Overweight cat: How to understand calories on food labels per can?

I understand your math and logic for conversions but for some reason it is not needed with pet food! If it says 76 kcal, it is noted as 76 calories! Canned food is the best way to get them to lose weight

Somehow this makes no sense, especially since you are mixing kcal and cal. Feed your kitty 3- 4 times a day (to be able to eat as much as necessary). Since a cat needs approximately 30cal/lb per day to maintain weight, her daily need to maintain the weight would be 150 cal. Your vet recommends 180 cal (not 1800), so she would need 1 2/3 cans of Merrick per day, ie split in 3-4 feed portions.

Hi and thanks for posting! For Easel who is a spayed adult cat, she'll need about 220-250 calories a day to maintain her current weight and between 180-200 if she needs to lose weight. Every food can and product bag contain the calories per cup or calories per can on the label which you can use to adjust her cups per day accordingly. I hope this helps!

Check the labels on your cat foods and see if it gives you a calorie count. Most good pet foods will have that information. Calculate how many calories are in 1/3 of the dry food and compare that amount to the canned food to get an idea of the right amount to feed him to maintain his weight. If you aren't fond of math (like me!) a less precise method is to simply keep an eye on his weight and adjust the amount you feed accordingly. When you run your hands over his body, if the ribs can be felt with light pressure then he's a good weight. If you have to really feel around to tell where his ribs are, he could lose a little weight, and if the bones are felt with no pressure at all, he should get fed a little more.

The amount of calories is derived from a forumla that takes into account the current health status of your cat along with how active he is. Each food is formulated with a specific amount of calories. You can ask you vet to evaluate if his weight is appropriate right now or if he needs extra or restricted calories.

The best way to maintain his weight at 12 lbs is to measure his food and count the calories. A typical 12 lb cat should eat about 230 calories total in a day. Look at the calorie content of the food your vet prescribed and feed based on the calories per cup or per can. It is probably fine to switch to urinary care with weight management but you should check with your vet first since it is prescription diet. I would also recommend asking your vet about feeding some canned urinary food as most cats with crystals should be fed canned food, too.

Getting cats to lose weight can be very challenging. Cats are obligate carnivores and cannot use carbohydrates efficiently, so they tend to be converted straight into fat. Any any dry food needs to have a good amount of carbohydrates in it in order to makes it "dry". So, even using low calorie biscuits, it can be very difficult to get a cat to lose weight. (And the bags generally recommend more calories than a normal cat needs.) My best recommendation for weight loss in cats is to change to a completely canned food diet. This website has some good information about cat nutrition. http://catinfo.org/ Some of the packets are actually also high in carbohydrates, so you have to read the labels carefully. It will seem odd that you are actually feeding a higher fat and higher caloric food in a canned food, but cats tend to lose weight that way. I generally recommend an average of 5.5 ounces of canned food per day for an average ideal body weight of 10 pounds for a cat. Good luck! I hope that was helpful. Thanks for using PetCoach.