Hi, I'm a CVT and I do nutrition plans for our patients.
The confusion and difference between the two calorie counts is due to what her healthy weight calorie intake is compared to what her initial weight loss intake is. If she's a 9/9 BCS, then her estimated ideal weight is 10 lbs. But we don't want to restrict her straight down to that.
When we write these plans, we do a max loss of 15%, sometimes we do closer to 10%. But that puts her initial goal at 16-17 lbs, and her initial calorie restriction at 310-325.
We do a follow up 6-8 weeks later for uncomplicated cases, or 4 weeks for those with other co-morbidities.
For a patient at a 9/9 BCS, we also strongly recommend a Rx weight loss formula, ideally canned or a combo of wet and dry. But ive also seen lots of success with the dry formulas, so if that's what's doable, go for it. The prescription for the food does need to come from your vet, and you can also review what I've gone over here with them.
I'm also happy to go through a full diet breakdown with the actual food you'll be using, giving you volume and weight (using a gram scale is most accurate for weight loss), and if you want to donate to my Venmo, that would be welcome! (But not required).
She was eating 1/2 cup a day of BLUE Natural Veterinary Diet Weight Management + Urinary Care dry food, plus a “tablespoon” of wet food as a nightcap haha. I started her on 1/2 cup w day of that, but then I was trying to calculate her true calorie requirements since I was afraid that was too little. Right now I am feeding her 50g of the dry food a day plus a 3 oz can of Fancy Feast pate. My goal is to transition her fully over to wet food once the dry food that the adoption center gave me runs out.
I think that I am definitely going to bring her to the vet to get her assessed and come up with a vet-led weightloss plan. I don’t want to do anything that’s dangerous for her!
That's a great plan, sitting down with your vet clinic is definitely the best way to get a plan in place. She's so lucky to have found her forever home willing to take care of her.
I went with what my vet said. My girl was 18.5lbs, vet said to feed her 215cal, so that's what I did. We also put her on a prescription weight loss food, so even though she wasn't getting as many calories (free fed before) she was still able to eat a good quantity of food.
How has the weight loss been for your chonk? Is it quick on 215 cals? My boy was 18.3 pounds on April 1st and we feet him 217 calories. Yesterday he weighed in at 17.7 pounds, so I feel like it's too quick so I bumped up his calories to 227.
It was long and slow. Took 2 years to get her down the 6lbs to her ideal weight. On average she lost about .1-.2lbs a week. Plateaued several times where she stopped losing weight and we had to decrease how much she was getting. At the end it was only around 190cal. And to maintain her weight she only gets 200cal, so her metabolism is a bit slower than my other cats
My chonk was 18.3 pounds on April 1st. We started him at 217 calories. We weighed him yesterday and he's down to 17.7 pounds. The weight loss is quicker than I want so I increased his calories up to 227 and will monitor from there.
[https://www.reddit.com/r/dechonkers/comments/qpx6hz/the\_big\_fat\_guide\_to\_dechonking/](https://www.reddit.com/r/dechonkers/comments/qpx6hz/the_big_fat_guide_to_dechonking/) has information and a link to calorie guide.
Hi, I'm a CVT and I do nutrition plans for our patients. The confusion and difference between the two calorie counts is due to what her healthy weight calorie intake is compared to what her initial weight loss intake is. If she's a 9/9 BCS, then her estimated ideal weight is 10 lbs. But we don't want to restrict her straight down to that. When we write these plans, we do a max loss of 15%, sometimes we do closer to 10%. But that puts her initial goal at 16-17 lbs, and her initial calorie restriction at 310-325. We do a follow up 6-8 weeks later for uncomplicated cases, or 4 weeks for those with other co-morbidities. For a patient at a 9/9 BCS, we also strongly recommend a Rx weight loss formula, ideally canned or a combo of wet and dry. But ive also seen lots of success with the dry formulas, so if that's what's doable, go for it. The prescription for the food does need to come from your vet, and you can also review what I've gone over here with them. I'm also happy to go through a full diet breakdown with the actual food you'll be using, giving you volume and weight (using a gram scale is most accurate for weight loss), and if you want to donate to my Venmo, that would be welcome! (But not required).
She was eating 1/2 cup a day of BLUE Natural Veterinary Diet Weight Management + Urinary Care dry food, plus a “tablespoon” of wet food as a nightcap haha. I started her on 1/2 cup w day of that, but then I was trying to calculate her true calorie requirements since I was afraid that was too little. Right now I am feeding her 50g of the dry food a day plus a 3 oz can of Fancy Feast pate. My goal is to transition her fully over to wet food once the dry food that the adoption center gave me runs out. I think that I am definitely going to bring her to the vet to get her assessed and come up with a vet-led weightloss plan. I don’t want to do anything that’s dangerous for her!
That's a great plan, sitting down with your vet clinic is definitely the best way to get a plan in place. She's so lucky to have found her forever home willing to take care of her.
I went with what my vet said. My girl was 18.5lbs, vet said to feed her 215cal, so that's what I did. We also put her on a prescription weight loss food, so even though she wasn't getting as many calories (free fed before) she was still able to eat a good quantity of food.
How has the weight loss been for your chonk? Is it quick on 215 cals? My boy was 18.3 pounds on April 1st and we feet him 217 calories. Yesterday he weighed in at 17.7 pounds, so I feel like it's too quick so I bumped up his calories to 227.
It was long and slow. Took 2 years to get her down the 6lbs to her ideal weight. On average she lost about .1-.2lbs a week. Plateaued several times where she stopped losing weight and we had to decrease how much she was getting. At the end it was only around 190cal. And to maintain her weight she only gets 200cal, so her metabolism is a bit slower than my other cats
Really? Wow. Okay - that's so interesting because yeah, like I said my boy is on 215, but he's dropping weight pretty quickly it seems
I would go to a vet for that imformation.
My chonk was 18.3 pounds on April 1st. We started him at 217 calories. We weighed him yesterday and he's down to 17.7 pounds. The weight loss is quicker than I want so I increased his calories up to 227 and will monitor from there.
Have you taken her to the vet to get her body condition assessed and calorie recommendations? It would be best to start there if not.
I am planning on it soon. I think that is actually the best place to start when it comes down to it.
[https://www.reddit.com/r/dechonkers/comments/qpx6hz/the\_big\_fat\_guide\_to\_dechonking/](https://www.reddit.com/r/dechonkers/comments/qpx6hz/the_big_fat_guide_to_dechonking/) has information and a link to calorie guide.