How quickly is it safe for a dog to lose weight

By Isabella Storyclaire

last updated September 17, 2024

Contributions sourced from

How to Help Your Dog Lose Weight

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In the U.S., 56% of dogs are overweight or obese, and that excess weight is tied to an astonishing array of health problems. When it comes to preventing dog obesity, or even the slow creep of excess pounds, simple awarenessknowing what your dogs weight should be, and keeping on top of any fluctuationsis the first step. Just a few pounds can make a big difference.

You can seek your vets counsel on your dogs ideal weight, but a quick way to assess good canine condition at home is to ask:

Does your dog have an hourglass shape when you stand behind them and look at them from above?
Do they have a waist?
Can you easily feel their ribs?

If youre answering no for all three, theres a good chance your dog needs to lose weight. Now what? Here are some vet-approved tips for helping your dog safely shed excess pounds and keeping them in good condition.

The Food Factor

For dogs, as for humans, losing weight really comes down to two things: food and exercise. And for a dog owner trying to manage or reduce their dogs weight, food is most important by far.

Weight loss begins and ends at the food bowl for dogs and cats, Ernie Ward, DVM, and founder of the Association for Pet Obesity Prevention (APOP), tells us. Weight loss for humans and dogs is 60-70% diet and 30-40% exercise.

For dog owners who have active lifestyles, its easy to overestimate the impact of physical activity on weight maintenance. So even for active dogs, its important to establish clear guidelines for daily caloric intake.

Get Specific With How Much Youre Feeding

Heres where things can go sideways. Humans may or may not choose to count calories as a guide for what theyre eating, with some opting for other methods of keeping to a healthy regime (Do my pants fit? Great!). But when it comes to the long-term management of your dogs weight, its essential to establish a concrete benchmark for how much to feed. This means determining the number of calories your dog needs every day.

Its not a good idea to rely on the feeding guidelines on the average pet food package. There are many factors that will influence your dogs dietary needs, including breed, size, activity level, and whether theyre spayed or neutered. Standard kibble-bag feeding ranges are generally too broad for your dog, and many owners end up over-feeding based on too-generous and too-vague suggested portion sizes, typically measured in cups and scoops.

The feeding guidelines on pet food packages, says Ward, are based on active adult dogs for all life stages. Spaying or neutering, for example, reduces energy requirement by 20 to 30%, he says. So, if your pet is spayed or neutered, and not particularly active, you can already be overfeeding by 20 or 30% or more.

When it comes to determining the ideal caloric intake, its important to consider a number of factors. We take a couple of things into considerationwe look at body condition score, we look at muscle condition score, we look at lifestyle, and any concurrent medical conditions, Dr. Ward says. We start by determining, OK, how many calories should you be feeding?

As a starting place, there are also many tools online to provide rough feeding guidelines based on weight and breed. You might start by consulting the guide published by the Association for Pet Obesity Prevention.

For at-home calculating, you can use the Resting Energy Requirement (RER) formula. Take your dogs weight in kilograms, multiply by 30, and add 70 (or, take their weight in pounds, divide by 2.2, multiply this figure by 30, and add 70). You can then factor in a metabolic energy requirement (MER), depending on things like health and whether theyre spayed or neutered.

Typical MER factors include:

Weight loss1.0 x RER
Neutered/ Spayed Adult1.6 x RER
Intact Adult1.8. x RER

Ask your veterinarian about the MER and calculating and determining how your dog can lose weight safely. Tools like the MER multiplier table on the web provide estimates, but every dogs metabolism is different, so be sure to keep monitoring your pets weight.

You can also sign up for a fresh-food plan (like the ones offered to customers of The Farmers Dog). A plan like this makes it easy to determine the correct total caloric intake and food portions based on your dogs very specific requirements, and also makes it easy to adjust daily calories based on changing weight-management needs.

Food Quality Is Also Key

In addition to calorie counting, another important part of weight maintenance or weight loss is feeding lower-carb, whole, fresh food.

Many ultra-processed dog foods are full of carb-based fillersas Dr. Ward has noted, when you actually break down the ingredients on the label, many of them top out at over 60% or more carbohydrates. Fresh diets provide quality protein, but also the fiber and moisture that can keep your dog satisfied, without carb-y fillers.

Feeding nutrient-dense, bioavailable food will keep your dog healthy as they reduce their overall intake of food.

Treats Count, So Count Them

Another way to help your dog drop some extra weight is by controlling, and possibly reducing, their treat intake. Here, again, quality and quantity matter.

Nobody wants to deny their dog treats, as they are often helpful training aids, and its fun to see the excitement they generate. But its important to keep a close eye on how many treats your dog actually eats in a day and what their caloric impact is. Treats should be factored into, and comprise no more than, 10% of total daily calories.

Dog owners who feed their dogs healthy food, yet still feed them highly processed, high-carb, high-calorie treats, are potentially missing a big source of weight gain and health issues. And if you feed your dog too many treats (more than 10% of their daily intake of food), you can undo the benefits of the balanced diet youre feeding.

Many vets recommend using single-ingredient treats like fresh veggies and fruit. Baby carrots, celery, broccoli, green beans, cucumbers, blueberries, apples, and bananas all make healthy treats and, unlike mystery-meat treats, can contribute to your dogs health (use apple and banana in smaller amounts due to higher sugar content).

As for peanut butter, make sure its truly a special (rare) treat, and doled out in limited amounts; this dogand humanfavorite has a hefty 100 calories per tablespoon. Also, ensure that the peanut butter youre using doesnt contain Xylitol, which is toxic to dogs. For a lighter, and perhaps better, substitute, try plain canned pumpkin, which weighs in at just five calories per tablespoon.

Its also worth stepping back and considering why youre giving your dog treats. Our bond with our dogs is so special, and every dog owner wants to see the happy excitement a treat brings. But you can get that joyful response with healthy treats, or with smaller portions. I typically tell owners that dogs get the same enjoyment, and you can get the same reaction, from a small piece of a treat as you can from the whole thing or a handful, says Alex Schechter, DVM. There are many ways to show love and bond with your pet. It doesnt have to be all about food.

Safely Increase Exercise

Food is key, but no weight loss plan, or health maintenance plan, is complete without exercise. The most obvious, and important, activity for your dog is walking. Regular walks dont just exercise your dogs body; they provide crucial mental stimulation and that all-important opportunity to sniff. The amount of walking your dog needs, or wants, depends on their breed and general health. But while conventional wisdom says that some dogs need less exercise than others, all dogs need to move.

While the recommended minimum of daily exercise is 20 minutes, twice a day, many dogs will need much more. For many breeds, an hour of exercise a day is a good target. If your dog needs to lose weight, try to increase the amount of exercise they currently do. So, if thats none, or barely any, start with short intervals of walking. If youre already exercising, try lengthening your walk or other activity by 10-20%.

Ask your vet about the best types of activities based on your pets breed, age, gender, and current physical condition. Introduce new activities slowly to avoid injury. And, unless your dog has been trained for or slowly introduced to these kinds of activities, leave the extreme sports to your own weekend hourstoo-vigorous, or repetitive activity can put your dog at risk of joint problems. Also, keep weather conditionslike high sunin mind if your activities are outdoors. The sun creates the potential for heat stroke and burnt paw pads.

Rule Out a Medical Condition

If youve established and are staying within caloric boundaries and youre still not having any luck helping your dog lose weight, a visit to the vet could be in order to rule out a medical condition. Weight gain and lethargy can be symptoms of conditions like hypothyroidism and Cushings syndrome. The latter, also known as hyperadrenocorticism, usually occurs in older dogs, and can also cause frequent urination, hair loss, and weakness.

Weight Loss (and Maintenance) Is a Long Game

If you determine that youre overfeeding, work with your veterinarian to create a weight-loss schedule based on the appropriate calories so that your dog doesnt lose weight too fast, which is unhealthy.

Overall, the best weight management strategy is to develop good habits that are applied, consistently, long-term.

People (humans) want to rush weight loss, says Dr. Ward. Thirty days to bikini season! But this is a long process. Its years of making small decisions that help. When youre deciding on sharing your pizza crust with your Pomeranian, if you do it once, OK. But if you do it once a week for five years, thats a problem.

This article was vetted by a vet. Reviewed by Alex Schechter, DVM, founding veterinarian atBurrwood Veterinary.He was previously founding veterinarian atPure Paws Veterinary Care.

How Fast Is Too Fast For My Pet To Lose Weight?

Youve already conquered the first steps of determining that your pet is overweight and youve worked with your veterinarian to create a weight loss plan. But now what? How fast can pets safely lose weight and how vigilant do you need to be?

What is the ideal rate of weight loss?

When restricting calories veterinarians follow a very important rule for the desired rate of weight loss. For dogs this is 1-2% of their total body weight per week. For cats this is 0.5-2% of their body weight per week. So, for example, if you have a 100 lb Labrador Retriever, he can safely lose 1 to 2 lbs per week. If you have a 20 lb cat, she can lose 0.2-0.4 lbs (or about 4 oz) per week. Its also ok to lose less than that per week, but your weight loss plan will just take longer (and you wont see the benefits so quickly!)

What if I just want to get the weight off really fast?

It is very important to follow these guidelines because health problems can arise if pets lose too much weight too quickly, such as nutritional deficiencies, undesirable behavior like getting into the trash or acting out, and serious illnesses. To prevent these illnesses or other problems from occurring, your veterinarian will help you determine what amount of calories your pet needs and will adjust that based on follow up weigh ins to make sure you stay in the safe range of weight loss.

Ive heard cats can get sick if they dont eat enough?

This is true. If cats lose too much weight too quickly they can develop fatty liver disease (called hepatic lipidosis). Fatty liver disease occurs when the body breaks down too much fat too quickly and the liver cannot process the fat fast enough. This causes the fat to be stored in and around the liver which leads to decreased liver function or even liver failure. When this happens, you may notice your cat is not acting right or has a yellow color, or jaundice, in the white of his or her eyes or in their skin. This disease can be fatal if not diagnosed and treated aggressively.

Why do I need to work with my vet? What cant I just feed less of the food hes currently getting?

Another reason veterinarians select diets and monitor rates of weight loss carefully is because manufacturers balance essential nutrients in the food according to the caloric content of the food. This means that when you decrease the amount and calories that are fed, the amount of essential nutrients is decreased as well. If you restrict a food that wasnt meant to be fed in smaller amounts, you can put your pet at risk of nutritional deficiencies.

Written in conjunction with veterinary student, Sasha Santiago.

Dr. Deborah Linder, a board-certified veterinary nutritionist, is the head of the Tufts Obesity Clinic for Animals and has had articles appear in Eating Well, the Boston Globe, AARP, SHAPE, and XM Sirius Radio Doctor Channel. She has spoken at national and international conferences and a Capitol Hillbriefing, and is an expert in pet obesity, nutrition communication, and in the human-animal bond.