now that she’s been on this food and she hasn’t dropped any weight. Based on her documents from the adoption agency she gained the weight fast in foster and it seems to just have stuck??

She’s not the most active cat and will play for at most maybe five or ten minutes a day, but she’s not exceedingly lazy or anything in my opinion. Any tips or tricks/things I should ask the vet for? Each time we go they tell me to stay the course on the prescription food but she still isn’t losing any weight 😭

[u/Noomieno]

Is there a risk she’s going outside eating somewhere else?

The truth is, if she’s still overweight then she’s still getting too much food/calories. Calories in, calories out. The way she eats tells you that she’s satisfied with less food and is full. If she doesn’t eat the wet food in one go, start only giving the amount she does eat. She does NOT need food 3x a day with that amount (if I understood you correctly). It’s a beautiful cat but to be honest she is so overweight still that she probably needs almost half of the food she eats.

I will be in the minority in this subreddit and say that wet food never worked for me. My cat and the one prior to that both needed to diet and wet food did not work not work out for them. It’s like they do not get full from it. I also experienced dry food was easier to dose. With dose I mean, once their weight loss plateaued I made the portions even smaller. They both slowly lost the weight and I could easily maintain it long-term with low calorie dry food. You just need to check that they’re drinking water too.

Either way I would pull back the calories, she does not need that much.

Edit: Another advice is that I have noticed high protein cat food work better than weight loss food. I give my cat Nulo Cod food as it has a high amount of protein and does not contain poultry which my cat is allergic too. It keeps them fuller longer resulting them to eat less.

[u/DelaySimilar → u/Noomieno]

I’ll look into the high protein food!! No chance she gets outside, we live in an apartment :/ and it’s just twice a day on the food so about 80 calories or so for breakfast and 80 for dinner

[u/OneMorePenguin → u/DelaySimilar]

Your cats might have low metabolic rate or some other health issue. According to the calorie calculater in the dechonking guide (pinned to the top of r/dechonkers), if your kitty had ideal body score at 16.8 lbs, she would require 385 calories! If I put in body score of max, it says ideal weight is 12 lbs and calories to achieve that is 199.

If she is getting 170 calories daily and continues to weight 16.8 lbs, she might need a vet visit to help you figure out next steps. Or call and talk to your vet. She does look overweight, and it's hard to tell from the photos, but she doesn't look super round, so her ideal weight might be higher than that.

I dechonked two of my cats on dry food. I just switched from free feeding to fixed meals and it was simply calorie control.

[u/Noomieno → u/OneMorePenguin]

It makes me wonder if the calories are not accurate. I would eyeball it at this point and just slowly pull back on food until she starts losing weight

[u/Tayraed → u/Noomieno]

That's what I did with my cat. Counting the calories was just not working after months, so I just slowly reduced until he was losing and becoming more active. So now that he's good, I've kept that amount!

[u/Noomieno → u/DelaySimilar]

I understand! I never even properly measured the second time around a dieted a cat! (Except for the first dosing to make sure I had a starting point).I just made sure I have good quality, protein rich dry food 2x a day and once she started leaving food (especially for hours) I saw it as a sign that she’s getting a little too much than she needs. This is still a slow process but if feels like a ”natural” way of dieting them, it becomes very simple. Think about a cat ”in the wild”, they might eat mice/birds that’s pure protein but not a lot and not as often as house cats. I also noticed doing it this way made my cats less stressful around the food bowl. With my latest cat I even can free feed her now as she has met her goal, it’s like she learned that she doesn’t have to eat a lot of it at once.

[u/Regular-Humor-9128 → u/DelaySimilar]

I know the person above suggested lowering calories, but I’m not sure going below 160 calories is that great of an idea without talking to your vet. At least not by much. And cats like having a little left for later, so if they are rationing and saving some of the allotted 160/170 calories for a little later on, probably recognizing they won’t get more until later, there is no reason to punish them by taking it away (NOT that you’re doing that but in reading the other person’s suggestion to feed them only what theY eat immediately). You’re lucky if they aren’t overly food motivated. If they are not losing weight on 160 calories, maybe there’s a thyroid issue? What does your vet say (you mention prescription food), if they told you she needs to lose weight and you are honestly feeding what they suggested? It might not hurt to keep the calories around the same and try another brand/type of food. I agree it doesn’t at least from what you described, seem to be a too high of calorie issue. The high protein suggestion is def. a good one to check out.

[u/Elf_Sprite_]

I've also noticed high protein cat food works much better than weight loss cat food. And for my chonker who wouldn't exercise, I just reduced his caloric intake until he began slow weightloss, then increased it again once he hit desired weight.

[u/glitterypos]

Cats lose most of their weight from diet vs exercise. I recommend taking her to the vet and getting them to tell you how many calories she needs daily. If she gets hungry throughout the day I recommend splitting her feedings up based off of what her daily calories should be.

[u/irishgirlie33]

My kitty gets 1 can of metabolic (prescription) a day, plus treats.

I also make time to get her to chase the cat dancer and run around. She's learned that play time equals treat time, so she's usually pretty agreeable to moving.

Find a play routine, a good food and try new things. You'll get there

[u/TheNightTerror1987]

Unfortunately some cats gain weight just by being in the same room as food, I have one of them myself. Addie was always the fattest cat in the house and I always fed her less than half of what I fed the other cats. If Bella's still fat, you're simply feeding her too much and need to taper back. If you don't, you might find yourself in a situation where you end up having to spend $80+ a month on arthritis medications because your girl's joints wore out carrying all that extra weight around -- you can probably guess how I know this!!