Is Weight loss common when diet is changed?

[skybar22]

Morgaine has lost a pound in the last 3 weeks since she went off of the Hill's high carb diet food and onto low carb FF. She could use to lose another pound or less but I am wondering if this is a normal occurance when the diet is changed from high carb to low carb. She had such a hard time losing weight on the prescription food and it took her years to lose 5 pounds. I'm a little worried as I know a pound is lot in such a short amount of time, for a cat. I checked her lab work and everything else looks normal except for the glucose levels at diagnosis. Her thyroid is normal etc.

 

[Kelly & Oscar]

How are Morgaine's glucose numbers lately? Unregulated diabetics can still lose weight even though they are on insulin. It is also common to lose weight when going to a higher protein food - just the same as when a human eliminates a lot of carbs from their diet and eats mostly protein. How many cans are you feeding each day? There are only 80-90 calories per can and most regulated/normal cats will need 2.5-3 cans a day roughly, depending on their activity level. A diabetic will need more since they aren't processing food as well and need more to get enough nourishment. I know at one point I was feeding Oscar 6 cans a day just to satisfy him.

 

[skybar22]

How are Morgaine's glucose numbers lately? Unregulated diabetics can still lose weight even though they are on insulin. It is also common to lose weight when going to a higher protein food - just the same as when a human eliminates a lot of carbs from their diet and eats mostly protein. How many cans are you feeding each day? There are only 80-90 calories per can and most regulated/normal cats will need 2.5-3 cans a day roughly, depending on their activity level. A diabetic will need more since they aren't processing food as well and need more to get enough nourishment. I know at one point I was feeding Oscar 6 cans a day just to satisfy him.

Morgaine is not on insulin. Her BGs are around 100 and I have been taking them at different times of the day. Fortunately she has been diet controlled since diagnosed. she was at 292 at diagnosis with a +3 in her urine. As soon as I changed her diet she started to come down. The last 3 blood tests were 108, 97 and 110 and she has been under 140 for about 2 weeks. I test her every other day and sometimes 2-3 hours after feeding her.

I have been feeding her 2.5 cans of FF a day and divide that into 5 small feedings as she is very much a grazer plus I give her 2 or 3 pieces of freeze dried Halo's chicken once a day as a treat. Her appetite is excellent. Do you think I need to feed her more? She is not very active and is 12 years old. She was obese for awhile and has now lost a total of 6 pounds. I think she could lose another 1/2 pound but she is really in good shape now. I do not want her to lose much more weight.

 

[Karen & Smokey(GA)]

What I did with Smokey was calculate how many calories he was getting.

Each can of food may be a little different. Add up the amount of calories eaten each day.
I would adjust up or down once per week depending upon how Smokey was doing.

You will see that Morgaine loses weight on a certain amount of calories.

When she reaches her target weight, if she still keeps losing, up the calories by 2-5%.

I don't try to get the exact same amount of calories each day...just add everything
up for a week and take the average for 7 days. Adjust accordingly.

 

[francine and garth]

hopefully this will help, when Garth was dx diabetic he was 29lbs!!!! eating C/D dry for 12 years. once I switched his diet and controlled his calories and carbs, he went down to 14 lbs and maintained that for 6 yrs until the cancer when he crossed over he was 10lbs. yes it is normal and it will roll off!!