will wet food help my huge 12 yo lose weight?

[George&Bert]

I am afraid I misjudged my cats diet. I have so many and try to use foods from which they all benefit. however, Toby has just expanded recently and his hunger is relentless.

i mistakenly put them on California Natural Chicken and Brown Rice thinking brown rice is good..NOT at least for cats but better than white. I never realized until Toby got too fat that CN has over 30% carbs!

So, I have been substituting EVO at 6% and Core at 11% (which he turns his nose up) and have been funneling in low carb wet. But he eats the wet like there is no tomorrow. I mix it 50/50 with water.

Will this allow him to drop pounds? I hope i am doing right.

When two vets were consulted one said some cats are fat like people and the other said separate him which I cannot do. He is the Sun and the other cats love him and he loves them.

 

[dian and wheezer]

I would think any cat placed on a lo carb diet will loose weight since it is so much healthier than ANY dry food. coats will be soft and shiny. no more dandruff.
I have 8 cats and before switching to canned and home made raw, they were all a bit chunky. they all lost weight but it was a gradual thing,.
of course, even over feeding a lo carb canned wet will result in gaining weight.
according to dr lisa, too fat, feed less, too skinny , feed more
average cat eats 5-6 oz./day

 

[squeem3]

Have you seen Dr. Lisa's web page on obesity? http://catinfo.org/?link=felineobesity There are tips there on how to help your cat lose weight.

 

[Carl & Polly & Bob (GA)]

Short answer is "yes". The lowest carb food possible would be best for any cat, and canned food, in general, is lower than dry.
Here's a link to a great site that will explain it better than I can, but cats have no dietary requirement for carbs at all. They convert proteins and fats into "energy" and any carbs in their diet end up stored as fat in their body, or if they aren't stored, they go out as "waste".
http://maxshouse.com/feline_nutrition.htm

In the cat's liver, gluconeogenic amino acids and fat in the diet are deaminated and converted to glucose for the maintenance of blood glucose levels. The cat has evolved to maintain normal blood glucose levels and health on a carbohydrate-free diet, a capacity inherited from her desert-dwelling ancestors. This ability is related to its different pattern of gluconeogenesis. In most animals, maximal gluconeogenesis for the maintenance of blood glucose levels occurs during the postabsorptive state, when dietary soluble carbohydrate is no longer available. However, carnivorous species, such as the cat, are similar to ruminant species in that they maintain a constant state of gluconeogenesis - the immediate use of gluconeogenic amino acids for the maintenance of blood glucose levels (these mechanisms are turned "on" and "off" in other animals).

There are differences between cats and omnivores in the relative importance of various gluconeogenic and carbohydrate-metabolizing pathways. Compared with omnivorous species, the cat has a high hepatic activity of the enzyme serine-pyruvate aminotransferase and low activity of the enzyme serine dehydratase. Thus the cat is able to convert the amino acid serine to glucose by a route that does not involve either pyruvate or serine dehydratase.

After glucose is absorbed into the body, it must be phosphorylated to glucose-6-phosphate before it can be metabolized. The liver of most omnivorous animals, including the domestic dog, has two enzymes that catalyze this reaction, glucokinase and hexokinase. Hexokinase is active when low levels of glucose are delivered to the liver, and glucokinase operates whenever the liver receives a large load of glucose from the portal vein. The feline liver has active hexokinase but does not have active glucokinase. Consequently, the rate of glucose metabolism in the liver of the cat cannot increase in response to high levels of soluble carbohydrate in the diet to the same degree as the rate in the liver of a species possessing both enzymes. Thus most of the carbohydrate in dry food ingested by the cat is converted and stored as fat.

All animals have a metabolic requirement for glucose. Carnivores, such as the cat, convert glucogenic amino acids and glycerol to glucose for the maintenance of blood glucose, and therefore, have no established dietary requirement for carbohydrates.

In general, an absence of dietary carbohydrate in the feline diet will not affect blood glucose levels or cause an energy deficiency; this is because the body can use protein and the glycerol portion of fat for glucose production, and fat and protein for energy.

(That would apply to non-diabetic cats, of course. With a diabetic you're trying to ensure you aren't adding any carbs, or as few a possible).

And like any diet, you want to reduce the amount of calories going in, and encourage the burning of calories once they are "in", so you have to keep track of how many calories per day you are feeding, and try to get kitty to play/exercise to burn some calories up. If you look at J & B's food charts, the calories per can info is there. When I was trying to manage Bob's weight during his treatment, I used to write the cals count on the can lids and regulate his total intake for the day based on calories rather than on ounces/cans per day.

Carl

 

[BJM]

When I placed the entire pride of 12 on low carb canned, the 2 obese, non-diabetic cats lost significant weight over the next 2 months, then stabilized.

If he is diabetic, you want the rate of weight loss to be conservative while he is breaking down fat. If the insulin dose isn't quite optimal, you may get some ketones, which could become problematic in excess. And, if the fat breakdown is too fast, it can overwhelm the liver and trigger hepatic lipidosis.

Cat Info has more info on weight loss and nutrition.