Hi! My kitty used to be obese too and I’ve managed to get her to lose ~3.5 pounds just by switching her pet food! I actually let her free feed and she still lost the weight - and no the pet food is not starving her, in fact my vet said it’s the most calorically dense he’s ever seen (it is like 600 kcals/cup or something).

The food helped because it is a zero carb formula. Cats are obligate carnivores and in the wild, would eat a diet consisting entirely of protein and fat. Their bodies have not evolved to process carbs for energy, and so any carbs they consume is stored as fat instead. If eating a proper carb-free diet, it is actually very very hard for them to gain weight - even if they are a lazy loaf like my kitty.

Almost all obesity in cats is caused by a poor quality diet because most consumers are under-educated about their pet’s food and companies take advantage of that to cut costs, often marketing things like veggies & grains as healthy for cats when really they are cheap filler ingredients and/or advertising ploys (veggies are great for us omnivorous humans, but an obligate carnivore has no biological use for them). Additionally, most consumers choose to feed dry cat food for convenience, which is especially prone to high carb content since it needs binder ingredients to hold its pellet shape.

To ensure you are feeding a proper diet to your pet, look for these characteristics in her food:

-no grain (and preferably no carbs as well, but that’s harder to find)

-at least 40% protein

-first 5 ingredients listed are a meat source

-protein sources are high quality & bioavailable (many companies will grind up things like beaks and talons into the food to make the protein % seem higher, but since the protein from these sources is not digestible, it passes thru the cat’s body without being used - so really these foods have a much lower protein % in terms of actual, bioavailable protein). Avoid “byproducts”, especially in the first 5 ingredients!

I hope this info helps you and your kitty lose her weight! I personally use young again cat food “zero” formula, which is a dry food with zero carbs (<1%) + is formulated to match the nutritional profile of a juvenile mouse with 54% protein, 26% fat, and the rest moisture/fiber/etc. I did a bunch of research before landing on this food and have been super pleased - like I said my cat has lost 3.5 pounds over the past year after many other failed attempts to get her to lose weight. Here is the link to the food if you are interested: https://www.youngagainpetfood.com/phone/zero-formula.html

Edit: I meant to say LESS than 1% instead of greater. Fixed that

Edit 2: wow!! My first gold!! Thanks so much stranger! :) late night insomnia was not for nothing after all, haha!

Edit 3: someone commented on the cost of this food. This was my long reply:

According to their website it only costs 47 cents a day to feed this food. This is because it makes cats feel full longer and on less food due to its high protein/fat content. Imagine eating a steak vs an equivalent # of calories in bread. The protein/fat from the steak will make you feel fuller longer since carbs are the fastest-burning of all energy sources - especially for cats which have no use for them as energy. So they are true empty calories for your pet. This on the other hand packs MORE calories per bite & none of them are empty. I haven’t tracked the 47 cents per day thing, but I can attest my cat eats less on this.

... but yes, this is the most premium quality dry food you can buy for your cats. In addition to its nutrition, they use hydrolyzed pork as the protein source (the same ultra-digestible protein used in prescription diets for cats with IBD - this is like a cheaper prescription-quality diet with a higher protein content - I actually switched from a prescription to this and saw my cat improve) and formulate the food to produce a specific gravity/pH in your cat’s urine to help prevent crystal formation. This is for people who are super health nuts for their cats and who would be feeding a prescription, premium wet food, or raw diet but either can’t afford it (this is much more wallet friendly than those) or need the convenience of dry food. For us, this stuff is a lifesaver - normally there is a very established hierarchy in nutritious food for your pets (which is raw, then wet, then a BIG gap, then dry. Seriously, read about it, a lot of cat bloggers flat out sneer at dry food) but this stuff competes nutritionally + has all of the benefits of dry. I love it and that’s why I’m out here singing its praises. But thats also why I tried describing the characteristics of a healthy pet food before recommending this one, so people can choose a different product if they wish and still have healthy pets :)

Something to keep in mind tho is that if you own an indoor-only cat, what you feed is literally the #1 thing you can do to impact your cat’s health. If they are indoor/outdoor, they will supplement their diet with their own ultra-nutritious catches & you can get away with feeding a lower quality food. But if they are indoor only, as mine is, she completely relies on me to keep her healthy. Think of being kept captive by an alien and being fed frozen pizzas everyday of your life, vs organic produce from the farmers market. One is obviously healthier than the other. I am a benevolent alien who wants my captive to live a long long time, lol. Especially since she’s developed digestive disorders from the years of supermarket dry food before I learned all this shit.