Helping your dog or cat achieve a healthy weight is an important part of their overall health.
Pet obesity can lead to health problems like diabetes, arthritis, heart and lung issues, high blood pressure, certain cancers, and more. By selecting a Fromm Weight Management recipe, you’re taking a great step toward improving your pet’s wellbeing by making a plan for achieving a healthy weight.
When it comes to weight loss, it’s important to determine your pet’s ideal weight (their “goal” or “target weight”) and develop a plan to reach that goal.
It is important to develop a plan so your pet loses weight at a safe rate. Losing weight too quickly can result in serious health problems, so it’s important to monitor your pet during this time—you may even want to consider “weigh-ins” to monitor your pet’s progress.
Like human beings, pets have two factors when it comes to weight loss and maintenance…
An active lifestyle can contribute to a healthy weight, a faster metabolism, and muscles and joints that are less prone to injuries. Physical activity is also good for mental health.
Physical exercise could include walks or fetch for dogs, and playing with a laser pointer or other toys for cats, for example.
Some pets are naturally more athletic than others. When starting an exercise regimen for your pet, start slow and gradually work your way up to longer exercise periods.
Excess calories that are eaten but not expended by the body are stored as fat. So, it’s important to consider what your pet is eating, as well as how much.
Here are a few tips…
Once you determine how much your pet should be eating, divide this amount into 2-3 meals throughout the day. This can help with both hunger and metabolism.
However, for some pets (especially those with significant weight to lose), this might not be a good option—it could leave your pet hungry, or even deficient in certain nutrients.
These specialty foods are less calorie-dense, but still contain other nutrients in healthy, balanced proportions.
Fromm weight management recipes also contain a mix of healthy protein sources, fibers and complex carbohydrates to slow digestion and keep your pet feeling full, and L-carnitine to help with the utilization of fat and lean muscle development.
That way your pet can get everything they need and avoid uncomfortable hunger as much as possible, even while ingesting fewer calories.
Fromm offers several weight management formulations to suit the needs of many different kinds of pets.
This includes Fromm’s Weight Management Gold, Gold Coast Weight Management, Large Breed Weight Management Gold, for dogs, and Healthy Weight Gold for cats.
If your pet needs to lose weight, please read this supporting article for additional, important information.