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My dog is overweight and always hungry. How to help him lose weight?

Updated on September 23rd, 2025

Pet's info: Dog | Plott | Male | neutered | 11 years and 4 months old | 100 lbs

My dog hasn’t been able to loose weight and he’s pretty overweight for his type of breed. Also he always acts like he hasn’t been fed, what should I do? I’ll add a photo to show how fat he is.

1 Answer

Most Helpful Answer

Makenzie Kurth, DVM

Answered By Makenzie Kurth, DVM

Veterinarian

Published on May 10th, 2018

Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! Weight loss is something I discuss multiple times a day. While excercise is helpful, I find diet to be by far the most effective tool. First, if he is free-fed, you’ll want to switch to two measured meals per day. And I do mean use an actual measuring cup every time. For a 100lb dog, start with about 3 cups twice daily. If he is already getting a set amount, decrease that amount by about 25% (ie, go from 6 cups a day to about 4.5 cups per day). Try that for a month. If no weight loss, it’s time to look into a medical reason like hypothyroid or Cushings disease so see your vet for that. Finally, I try a prescription diet like Hills Metabolic diet which actually upregulates genes responsible for metabolism. It is very effective when other diets have failed.

Of course, watch out for people food and treats of course. Choose green beans, carrots, or celery.

Hope this helps and best of luck to you and Dudley!
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