Counting kitty's calories

My 8 year old kitty had her annual wellness exam today. The vet has been wanting her to lose weight and I was worried because she has plateaued at 11.5-12 pounds for about a year. Her target is 10 pounds.

She used to eat Wellness canned food happily, but started to shun it around Christmastime. Since then, I've been trying different brands and we have finally found that she likes Merrick canned food and it agrees with her.

The vet was pleased that she hasn't been gaining weight since he saw her last year. But she's still too heavy, so he suggested decreasing her calorie intake more. I had her at about 160 calories a day, although in the past few months, that's probably gone a little haywire as we've tried new foods.

So I wonder - how closely do you count your kitty's calories? He said measuring the food is very important. I have a notebook where I write down when I feed her, how much, how much she eats, number of calories, etc.

I'm going to start 150 calories a day and see how she does. But I worry about feeding her too little. I know each cat is an individual, but does this sound like a good plan?

The general rule of thumb is 15 calories per pound, so you are correct that if you want your kitty to be 10 lbs. you eventually want to end up at 150 calories a day to maintain, give or take, depending on her activity level. It doesn't sound like she needs to lose a whole lot of weight.

I watch Sebastian's calories pretty closely because he can get fat pretty quickly if I gave him as much as he wanted. My other two I actually count calories to make sure they are getting enough and try to entice them to eat more if they will.

When your vet says that measuring the food is important, is this in reference to dry food? If you're feeding canned, then you would just need to know how many calories are in one can to figure out how much she needs. For example, if a 5.5 oz. can is 200 calories, then she would need 3/4 of a can per day. Doesn't sound like much, does it?

Thanks, GoHolistic and I'm sorry it has taken me so long to respond.

The vet recommending measuring both dry and wet food.