The "Tiny" Weight Loss Thread

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grogs

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I saw caprice's weight loss thread about Mittens (congratulations Mittens!) and it inspired me to do the same type of thing with Tiny's weight loss. I imagine that there are dozens of people on TCS trying to put their cat(s) on a diet at any given time, so perhaps my experiences with Tiny could be useful to others. I also have 3 other cats who have (involuntarily) joined Tiny on her weight loss journey. Thufir weighs about the same as Tiny, but he has a much larger frame. He could probably stand to lose 3-4 pounds though. Promise and Tre seem to be at a pretty good weight, so neither of them really needs to lose weight. Having to deal with all 4 cats presents quite the logistical challenge. While getting Tiny to lose weight is my main focus, I'll be putting in some details about my other cats as well when it affects the weight loss program.

Tiny just had her 10th birthday back in February and until very recently I had really given up on any chance of her losing weight. I even had a vet once tell me that it's nearly impossible to get a cat to lose weight without starving it. Coming on to TCS has really opened my eyes and convinced me that it IS possible to get a cat to lose weight, so I decided to give it a shot. Before I go too much further, here's the patient:



Tiny's initial weight was 18 pounds - 4 ounces. That doesn't sound like much compared to some 24-30 pound cats that have been posted here, but she has the frame of a small Siamese cat and I her ideal weight is probably around 9 pounds. For a 6' tall man like me, that's the equivalent of weighing about 380 pounds. I can't even imagine carrying that much weight around. Tiny ballooned up early in life, weighing 13.5 pounds by the time she was 1 year old and 15.5 pounds by the time she was 2&1/2. I don't think she has seen her rear end since then.


I started feeding her a 'lite' food (always kibble) back then and it slowed the weight gain a bit. 4 years ago one of my other cats (Thufir) got a UTI and was placed on the Hill's c/d prescription food, so I had to stop free-feeding. I put out food briefly 3 times a day instead of free-feeding. Unfortunately, none of that helped Tiny lose any weight and at best it just slowed her weight gain.

When I first started looking at the Nutrition forum here on TCS, I was really surprised to find that many people suggested feeding a cat a high quality wet food would help them lose weight. I had always viewed wet food as only a 'treat' to be fed occasionally because it was too fattening.
It took me a couple of months to finally allow myself to believe that this was real. I decided to get serious about Tiny's weight loss and I posted the first thread about it over on the Nutrition forum back in late March:

http://www.thecatsite.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=194195

Although I actually started Tiny's diet a couple of months ago, I have been keeping a log of the weight loss progress to date. Assuming there is no objection to it, I'd like to post the log so far over a couple of posts to show Tiny's progress to date and, perhaps more importantly, all of the false starts and crises I encountered when first starting the diet. After that, I'll post her progress every week or two.

By the way, my initial goal for Tiny is to get her to 15 pounds by the end of the year. I think she can easily achieve that goal while maintaining a slow, steady, and safe weight loss.
 
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grogs

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Starting Weight: 18 pounds - 4 ounces

Current Weight: 17 pounds - 9.5 ounces

Weight Loss to Date: 10.5 ounces = 3.6% of starting weight
 
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Here's the first installment from my log covering the period from the beginning in March until mid-April. The first month or so was spent doing research, getting used to feeding my cats wet, finding a food they would all eat, finding out what they were allergic to, etc.


3/22/09:
I have decided that I want Tiny to lose weight. She weighs around 19 pounds, which is probably about twice what she should weigh. Reading through some of the threads on The Cat Site, it has been suggested to me that feeding a good quality wet food will help them lose weight. Towards that end, I went to PetSmart today to check out the canned food selection. I brought home 3 cans that looked decent: Blue Buffalo, Nutro, and Nutro MaxCat. I tried the Blue Buffalo with Tiny, Tre, and Promise tonight and they inhaled it.

3/29/09:
I have decided to research feline nutrition more thoroughly. At the advice of one of the TCS members (Jack31), I ordered a book called Your Cat: Simple New Secrets to a Longer, Stronger Life by Elizabeth Hodgkins.

I am continuing to feed wet food at one meal every other day or so. Since the cats liked the Blue Buffalo, I bought a case of that as well as a case of mixed flavors of Authority.

3/31/09:
Well, cats being cats, they decided that they arenâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t too fond of the Blue Buffalo, other than Tiny. Figures.

4/3/09:
Iâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]ve been feeding wet food 1 meal a day for a few days now. It seemed OK, but Tiny has a pretty bad case of diarrhea. Iâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]m having to clean her rear with a washcloth a couple of times per day. Iâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]m going to back off the wet and go to all kibble for a couple of days until it clears up.

4/7/09:
The diarrhea has cleared up and Iâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]m trying wet food again. Tiny threw up tonight though, and it was the 2nd night in a row. Last night, it was HUGE! Iâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]ve never seen a cat throw up that much at once – it looked like an entire can of cat food. Tonight I tried just putting down 1 can (split between 4 cats) because I thought she was eating too fast. She got sick again. Iâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]ll have to ask on TCS and see if I can get some idea whatâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s making her sick. The food I fed them tonight was the Authority Beef formula. I posted a thread about Tinyâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s problems on TCS:

http://www.thecatsite.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=194926

4/8/09:
Well, per Sharky, I should look for something with no fish and a named liver. The Authority Beef just says “Animal Liverâ€. At the PetSmart, the only brands that I like that fit that bill are the Nutro foods. I checked Pet Supplies “Plus†today and found a couple of good brands. They are “Chicken Soup for the Cat Loverâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s Soul†and Wellness / Wellness Core. The Wellness looks really good and actually smells like something I would eat, but itâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s pricey ($1.39/can). On the other hand, the Chicken Soup doesnâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t seem quite as good, but itâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s considerably cheaper at $0.89/can.

4/11/09:
I have been reading Dr. Hodgkinsâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s book and it has really inspired me. She claims that switching to a high quality wet food will not only help my cats lose weight, but also minimize the chances that they will develop diabetes (a big fear of mine) or get crystals in their urine. I have also been reading Dr. Lisa Piersonâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s web site (http://www.catinfo.org) and she has similar ideas about the wet food diet. I have decided to order a baby scale so that I can keep track of Tinyâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s weight loss. Dr. Pierson recommends that cats lose weight no faster than about 1-2% of their body weight per week to prevent hepatic lipidosis from occurring. For Tiny, 1% comes to ~3 oz per week (19 pounds x 16 ounces = 304 ounces of body weight). Tiny seems like the perfect candidate for this low-carb ‘catkinsâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji] diet. She doesnâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t seem like she eats that much and she doesnâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t beg for food during the day. I am hopeful that she will respond well to wet food and start shedding some pounds.

I am feeding the cats wet food at night now and dry in the morning. There donâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t seem to be any major problems and they seem to be enjoying the food. I weighed them on my bathroom scale today and came up with the following weights: Tiny – 19lbs; Thufir – 16lbs; Tre – 9.5lbs; Promise – 7lbs. That half-pound increment might be OK for the occasional weigh-in, but itâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s certainly not accurate enough for weekly tracking. Iâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]m guessing that the ideal weights for the 4 cats are 8, 12, 8, and 7 pounds respectively, for a total of 35 lbs. If I feed them 1 oz. of food per pound of ideal weight, that would be ~6.5 5.5 ounce cans per day. Yikes, thatâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s a lot! Iâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]m feeding them between 2 & 3 cans each night and that seems to be plenty to satisfy them. Thereâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s usually a good bit left when I go to bed, but itâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s gone by the time I get up.

4/14/09: 18lbs-4oz.
I took Tiny to the veterinarian to have her checked out today. The purpose of the visit was actually to have a cyst on her back checked out, but it gave me a chance to discuss her weight with my vet and discuss my plans to get her to lose weight. I told her that I was starting Tiny on a high protein/low carb diet. When I told her that, my vet said that her office was putting together a list of recommended foods and offered to go get me a copy if it was ready. I was very excited, hoping she could steer me toward some good foods. I was very disappointed when she came back and told me that the list wasnâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t ready, but that she would prescribe some Hillâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s r/d weight loss food for Tiny. This food is loaded up on carbs and has tons of fiber. I have seen several horror stories on TCS about cats on this diet being hungry all the time. I posted about my experience here:

http://www.thecatsite.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=195385

Well, for now Iâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]m going to try it my way. Iâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]m hoping that by the time I bring Tiny in for her annual in December she will have lost a few pounds and Iâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]ll be able to tell how I did it without having to resort to the r/d. Iâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]m going full speed ahead now – 2 wet meals in the evening and 1 dry in the morning.

4/15/09
My neighbor Susan was here when I fed the cats last night. She suggested that when I fed the cats I mash up the food to bring out the smell and make it more appealing. I decided to do that and add some water as well. I figure that adding water will help keep them hydrated. The cats seem to really like the food that is prepared in this way. I do the mixing in a bowl, and then break some of it up onto 3 saucers. I put down the bowl and the 3 saucers for the cats to eat from.
 
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grogs

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Here's the second installment from my log. It covers the period from mid-April until the end of May. During this time, I had a baby scale so I was able to track Tiny's weight on a near-daily basis. It was an extremely frustrating time because her weight really didn't respond to the introduction of wet food. Every time I thought she was starting to lose weight, her weight would bounce back up. I slowly changed over to all wet and her weight still didn't come down much. In the end, I finally realized that the only way I was going to get her to lose weight was to implement portion control.

4/17/09: 18lbs-4oz.
I finally have my new scale. I got it yesterday, but I had a hard time getting the cats to stay on the scale long enough to get their weights. I have found that if I give them a treat while they are standing on the scale they will sit still long enough for me to get a good weight measurement. Tiny is actually hard to get OFF of the scale. She seems to like taking a nap there. I posted some pics of it up the TCS. The number I got matches the weight at the vetâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s office, so thatâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s a good sign.

I havenâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t decided how often I am going to weigh the guys yet, but I have decided on a weighing protocol. Iâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]ll weigh them sometime after the 2nd meal of the day. If I wait about an hour after I come home and feed them, they should have eaten their meal and used the litter box, so hopefully that will give the most consistent weight each time. Iâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]m using the ‘holdâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji] function on my scale, which averages the weight over a couple of seconds to minimize the effect of a fidgeting kitty. The scale gives the weight to the nearest 0.5 ounces.

Here are the current weights of all 4 cats: Tiny – 18lbs-4oz; Thufir – 17lbs-4oz; Tre – 10lbs-9oz; Promise – 8lbs-7.5oz. These numbers are as much as 1.5 pounds different from my bathroom scale weights a few days ago. Thatâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s why I need the baby scale – itâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s just not possible to track a catâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s weight on a week-to-week basis using a bathroom scale. Even with a good digital bathroom scale, youâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]ve got +/- half a pound at each weigh-in; thatâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s half a pound for the person, plus half a pound for the person+cat, so itâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s quite possible to get a value thatâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s 1 pound different even though the catâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s weight hasnâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t changed at all.

4/18/09: 18lbs-4oz.
Since itâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s Saturday, I decided to feed my cats all wet food today. There didnâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t seem to be any big complaints, so Iâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]ll keep an eye on the litter boxes and see if anyone develops diarrhea.

4/19/09: 18lbs-3.5oz.
All wet again and no problems. They seem to tolerate the wet Iâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]m feeding them well. Iâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]m almost tempted to try and go to an all wet diet since Dr. Hodgkinâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s book seems so adamant about that. I have to do some travelling this summer though and feeding all wet will make my cat sitterâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s life harder, so for now Iâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]m going to stick with the mixed diet.

4/20/09:18lbs-3.5oz.
Tinyâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s weight ticked down a bit. Hopefully thatâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s a good sign that she is beginning to lose weight. Itâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s nice having the scale so that I can follow her progress. I fed kibble this morning before work and wet after I got home. Iâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]ll be doing that during the week.

4/21/09:18lbs-4oz.
4/22/09:18lbs-5.5oz.

Crap, she gained 1.5 ounces! That may just be a natural fluctuation as she uses the litter box and whatnot, but that means the ‘dropâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji] I have seen so far may not be real at all.

4/23/09:18lbs-3.5oz.
4/24/09:18lbs-2.5oz.
4/25/09:18lbs-3oz.

Itâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s Saturday, so I fed all wet food today.

4/26/09: 18lbs-4.5 oz.
I wanted to find some new food, so I went to Agri Feed Pet Supply, a locally owned pet store near me. They have a really small cat section, but they have a great selection of canned cat foods. I picked up a large 13.2 oz can of Evo for $1.57 and a large can of Innova for $1.36. Both look like great cat foods. They also have California Naturals (which doesnâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t look as good), large cans of Wellness ($2.24 / 12.5 oz), and small cans of Merrick. I fed all wet food again today.

4/27/09: 18lbs-3.5 oz.
Well, Promise vetoed the Evo. She wouldnâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t have a thing to do with it. I had to feed her some kibble in another room so that she wouldnâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t starve.

4/28/09: 18lbs-2oz.
Promise said no to the Innova as well. Iâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]ll look at Agri Feed again and see if thereâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s anything else she might eat. I notice Tinyâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s weight has dropped again. Looking at my daily weight chart, it seems like her weight drops a couple of days after the days when I feed all wet food. I think Iâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]m going to consider transitioning the cats to a diet of all wet food.

4/29/09:18lbs-2.5oz.
4/30/09: 18lbs-4.5 oz.

I decided to bite the bullet and start the cats on an all wet diet today. Tiny doesnâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t seem to have lost any weight at all and neither has Thufir. Tre and Promise, on the other hand, seem like theyâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]re losing a bit of weight. It would figure that the cats that need to lose weight donâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t and the ones that donâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t do. I was pretty happy to see that Tinyâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s weight was down from the starting figure over the last 2 days, so I decided to try and push a little bit harder by eliminating the dry all together. Now that she has popped up above her starting weight again, that seems all the more prudent.

5/1/09: 18lbs-4oz.
5/2/09: 18lbs-5oz.

Wow, one of her heaviest weigh-ins yet. Iâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]m still playing with feeding amounts, but right now Iâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]m thinking 3.5-4 cans per day will be enough. Maybe 1.5 cans in the morning and 2-2.5 cans over 2 meals in the evening.

5/3/09: 18lbs-4oz.
I picked up a can of the California Naturals to try. Promise didnâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t like this one either. Man is she picky!

5/5/09: 18lbs-2.5 oz.
5/6/09: 18lbs-2oz.
5/7/09: no weight today

Tiny got sick tonight when I fed her. It was almost like projectile vomiting. The food I fed her was the Wellness Beef and Chicken formula. I have fed her the Wellness Chicken formula several times and she hasnâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t gotten sick, so I think she must be allergic to beef. Luckily, thatâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s not a really common ingredient in cat food, so it should be fairly easy to avoid. I posted a thread on TCS here:

http://www.thecatsite.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=196723

5/8/09: 18 lbs-2oz.
I had Thufir shaved today. He lost 4 oz from the time I took him to the groomers until the time he came home. 4 ounces doesnâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t sound like a lot, but in terms of cat hair, itâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s a ton.

5/9/09: 18 lbs-1.5 oz
5/10/09: 18lbs-0oz.

Wow, down to 18 pounds! I think Tiny is finally beginning to respond to the wet food.

5/11/09: 18lbs-2oz.
Well, back up 2 ounces. There is a lot of variability from day to day, so some fluctuation is to be expected. I noticed Thufir straining a bit in the litter box tonight. I have been feeding him with the rest of the cats (i.e., not his c/d) for the last few days, so Iâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]m going to put him back on it. Iâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]ll feed him half a can of c/d in the morning and then a regular high quality canned food at night. Since heâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s being fed separately, Iâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]ll feed the other 3 cats 1 can split 3 ways in the morning. At night, Iâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]ll feed 2 meals of 1 can each split amongst all 4 cats.

5/12/09:18lbs-2oz.
5/14/09: 18lbs-2oz.
5/15/09: 18lbs-2.5oz.
5/16/09: 18lbs-3oz.

Tinyâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s weight is creeping back up again and I canâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t explain why. Maybe the 18-0 mark was an outlier, but it seemed like she was really starting to lose weight. Now, Iâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]m not so sure.

5/17/09: 18lbs-4oz.
I canâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t believe Tinyâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s weight is back up to where it began! Man, this is REALLY frustrating! After she hit 18 even a few days ago, I thought I was finally beginning to make progress. Thereâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s no help for it – Iâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]m going to have to implement portion control to get her weight down. All 3 of the other cats are at an all-time low. That may be because Tiny is eating more than her fair share and Tre and Promise are getting less than they need.

5/18/09: 18lbs-1 oz
Tiny dropped 3 oz! I donâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t think that loss is all real, but it does give me some confidence that the portion control I started last night is working. New low for Thufir – down 2 oz from yesterday. If it wasnâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t for the fact Tre and Promise didnâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t lose any, I would think the scale was off.

5/19/09: 18lbs-2oz
Slight uptick in weight, but I donâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t think the 3 oz loss yesterday was all real – that would be WAY too fast anyway. Still rationing Tinyâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s food. She doesnâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t seem happy about it, but sheâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s not making a big fuss. Iâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]m trying to give her slightly more than her ‘shareâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji] if I split the can evenly among all the cats. Tre is down again, which is worrying. Iâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]m going to give him special attention and make sure heâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s eating well.

5/20/09: 18 lbs-2.5 oz.
5/21/09: 18 lbs-1 oz

Itâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s really odd the way Tinyâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s weight bounces around. All the catsâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji] weights seem to bounce around, but Tinyâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s seems to have a pattern – it creeps up for a few days and then drops suddenly. I canâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t imagine what it would be other than maybe a touch of constipation followed by a big BM that brings on the weight loss. I havenâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t seen evidence of that while cleaning the litter box though.

5/23/09: 18lbs-0.5 oz
Iâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]m leaving for Vilnius tomorrow and Iâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]ll be gone for nearly a week. I have a friend taking care of my cats. Sheâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]ll keep them on the wet food diet, but I donâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t want her to have to mess around with locking Tiny up at every meal, so no portion control. My kitties will have enough stress with me gone. If they gain an ounce or two, so be it.

5/30/09: 18 lbs-0.5 oz
Good news! Tiny didnâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t seem to put on any weight while I was gone. Susan reports that she did end up feeding them less than I had instructed her because “what you wrote down looked like way too much foodâ€, so that probably helped.
 
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grogs

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Here's the 3rd installment from my log and it brings Tiny's progress up to the present. For the first time, Tiny actually started making some real progress on her weight. In the first 2 weeks of June, Tiny lost about twice as much as she did during the first 45 days of her diet. Hopefully from this point on it will just be a matter of staying focused and continuing to do what we are already doing.

Sorry for the book. I honestly didn't realize that I had written so much in the log.


6/1/09: 18lbs-1oz.
Itâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s the first of the month, so here are the weights of all 4 of my cats: Tiny – 18lbs-1oz; Thufir – 16lbs-13oz; Tre – 10lbs-3oz; Promise – 8lbs-1oz. Tre and Promise have each lost about 6 ounces since I started weighing them about 1.5 months ago. Thufir and Tiny have each lost perhaps 3 ounces.

6/2/09: 18 lbs-0.5 oz.
I noticed Thufir straining in the litter box last night, so I took him into the vet this afternoon. I was actually thrilled when she reported that he had a bacterial infection. His urine pH (6.0) and Specific Gravity (1.016) were all on the low end of the normal range and the vet reported seeing no crystals at all. That hopefully means that the all-wet diet is keeping him well hydrated.

6/3/09:18lbs-0.5oz.
6/4/09:17lbs-14.5 oz.

Iâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]m ecstatic today because Tiny finally broke the 18 pound barrier. Her total weight loss is still only 5.5 oz, but it has been a tough 5.5 oz to get her to lose. Iâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]m hopeful that the last two months have shown me what I need to do and from now on itâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s simply a matter of keeping it up. Tinyâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s weight hasnâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t been above 18lbs-2 oz in nearly 2 weeks, so I am hopeful that we have nearly left the 18+ lb range for good. Visually, I canâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t tell that Tiny has lost any weight, but hereâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s the first picture of her at less than 18 pounds:



In other news, I bought a postage scale today for measuring out food. This will be used to ensure that Tiny is getting a consistent amount of food each day. The scale measures down to ½ ounce, so I can keep tight control of how much food each cat eats. 1 can of food is approximately 5.5 oz. When I add water to it, it comes to ~ 8 oz total, of which I will give Tiny 2 oz. This is about 1-3/8 oz of food per feeding, or about 4-1/4 oz per day.

I have decided Thufir needs some portion control as well as Tiny, so Iâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]ll be locking him in the bathroom and locking Tiny in the closet for meals. Right now, Thufir weighs ~ 16lbs-12oz and Iâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]m thinking his ideal weight is under 14, and maybe as low as 12.5 lbs. Thufir gets 2.5 oz, and Tre and Promise split the other 3.5 oz. Tre and Promise havenâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t finished their portion yet, so if I need to give Tiny some more, I can get it from their portion. Iâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]m going to try feeding her at this level for several days and then adjust if she is losing too rapidly or not rapidly enough.

6/5/09: 17lbs-15.5 oz.
One of the hazards of weighing every cat every day is that itâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s hard to tell the ‘noiseâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji] (those random factors that affect each measurement) from the real data. Tinyâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s measured weight has changed as much as 3 oz. from one day to the next, so thatâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s the noise: urination, defecation, hydration, how much she ate at the last meal, etc. Since the ideal weight loss for her right now would be about 3 oz per week, thatâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s less than 0.5 ounces per day. So from one day to the next, the random fluctuations are going to be larger than any real weight loss.

So how does one track weight loss under these circumstances? The easiest solution, and the one I would recommend for most people, is to just not weigh as often. When weighed over a sufficiently long time scale (1 week or so), the average weight loss is the same as or larger than the noise, so itâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s easy to see if the cat is losing weight or not. The other option is to weigh every day and apply statistics to look at the trend. Sure, the weight is bouncing around, but itâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s bouncing around some average weight. Being the statistics wonk that I am, I take the data, make a linear fit, and use that to measure the rate of weight loss. You should see how Susan rolls her eyes when I show her that.


Back to Tiny, the point of the last 2 paragraphs was that I donâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t think she gained weight from yesterday; the weight gain is just the product of the ‘noiseâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]. Thatâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s just my intuition, but Tiny is eating only 4.25 ounces of wet food per day right now. Thatâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s less than 0.25 ounces per pound of body weight and I just canâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t imagine her gaining weight at that level. If anything, I think sheâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]ll start losing weight too fast and Iâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]ll have to feed her more.

6/6/09:18lbs-14.5oz.
6/7/09:18lbs-13.5oz.

Another new low for Tiny. Iâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]d have to check with my vet, but I believe she has been above 18 pounds for over 2 years now. Hopefully in a few months, it will seem like a bad nightmare to her as she continues to lose weight. She has dropped 3 ounces in the last 4 days. Itâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s too early to tell, but if thatâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s her rate of weight loss, itâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s too fast for my taste. That would come to 6 ounces per week, or about 2.1% per week. Iâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]d like to see something closer to half that rate – about 3 ounces per week. That rate is right around 1% of her body weight per week and would result in the loss of a pound in about 40 days. I spent that long just getting her to lose the first 4 ounces, so that would be amazing to me. I think Iâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]ve finally figured out the logistics of feeding everyone wet and how to do the portion control (though perhaps not the exact amounts yet) so Iâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]m hoping that itâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s just a matter of perseverance at this point.

As for Tiny, sheâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s a little unhappy about the diet, but I think thatâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s to be expected. Itâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s not too bad though, she starts squawking for food a couple of hours before itâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s time to eat – pretty much the way Thufir has always behaved – so not too bad. I noticed today how soft her coat felt. The fur along her backbone has been dry and brittle for quite some time and I always just chalked it up to her not being able to groom back there. Now I think that with the new diet she is on is showing itself in a healthier, shinier coat. It isnâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t dry or brittle at all. She also seems more graceful to me. I watched her jump up into my lap a few minutes ago and it looked like a pretty smooth and well-timed jump. Perhaps sheâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s also putting on a little bit of muscle in addition to the weight loss.

6/8/09:18lbs-14.5oz.
6/9/09:18lbs-12.5oz.

Today is another new low for Tiny! Thereâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s just no doubt about it, sheâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s beginning to respond to this diet! Itâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s still too early to tell if sheâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s dropping too fast, but tentatively Iâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]d say itâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s right on the border. She has dropped 4 ounces since this time last week, but a regression indicates sheâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s dropping 0.03125 pounds (1/2 ounce) per day, or 3.5 ounces per week. To put things into perspective, it took her 7 weeks to lose that amount (3.5 ounces) when I started her on the diet. Since she doesnâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t seem to be anywhere close to the dangerous (> 2% body weight lost per week) Iâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]m going to keep feeding her the same 3/4 of a can (4.1 oz) for at least another week.

In other news, Iâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]ve realized that the way I mix up a can of food with water (5.5 ounces of food + 2.5 ounces of water) only works with the Chicken Soup. The Wellness has more gravy to begin with, so applying the same formula yields something with the consistency of soup rather than oatmeal. Iâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]ll just have to mix in enough water to get the consistency I want, give Tiny ¼, Thufir slightly more than ¼, and Tre and Promise the rest of whatever it amounts to. Iâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]ll still be using my scale because seeing the difference between 2 ounces and 2.5 ounces is nearly impossible to do by eye.

6/10/09:17lbs-12oz.
6/11/09:17lbs-12oz.
6/12/09:17lbs-9.5oz.

Well, I think I caught Tiny post-poop tonight.
But still, thatâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s a nice low number and itâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s always good to see those. Since I usually catch her before she visits the litter box, I imagine sheâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]ll bounce back up a couple of ounces the next time I weigh her. For the last meal tonight I fed a can of Merrick Turducken. Tre and Promise both liked it, but neither Tiny nor Thufir did – neither one of them finished the entire quarter can I gave them. Thatâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s the first food Iâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]ve found that the fat cats donâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t like as much as the thin cats.

Iâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]ve also been trying to play with toys a bit lately. Itâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s tough because Promise is so energetic jumping around and sprinting all over the place itâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s hard for anyone else to get any play in. Still, I discovered for the first time that Tre is interested in the feather wand I have. Even though heâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s 13 years old and nearly blind, heâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]ll pursue it and swipe at it. Itâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s just a cheap $3 wand from PetSmart, so Iâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]ll pick up another one so I can play with two different kitties at once. Tiny will take a couple of swipes, but she wonâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t actually get up or, god forbid, chase after it and Thufir is just completely uninterested.

6/13/09:17lbs-10oz.
6/14/09: 17lbs-9.5 oz.

I think I have mentioned “doing a linear regression†a couple of times in this log, so Iâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]d like to illustrate. Here is a chart of Tinyâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s weight for the ~45 days or so from April 17 – May 31.



Here is a chart for June 1-14:



Each of these charts has a line (a linear regression) that shows the best fit of all the points. The most important thing on these charts is the circled number next to “Day #†at the bottom of the chart. This is the slope of the line and itâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s also the best estimate of the rate of weight loss in pounds per day. From 17 April – May 31, the rate of weight loss was about 0.005 pounds per day, or about 0.5 ounces per week. Over the last 2 weeks, the rate has been 0.037 pounds per day, or about 4.2 ounces per day. Thatâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s probably not dangerous, but I think itâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s a little bit faster than the 1% (~ 3 ounces) per week level that Iâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]m looking for. Iâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]ll probably increase her portions slightly at each meal and see how that changes things over the next couple of weeks.
 

stephanietx

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WOW! I'm impressed at all your documentation!! I have a former fatty cat and I can tell you that involuntary is not quite the word I'd have used to describe her participation in her weight loss program!!
She started out at 15 lbs and is now down to a very healthy for her 10 lbs. We did it over a 2 year period as she's an older kitty (she was about 10 at the time). She's so much more energetic now. My other kitty knows no other life than scheduled feedings and weight watching by me!

Go Tiny, go!!
 
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grogs

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Originally Posted by stephanietx

WOW! I'm impressed at all your documentation!!
Thanks. I was almost a little embarrassed after I posted it because I didn't realize I had written so much. This is what happens when you let a science geek with a manic personality loose on a problem.


Originally Posted by stephanietx

I have a former fatty cat and I can tell you that involuntary is not quite the word I'd have used to describe her participation in her weight loss program!!
She started out at 15 lbs and is now down to a very healthy for her 10 lbs. We did it over a 2 year period as she's an older kitty (she was about 10 at the time). She's so much more energetic now. My other kitty knows no other life than scheduled feedings and weight watching by me!

Go Tiny, go!!
Yay, congrats on slimming down your kitty! It's always great to hear about other peoples' success stories because it drives home the fact that it can be done and keeps me motivated. Tiny isn't thrilled about the program, but she's taking it better than I ever would have expected. Two months ago if you had told me I would be feeding her just 3/4 of a can per day without her ripping my face off, I would have thought you were nuts.
 

emy4cats

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Originally Posted by Grogs

Two months ago if you had told me I would be feeding her just 3/4 of a can per day without her ripping my face off, I would have thought you were nuts.
Too funny

Congrats to Tiny
Keep it up and shee will be at a good healthy weight!
 

stephanietx

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What's really hard is when you WANT to give them food, but you know that it's in their best interest to not eat. I had to learn to control myself in order to help my girl lose weight.
 
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grogs

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Originally Posted by stephanietx

What's really hard is when you WANT to give them food, but you know that it's in their best interest to not eat. I had to learn to control myself in order to help my girl lose weight.
Yeah, it is hard. This is why I found the scale so useful. Before, I was trying to divide the food into 1/4ths by eye and I would look at Tiny's bowl and think that it looked way to small and add a little more. Luckily, Tiny doesn't cry too much between meals, so I'm not sitting around all day listening to her cry - that would break my heart. She does like to jump up on the baby scale when she's hungry though. I give her a couple of treats for sitting on the scale quietly while I weigh her, so she likes to hop up and hope I'll decide to weigh her.
 

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Wow! That's incredible! You are really inspiring me to put my older cats on a diet. I know that to see a 2-3 pound difference in a year is huge for cats, so I'm hoping over the next 2-3 years to get my two older cats to drop about 6 pounds a piece.
 

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You are doing a great job.
I just want to point pout to people that this is not a 'diet' This isn't about limiting fpood either
This is feeding proper food for the species which wshen done will help cats get to their ideal weight
Watch your cat's coat get softer too!
keep up the good work
 
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grogs

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Originally Posted by DragulescuGirl

Wow! That's incredible! You are really inspiring me to put my older cats on a diet. I know that to see a 2-3 pound difference in a year is huge for cats, so I'm hoping over the next 2-3 years to get my two older cats to drop about 6 pounds a piece.
Hi, good luck with your kitties' weight loss! I drug my feet for a long time on Tiny, so I don't think it's ever too late to start. It's always easier to get into good habits from the start though, so the next time I get a new kitty, I'm going to do my best to make sure he never gets fat in the first place.

As for the rate of weight loss, a 1% of body weight drop per week is a nice safe, conservative rate for a cat. It would be the same as me dropping from say 200 lbs to 198 lbs in 1 week, which would be no big deal at all. At that rate of weight loss, after 6 months a cat would weigh .99^26 = 77% of its starting weight and after a year it would weigh .99^52 = 59% of its starting weight. So a cat weighing 16 pounds initially would weigh 12.3 pounds after 6 months and 9.5 pounds after a year. That's certainly not to say that you need to have your cats lose that fast, but just to give you an idea of how much they could lose safely.
 

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way to go Tiny!!!

my kitty is also on a diet. he was also a kitty that started out chubby. what i think happened to frodo was the Rx diet for crystals. frodo had crystals one time when he was around a year old so i got him the Rx kibble because i thought that was what he needed. it turns out that that food is VERY fatty. if a kibble fell on a piece of paper it would actually leave grease spots. yuck! then i found out that i could give him a high quality food with meat in the first 3 ingredients without having to worry about the crystals so we switched to wellness lite kibble. the weight gain slowed, just like Tiny, but it still crept up. we were giving wellness canned and kibbles. then we switched to orijen kibble and kept the wellness canned.

i went to the vet and got a better plan for his weight loss about 1 1/2 years ago. the vet said that he needed about 220 cal/day to lose weight. so for a year we had a strict calorie controlled diet, feeding morning and night and he lost a pound in a year!
that was january. i switched to all canned then. since that time he has lost about 2 1/2- 3 lbs. he is doing so well. he looks more handsome than ever. i am feeding evo canned 95% meat chicken and turkey formula.

frodo was a kibble addict so every now and then i still give him a few kibbles (5-6) of evo cat and kitten formula when i am feeding my ferrets.

frodo started out at about 24 lbs in january and is down to about 21 lbs now. he should be about 17 lbs or so (he is a monster sized cat!) so i am hoping that he will be about that weight come next january or maybe june. he is more energetic and his fur is extra shiny and soft - although he always had super shiny fur. frodo is going to be 8 in september.

the diet of all canned has really helped. i would recommend it to anyone, whether they have a cat needing to lose weight or not. i would feed my cats a raw diet if i could get them to eat it because i think that is even better than all canned but they are too picky!
 

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I offer my congratulations as well! Tiny will be much happier when she's 'tinier' !!

My cat Phoebe was up to about 17 pounds at age 11-12.....she was on wet and dry...then the Vet recommended dry only, for teeth cleaning...
, but she didn't lose any weight on dry. After doing some cat nutrition research, the cats were switched to all wet.....she's lost about 3 pounds. She prefers the (high quality, grain-free) wet...is always the first one to the 'dinner table', and I rarely see her eat the high quality kibble that I put out for in-between meals....for the two 1-yr olds.

She is a large framed cat and the Vet said that if she gets down to 12 pounds, she will be happy. She has back trouble....probably a disc problem, but doesn't seem to be in pain, and the Vet agrees. Since her weight loss, she is much faster at walking and certainly more energetic....she can actually simulate a 'run'.....LOL

Best of luck and keep up the great efforts!!
 

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Other benefits are increased mobility (jumping and playing), better coat, and less trouble in the litter box.
 

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I have a question - I found a website that mentioned weight based upon length/height ratio. Was that part of your equation? And if so, how do you measure the cat?

Also - I know I'm going to get a ton of response but if I could just get an affirmative clarification... Dry food doesn't clean cat teeth - correct?
 
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grogs

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Originally Posted by DragulescuGirl

I have a question - I found a website that mentioned weight based upon length/height ratio. Was that part of your equation? And if so, how do you measure the cat?

Also - I know I'm going to get a ton of response but if I could just get an affirmative clarification... Dry food doesn't clean cat teeth - correct?
Hi,

It sounds like that formula is being used to calculate the cat's ideal weight. Is that correct? I'm not using anything like that. For the ideal weight, I just ask my vet when I take the cats in, but I think it's hard for them to pin it down exactly when the cat is way over its ideal weight. For example, when I took Thufir in to the vet Tuesday and asked what his ideal weight should be, she told me to get him down to 13 lbs (he's 16.5 now) and she'd look again and see if he needed to lose a bit more. For Tiny, all I know is that she needs to lose a lot of weight
so I really haven't thought too much about what her ideal should be. It's almost certainly under 10 pounds, but until she gets close to that number, it's hard to pin it down exactly.

The formula I posted for weight loss was just 1-2% of the total body weight per week as the maximum safe level, so for a 20 lb. cat, he could lose 0.2-0.4 pounds per week = ~3-6 ounces per week. I got that value from www.catinfo.org, which has a really good section on feline weight loss. I just multiplied 0.99 (the fraction of the cat's weight after a 1% weight loss) by the number of weeks to show the long term weight loss potential.

As for the dry food, only certain kinds (the ones that specifically say they do) actually clean teeth. Dry food in general doesn't clean the teeth.
 

blueandfrodo

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Originally Posted by DragulescuGirl

Also - I know I'm going to get a ton of response but if I could just get an affirmative clarification... Dry food doesn't clean cat teeth - correct?
actually as far as i know, no kibble will clean the teeth. from what i read kibble is actually worse for the teeth than canned food is. when a cat (or dog) crunches kibble it is broken up and shoved up under their gums which shoves bacteria up there too. this is not good! also, since cats are carnivores their teeth are made for ripping and tearing raw meat off bones, not made for chewing kibble, and therefore cats (and dogs) mostly swallow kibble whole. this makes it harder for their tummies to completely digest the kibble and get all the nutrients out that it should.
 
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grogs

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Well, another week has gone by and Tiny has lost a couple more ounces. Every week brings me just a little bit closer to finding that thin little kitty who's hiding in there.


7/15/09:17lbs-9oz.
7/16/09:17lbs-9.5oz.
I took Thufir in today to have his urine checked again. No sign of the bacterial infection remained and his pH was 6.0 and USG was 1.012. A clean bill of health. I also asked the vet about his ideal weight and she suggested 13 pounds would probably be a good number for him, though possibly a bit lower. Thufir’s weight at the vet was 16lbs-6 ounces, so he needs to lose about 3.5 pounds.

As for Tiny, I tried feeding her a little extra, but she didn’t eat it all. Hmm, I’m going to hold off on the increase for now and observe.

7/17/09:17lbs-7.5oz.
Well, Tiny’s weight loss certainly seems to be revolutionary – she’s hover at around the same weight for several days and then drop a few ounces. That’s becoming a familiar pattern. And, she’s under 17-1/2 pounds (at least for today
). It’s not a huge milestone, but I will have to start rounding down now and say she’s a seventeen pound kitty.


7/18/09:17lbs-6.5oz.
Tiny didn’t finish her breakfast this morning. She left 0.4 of the 2 ounces (mixed) I put down for her. It was the “Chicken Soup”, same as a couple of days ago, so the problem may be that she has decided she doesn’t like that food as much. Figures it would be the cheap food she doesn’t like. I haven’t seen any problems with the Wellness yet.

Also, when I woke up this morning, I saw Tiny sitting on the bed and for a moment it looked like she was a sleek, muscular cat.
The illusion didn’t last long, but I haven’t thought that about Tiny that way since she was a kitten. Consciously, I can’t see a difference in her physique yet, but maybe it was my subconscious picking up on it.

7/19/09:17lbs-8oz.
Tiny finished all her meals, although she didn’t clean her plate as thoroughly as normal at one. This amount of food seems to be suiting her, so maybe it’s not the Chicken Soup after all(?)

7/20/09:17lbs-6.5oz.
7/21/09:17lbs-7.5oz.
It’s really interesting the way Tiny’s weight clusters. It hovers around the same weight for 3-5 days and then takes a big drop, where it hangs around for 3-5 more days, etc. It’s very odd and I have no idea what would cause her to lose weight like that instead of a steady half ounce per day.



EDIT: Just realized I can't edit the first post anymore, so I'll have to add the running totals here:

Starting Weight: 18 pounds - 4 ounces

Current Weight: 17 pounds - 7.5 ounces

Weight Loss to Date: 12.5 ounces = 4.3% of starting weight

 
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