I'm fostering a beautiful 5 year old 27lb male cat and he is currently on a dechonking diet via the vet. Thankfully he has no other health conditions other than chonky.

I was wondering if anyone has had a cat in a similar weight range and had diets their cat has been on and would like to share? (Understanding that every cat is unique and under vet's order!)

Also welcoming any tips, though the tips I've seen on this subreddit have been extremely helpful thus far.

i think shes done. never posted here before. she was a little big, not suuuuper obese i think, but shes definitely lost weight over this past year!

what do you guys think? i think her big chest makes her look fat

My chonk gained a lot of weight when my dad convinced me he was underweight and I should free feed him at a year old. Big mistake. Lasted for a month before I noticed the damage and he started bad begging habits. Seven years later, my husband trips over him on the way to the food bowl and the little guy tears an ACL. Gains even more weight on crate rest.

We have another cat who has bad allergies, and my husband has contact reactions to gluten/wheat, so we can only feed them Science Diet Food Sensitivity, either duck or rabbit. So, my next thought is exercise.

While our other cat is a toy hunter, he is not. He will chase her to bully, and is a really good mouser if they get in the house, but it is really really hard to get him to engage with a toy. I can pick him up and snuggle him for a while, which he loves, but I know that doesn’t get him an exercise. As he has a bad leg, Im trying to find some gentle exercise for the boy. He has been able to run, and has been able to climb the cat tree, but I dont want to push it.

I feed her 1/6th cup of kibble in the morning, and another 1/6th cup in the evening

Here is the kibble i feed her, its even less than the bag recommends.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0848L7KXZ

I also give her one churu per day before i leave to go to work

and every 4-5 days or so i will give her one can of wet food instead of the kibble.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0169J3ANO

She is pretty active, she loves to sprint from one side of my room to the other.

She is 2.5 years old

She weighed 11 pounds when i last took her to the vet 6 months ago

I tried weighing her just now and it showed 12 pounds but it was on a human scale so idk how accurate it is

Am I doing something wrong? everyone's reaction when they see her is that she is fat and it is frustrating.

Our sweet Kali was given to us last year. Someone we know got dogs that used to mess with her and she would just hide in the closet and wouldn’t leave. I don’t know how long it was but she gained a lot of weight during that time. Ever since we got her we have given her lots of love and patience. She was extremely nervous (still is) but she has become attached to my hip and fully trusts me which I couldn’t be more grateful for. We got her on a feeding schedule, play with her and now that she is roaming the house freely she’s lost a lot of weight. She’s still got some ways to go but I feel like she’s so much happier now and it shows!

My new foster cat is refusing point blank to get on the baby scales I brought for him.

We tried weighing ourselves holding him but it wasn’t accurate enough and made it seem like he has lost 2 kg, which would put him at 6.4kgs which is absolutely not…

Okay so this is Boris. He is me and my boyfriend's cat that we adopted from the streets, he got rapidly overweight over the course of about 2 years (they were feeding him however much he wanted) and is currently at a bit above 7kg. We have been to the vet with him, got him his shots and a checkup, got his chip put on our name, and he is now on prescription food since about the beginning of July. He hasn't lost any weight??? He isn't gaining any weight either but obviously this seems very unhealthy for me

Some additional context:

He is 11 years old and neutered. He and his sister were originally my boyfriend's neighbours, but they moved to the US and simply left the cats there (We're from Europe). My in-laws decided to take him and his sister in when they started showing up in their garden, this was about two years ago, and we officially adopted him in july. His family had never owned any cats before, and neither had my boyfriend, so they were clueless. Me and my boyfriend do not live together yet as we're both students with a limited budget, but we decided that when we do move in together we will be taking both cats with us to give them the care they need. Veterinary budget is not necessarily a problem because his parents are willing to pay for it, but they also don't seem to be taking it very seriously. (Boyfriend does take it very seriously and monitors it as best as he can when I'm not around)

He is currently on 50 grams of Hills metabolic cat food, which he gets in 2 portions in the morning and evening (so 25grams in the morning and then again in the evening). I'm wanting to get additional blood work done, but we'll have to convince my boyfriend's parents to take him, and in the meantime I wanted to see if anyone here has experienced something similar and had any advice

My overweight cat who was formerly 16ish pounds, is now down to 12 with a vet-set goal weight of 11 (she’s just a big girl) and I’m wondering if/when I should swap her off the diet food and back onto regular food.

I currently have her on the Purina One weight management wet food, but she is a very picky lady and is getting bored of it. I also have her getting one of three meals a day with the Purina One indoor dry food for some variety. She has slow feeders and we regularly do the dry food in some sort of puzzle, but she just boycotts the wet food. She’s 9 going on 10, so I want to keep her on a mostly wet diet because I’ve formerly had cats that developed kidney issues because of dry food later in life.

Just wondering if anyone else swapped their cat to a regular wet food after they reached their goal weight!

Still at least the same amount to go (aiming for around 15lbs) but we’re very proud of him!

Just wanna share my cat Mamacat’s dechonking journey!

She went from 7.45 kg ≈ 16 lb to 5.38 kg ≈ 12 lb in about 5 years. Yes, it took that long haha! So, for anybody out there with a slow dechonker, there is hope!

(She doesn’t weigh 0.00 kg, as shown on the scale. I used the “tare” option.)

This is my cat Lua. Over many years he became obese and I really want to get him own to a healthier weight. Right now he is about 22 pounds and that has been his average for the last many months to a year. I have 4 cats and they all free feed on dry food that's out 24/7 and get wet food meals in the morning and at night. He's the only one who is "overweight" of them all.

I'm hesitant to switch them to scheduled feeding, though I know this is going to be the only way I can portion control with him as I have other cats. Has anyone else successfully switched from free feeding to scheduled feeding? How difficult was it? I'm only worried that they won't eat enough when I offer food, or they'll become desperate for food.

My cat weighs 30 pounds and is 2’9” long from nose to tail. Is there a good pet insurance that would ensure him at this weight? I want him to start on a healthy regimen. (I wanted to add some pictures, but I didn’t see where to add them.)

My son here used to fit in my hand, he held at 23 lbs for a long time and when he got neutered he slowly climbed up to 36lbs. He's been on a strick diet for a few months now and lost 6 lbs. Sence his weight loss journey began ive seen him become more playful with his brothers but he's learned to demand food every time someone stands up. Might be able to take the fat off of him but sure as he'll not out of him.

I have a vet checkup next week but felt like posting for any ideas you all think I should run by the vet

Biggie Smalls has lost 8lbs since I adopted him in 2024.

Initially weighed 25lbs, was low energy and snuggly. He regularly failed to jump from couch to cat tree/jump onto counters and would scrabble or hang like Mufasa.

He has been on the same diet of 1.5oz wet food + 4oz/.5 cup dry food a day totalling 240 calories, split evenly into 3 80calorie meals at morning/evening/bedtime.

s diet hasn't changed since I adopted him and made a plan with the vet.

Now he is 17.5lbs.

Much higher energy, he's rapidly become a chaos goblin who loves his toys and playtime. He now is constantly on counters/leaping around and getting into trouble.

At his last check up in March he was 18lbs even.

His goal weight is 15.6 pounds (he is a large boy)

Since then he's lost 1/2 a pound only, and thats still not consistent as his weight fluctuates based on his water intake/if he pooped.

We exercise/play as often as I can and he still plays with his chase/bat/kick toys on his own/at 3am when im trying to sleep.

Any suggestions?

He's got normal wet food/dry food (not diet).

My only thoughts would be

1) possibly getting a prescription wet/dry food. Im starting a higher paying job in a few weeks so it *should* be doable in the new budget

2) increasing ratio of wet food: dry food? It seems wet food is better for weight loss and more easily consistent in weight/calorie count than scooping dry food.

3) change how often he eats? I know bodybuilders eat many small meals so maybe by the opposite logic, big breakfast + dinner is better for weight loss than 3 smaller meals?

My main thing is I just am concerned for his calorie intake to go too much lower based on all the online calorie and diet calculators plus the one the vet used. Im super paranoid about organ issues if he loses weight too fast.

Also thats how he looks currently.

Still quite a chonk. Standing up thoigh he looks closer to normal shaped from above with visible hips but still a noticeable belly round. But when he lies down all that flab and excess skin melt around him like butter

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Hi all. My cat Missy is 12 years old and diabetic. She currently is about 0.5kg overweight. I've been trying to get her to lose weight very slowly due to her diabetes. It's a bit of a balancing act as the less she eats the less insulin she needs.

The problem I have is that her weight fluctuates quite a lot through the day. For example - I weighed her yesterday after her morning meal and she was 4.5kg. weighed her two hours later after she had been for a wee and she was 4.32kg. How can I make sure she's losing weight gradually when there are so many fluctuations in a day? Thank you

Vet told me to be careful about her weight after her spay, and I feel like such a bad owner, even though I'm careful with her food. She's also pretty playful and moves around a lot.

Vet advised me to switch to adult's food after her spay. I've switched her kibbles to Purina Sterilized Indoor Cat a week before her spay, though she rarely even ate all her kibbles in a day. She also gets a bit of wet food, and switched to Whiskas, but maybe it's not that good. I'll see now that I've changed to adult diet, and she's all healed, I'll probably start calorie counting too.

She has a pouch but swipe for the above view. We used to really struggle with her weight because our roommates free fed their cats so we couldn't stop her from eating it. But our roommates started putting their cats on a schedule and we got better at checking with each other to make sure she hadn't already been fed and she's much thinner than before. Does she look like this is the size to stick with to you? Any tips for switching to maintenance calories?

Anyone have any recommendations for a good microchip cat feeder brand or model? I have one cat who needs a more controlled diet in a multi-cat household. Would love to hear your advice! Thanks <3

Wanted to share their progress, since today was vet day. Ive been keeping notes of at home weight ins and this was their personal progress. I worry about Woody especially (the white and black one). We were free feeding them and it was a whole mess. We have switched to purina pro plan vet diet food and about a 1/4 of smalls weiggt food. That gets split into multiple meals through the day.

This is Li Bai. Sometimes I feel he is normal, sometimes chonk, sometimes obese. He is about 15.5-15.7 lbs and luvs food. Here are some photos of him over the last few months.

dechonk?