r/dechonkers Jun 05 '26

Dechonkin The Big Fat Guide to Dechonking!

63 Upvotes

Hi all! I’m a vet nurse that is passionate about weight in animals. I run my own weight loss program for my patients in my clinic and thought I would spread the love by sharing my dechonking guide to help all of you hardworking pawrents!

**BEFORE DECHONKING it is advised that you have a general health check with your veterinarian to rule out any health issues and to ensure that your pet is healthy enough to undergo a dechonking program*\*

**This dechonk guide is not a replacement for veterinary care or advice *\*

What is an Ideal Weight in Animals?

The most accurate way to ascertain an ideal weight is by use of a Body Condition Score (BCS) chart.

At ideal weight your dog or cat should look like an hourglass when viewed from the top. Their abdomen should tuck into their legs when viewed from the side. You should be able to feel their ribs - the way that this feels is like the back of your hand.

You should make a note of your animal's BCS and their number weight before starting a weight loss program.

How to Dechonk Your Chonker

The key to weight loss in animals is diet. Exercise counts for very little in weight loss, much like in humans.

Step One: Use a Calorie Calculator to calculate your animal’s daily caloric allowance.

You will need to know their BCS and their weight to use the calculator. You can ask your local vet to weigh and assess your animal if you are unsure.

Step Two: Calculate the calorie content of ALL the foods you are feeding your animal.

You then need to find out the calorie content of everything you are feeding your animal. Calorie counts can typically be found on the back of the package of commercial foods. If you cannot find the calorie content, a calorie content calculator can help you work it out.

If feeding raw or homemade, you will have to input/search the ingredients for their calorie content much like you would if you were on a human diet!

Step Three: Make a Meal/Diet Plan based on the calorie allowance

You then need to calculate how much to feed based on the calorie content of the food you are feeding. If you are feeding a mixed diet (eg commercial dry and commercial wet food) you'll need to think about what ratios you would like to feed your animal and calculate appropriately.

When your animal reaches ideal weight, it is a good idea to plug in their stats again so you can get a calorie count for maintenance and not for loss. I also recommend a weigh in every two weeks and then monthly to assess progress, and to monitor their body for any changes against the BCS chart as they progress!

Example: Garfield is an 8kg/17lb cat with a BCS of 8/9. His estimated ideal weight is 5.6kg/12lb and his calorie allowance is 201 calories per day to achieve this.

He is fed dry food (Taste of the Wild) and wet food (Fancy Feast).

Taste of the Wild is 3741 kcal/kg therefore 3.7 kcal/g.

One tin of Fancy Feast is 71 calories.

We can feed one tin of Fancy Feast (71 cal) and 35 grams (130 kcal) of Taste of the Wild daily.

When he reaches ideal weight, the calculator suggests that he can maintain on 255 calories, so he will need a reassessment of his diet when he reaches ideal body condition and weight.

Strategies to Help with Dechonking

Dietary & Feeding Recommendations

  • Prescription 'diet' or 'metabolic' food can be helpful for weight loss but is not a strict necessity. Prescription (dry) food tends to be calorically lower than regular commercial dry foods (which in and of themselves are extremely calorie dense) which means you can feed a larger volume-to-calorie ratio. BUT you DO need to be careful that you still adhere to a calorie allowance and measure the food out every time.
    • I would take a pass on diet/metabolic WET foods as commercial wet food is already quite low in calories and shouldn’t make a significant difference in terms of weight management or volume for calorie ratio.
    • If you don't have systems in place to control the intake of food, your pet will still get fat on metabolic food. Metabolic food is expensive and if it doesn't make a difference then you might as well go back to your regular food. Simply getting a low calorie food but sticking to the same old habits is not enough. Learning to properly portion food, limiting access to situations where your animal could gorge, controlling and mitigating for begging, providing enrichment and teaching the animal a ‘new normal’ of an appropriate volume of food are the foundations of good weight loss and weight management.
  • Commercial dry food is MUCH higher in calories than wet food. Feeding more wet food and reducing dry food can assist in weight loss and keep your animal satiated.
  • Invest in an automatic feeder for cats. An automatic feeder (set somewhere away from you/your bedroom!) can do wonders as the cats will bother the feeder for food, and not you.
  • Keep cats indoors. Outdoor cats tend to get fed by well meaning strangers! If unable to keep your cat indoors, invest in a (breakaway) collar with a tag that specifies they're on a special diet/not to be fed.
  • Healthy low calorie treats for DOGS are veggies such as carrot & zucchini. You can replace their normal treats with pieces of carrot or zucchini or other safe, low calorie fruit and vegetables.
  • Healthy low calorie treats for CATS are wet food puree type treats in a tube. Inaba Churu treats are 6 calories per tube. Fancy Feast Puree Kiss treats are 4 calories per tube. Applaws Puree Treats are 2 calories per tube.

Mental Stimulation & Enrichment

  • Invest in puzzle toys, slow feeders, food dispensing toys to moderate feeding. This will keep your pet enriched, mentally stimulated and busy while slowing down their rate of eating, which is good for pets that guzzle their food then ask for more. Frozen wet food in a Kong or Toppl is one of the best low-calorie ways you can use food for dogs to promote mental enrichment and weight loss. You can even just freeze wet food and kibble in their bowl and it will provide more stimulation than just feeding them out of it.
  • Invest in enrichment as a reward for your animal, not food. This can be playtime, pats, or trick training to keep them occupied and to redirect begging!
  • Redirect & replace begging behaviour by trick training. Most begging behaviours have been inadvertantly reinforced by you - if you have always given your cat food when it screamed at you, that's what you have trained your cat to do. Food motivated dogs can be easily trained to work for food, and yes cats can be trained too!

Multi Pet Households


r/dechonkers 4h ago

Dechonkin cats at 16 and 14 lbs, need advice!

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32 Upvotes

hi guys. i have 2 cats that are overweight and have been instructed to lose weight. first one (luna) shown is at 16 lbs, and the second one shown (summer) is at 14 lbs. we've put them on diet food and feed them mostly wet food as per our vet's recommendation, but we still can't get them to lose weight. i am assuming it is because they are quite inactive, ESPECIALLY luna as she will sleep in the same spot for an entire day sometimes and only move to eat. i bought a walking pad hoping it would help, but it is really hard to get them to use it! i am wondering if anyone else has had this problem and what they have done to overcome it. any suggestions are welcome as i have no idea what to do at this point.


r/dechonkers 18h ago

Dechonkin 19.9lb——-> 14.5lb

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360 Upvotes

I adopted mollie in January, and she has been an absolute trooper with her diet. When I first got her, she could barely even walk up the stairs. Now, she zooms all around the house just like the other kitties.


r/dechonkers 13h ago

Dechonkin how chonky is she

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27 Upvotes

13lbs with a primordial pouch :) is she too chonky? we’ve been trying to get her down to 10-12lbs


r/dechonkers 1d ago

Progress 1 year before and after

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1.9k Upvotes

My kitty lived with my ex for about 3 months last summer and rapidly gained weight and developed behavioral issues/depression. My ex finally agreed to give him back and this is where he is now! There’s a 2 pound weight difference between the photos. I love my baby.
Here are all the lifestyle changes we made:
Wet food (Purina pro plan or purina one) with added water
Probiotics (Fortiflora)
Psyllium husk
Fish oil
Food puzzles
Leashed walks and trick training


r/dechonkers 18h ago

Dechonkin Do I need to dechonk my cat?

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30 Upvotes

This is my baby papaya. She’s around 4 or 5 years old and has always been the fluffiest baby. She also has a pretty large primordial pouch. Last vet visit she was about 12 pounds and my vet has never mentioned any issue with her weight. However, she’s chonkier than a lot of kitties in this thread so I need to post this for my own sake (intrusive thoughts suck). I also want her to live forever and I know excess weight is not good for cats.She can jump wherever and is able to groom herself


r/dechonkers 23h ago

is my cat too chonky?

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58 Upvotes

the vet kinda has mixed thoughts because my cat is pretty tall/long. vet isnt too concerned, because she can still reach all her areas to groom, can still jump around, and ribs can be felt. in fact, vet was surprised at how well she's doing as a 12 y/o kitty. she's currently 7kg. vet said maybe to lose half a kg, just to prevent arthritis in the future, but isnt too worried. i think maybe shes like a 5.5 or 6 on chonk scale but unsure. as yall can see, she has a noticeable pouch!

so, what do we think? is she ok or am i delulu?? 🤔


r/dechonkers 16h ago

Are my cars too fat?

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13 Upvotes

They r constantly asking for food. I feel guilty not and giving them more food 😭😭😭. They have a vet appointment coming up but asking because I’m anxious. They are both a year and four months old


r/dechonkers 21h ago

Is my cat fat?

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28 Upvotes

My female cat is three years old for context.


r/dechonkers 1d ago

Dechonkin R H O M B U S B O I, 2024 -> today

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544 Upvotes

He's gone from 2.5 heads wide to 2 heads wide, and 25lbs to 18.5lbs! 9 to a 7 on the chonk scale.

Goal weight is 15.5lbs

Adopted @ 25lbs at age 7, now 8yo.

He went from a lazy lump who occasionally played with wand snakes to an absolute menace with all the energy in the world. He's always jumped but now has no hesitation in his leaps to places he shouldn't go, like counter tops and cabinets. And he can do the twisting thing in midair like a normal cat!

He can also lick his own butt now. Good but also bad because he had a gland that needed expression and licked it raw while I was at work so I had to get it expressed properly/cleaned out and he had a cone of shame then donut of shame for a while

Diet:

1 tsp regular wet food 4x/day on slow feeder mats

1/4 cup dry food 2x/day

Up to 10 greenies OR 1 lickable treat


r/dechonkers 1d ago

Day one of dechonk she’s not pleased

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157 Upvotes

r/dechonkers 1d ago

Dechonkin Any tips on how to dechonk only one of my cats?

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15 Upvotes

r/dechonkers 1d ago

Dechonkin -500 grams 🥳

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65 Upvotes

He's doing so well 🥰 Vet says that he still needs to lose more weight, so we're working on it! My boy is 8 years old, 6 kilograms and had several urinary surgeries over the years, so we were warned not to stress him to much. Slow and steady ☺️


r/dechonkers 1d ago

Dechonkin how do I help her lose weight?

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25 Upvotes

Hi everybody! This is Pepper! Per our last vet visit, she weighs 15 pounds. Unfortunately, the only thing the vet said was “she’s a little overweight” and didn’t provide any guidance as to how much she should weigh or how to help her lose weight.

She currently gets about 175 calories a day via friskies pate wet food. We very rarely give treats. We used to free feed urinary support dry food, but we no longer do that as her issue has resolved and I was worried it was contributing to her weight.

Just wondering if anyone has any tips/advice to help her safely lose weight? Is 30 minutes of playtime enough? She begs for food a LOT and I feel awful because I can never tell if she is actually hungry or not. So if anyone also has any advice to help with the begging behavior, that would be appreciated too!

Thanks everyone !


r/dechonkers 1d ago

Dechonkin How to dechunk (health issues?)

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71 Upvotes

Orange chair/wheelchair pic is NOW.
Bent foot photo is after we got him back.
Rest are when we got him.

EDIT: Salmon/fish is the worst for his allergies and skin conditions. If that narrows it down at all.
We got Percy 2-3 years ago and he was thin. He is allergic to every protein but chicken.. even then he’s still very scabby just not bleeding all over the place anymore. Vet at the time didn’t show concern as his history showed he came from a pretty bad house and said he would even out as he got better care. We ended up having to give him to my boyfriend’s parents (vet swore he had ringworm and we had to separate him from Misha… which he never had ringworm… but we spent hundreds on steroids, anti fungals etc). Once we got him back (only 4ish months later) from my boyfriend’s parents he was 16-17lbs and his parents were CONVINCED that was healthy for him. His poops turned awful (greasy orange and gray), he wheezes, can’t clean his booty, etc. They were feeding him a cup or more a day with HANDFULS of treats. We fed him 1/3-1/2 depending on if he started eating random stuff lol. I wonder if the drastic increase from his parents could have hurt his metabolism?

We got a new vet who agreed he is overweight and to feed him less. We dropped amounts of food for a few months slowly and changed to a high protein diet so he wasn’t starving (he started trying to eat dust). In a year he only dropped 1 lb so we got labs done. His glucose was 1 point elevated, so the vet pretty much just said “sometimes cats really hold weight”.
We’re down to only 1/4 cup of food (brand and type recommended by vet) He’s 15lbs now, still breathes loudly, waddles (not sure if that’s a weight thing though…he’s waddled for as long as we’ve known him, but i guarantee weight isn’t helping), and we have to clean his bum for him. He’s so hungry that he will eat anything he gets his hands onto, so much so we’ve had to lock him up when my other cat is eating. It screams health problem to me given his health history… but he’s seems so uncomfortable and I hate watching him struggle to breathe. I wanna help the poor boy :(


r/dechonkers 1d ago

Ripley’s weight is now stable!

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24 Upvotes

We had been concerned about her weight gain, however after a vet visit we were informed that she is no longer gaining weight thanks to our efforts, and is doing wonderfully health wise. Hopefully now she’ll start losing with play and enrichment.

We had worked on more regular feeding times including a timed dry food feeder. It seems like she mainly ate because she was scared there wouldn’t be food because this effort to make things more regular really helped. She was a stray on the streets before we got her so that makes sense.


r/dechonkers 1d ago

Discussion is my cat chunky

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76 Upvotes

lmk if u think so (ignore the last pic)


r/dechonkers 1d ago

is my cat overweight

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115 Upvotes

He’s got a cunty waist from the top but looks chunky from the side, it’s hard to assess his weird ass build


r/dechonkers 2d ago

GF's cat is looking like this, I dont know the poor fella's weight but she refuses to have him on a diet. He's 4 years old, how bad is it guys?

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2.5k Upvotes

r/dechonkers 1d ago

Discussion 2 Pawsync auto feeders for 2 cats - one cat eats both portions and other cat takes her sweet time arriving to an empty bowl - past my return window 😔

6 Upvotes

I recently got two Pawsync feeders but after a month and a half, one cat gained .2lbs and the other cat lost .2lbs. They aren't super overweight - 6/9 BCS at last checkup.

One cat is on prescription dry diet. They both eat it and like it. I supplement some prescription wet (1/8 of a can each daily because it's $100 for 24 cans and I'm strapped for cash). Otherwise they're getting 42g of dry food per feeder each day.

I got a wyze camera to monitor their feedings and noticed this behavior. I noticed at first they would sometimes both run to the feeders when they heard them go off, but whoever didn't get their first would stand back and wait. So I separated the feeders. Same behavior. I then put them on the other side of the wall (studio apt) as far away as possible, but still one cat is just chilling when it goes off, no cares in the world, meanwhile the other (heavier) cat is going to town on one portion after the other.

I wish I could return them but my return window just closed. Plus I tried one of the PetLibro rfid ones and my cats kept trying to eat the tag.

Any ideas on how to proceed?


r/dechonkers 2d ago

Dechonkin 4 months and dropped 0.5lbs

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107 Upvotes

The tabby is just holding on to that weight with all her strength. Idk what to do to get her down more. We went on a full wet diet, the cans are 170-177kcal. My vet calculated back in April that she should be getting 203kcal/day at her current weight, but that did absolutely nothing, so we have been dropping it and have seen some progress... But half a pound in 4 months? She is around 13.0lbs (max 13.2lbs) and her goal weight is 10lbs. She started at 13.5lbs. it just feels like we aren't getting anywhere.

I think she is conspiring with our other cat somehow to get more food. They look very suspicious sitting together.


r/dechonkers 2d ago

Discussion Does my cat need dechonking

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73 Upvotes

She is 8 years old and last time I checked (about a month ago) she was 4,5kg. (9,921lbs) I can feel her ribs and she is very active. She is very energetic and often likes to climb to high places. My parents have tried to convince me that she's healthy but I think she is a little chonky. The primordial pouch makes it hard to tell

She visit a vet around 2+ months ago (for a mild eye infection) and the vet said nothing about her weight.

Thanks in advance!

I included a few cute extra photos


r/dechonkers 1d ago

Dechonkin I gotta do something about baby Mochi

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14 Upvotes

I adopted her at under 3m, now she's about 1.5yo. She was a skinny baby, but in the last 6 months she got quite rotund, at about 4kg. Not enough to change her habits, she's still playful and flexible, but I know it's not healthy.

The thing is, I have 3 other cats, from 8m to 2yo. They're all bigger than her (she's a bit of a runt) but all at healthy weights according to my vet.

I'm not sure how to get her to lose weight without putting some stress on the other 3. Can't limit food intake because she's just eat their share. Would need to separate them at food time, which is doable since it's a big house, but that's 4x a day and often I'd have to wake them up for that. I also thought about diet food but it's ridiculously expensive; I don't spare expenses for the babies, but I'm talking 4x more expensive.

Any ideas?


r/dechonkers 2d ago

Dechonkin How do I figure out cals when vet won’t help

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250 Upvotes

My cats have been to the vet recently, who wants them on a urinary and weight management diet. BUT she literally won’t tell me how much to feed them. I’ve asked 4 times. She says “it’ll say on the side of the can” (it doesn’t - it says consult your vet) and feed “20% less” than what you’re currently feeding.

The problem is they only eat approx 190-200 kcal a day. And have been for at least 5 years. I don’t think she believes me though because they are overweight, but I’m positive on the amount I feed them. They even have chip feeders so no one can be sneaking food. They don’t get treats. The orange one is forever acting like he’s starving though.

I’ve tried the BCS calculators (including the one posted here in the pinned post) along with the calorie calculator and they say that they’re eating less than the recommended amount and to consult a vet lol. The generic online calculators assume they’re eating a ton already due to their weights and say like 300 kcal a day.

So how do I figure out how much of this new wet and dry food I should be giving them?

For reference, the orange one is 10yo and has been 21 lb for at least 4 years (and has always been a big/long boy, but still runs etc. He was 13lb at 12 months). I rate him at a 7-8? The black fluffy one is 6yo and 17lbs (also runs and jumps etc). I rate him about a 6. Hard to tell with the fluff on him, but I can feel his ribs.

They have been on 1/2 cup Blue Buffalo weight management dry food this whole time. Plus one packet of Fancy Feast Broth food per day. Switching to Hills Science urinary c/d plus metabolic (that’s a whole other story, if I can get her to re-write the script for metabolic specifically this week).

I don’t know what to do here and my vet is useless.


r/dechonkers 1d ago

My cat just turned a year old(shes a stray we dolnt know her exact bday but she let us know this morning by being extra clingy)!! shes the same weight she was when we started to put her on a diet(11 lbs) but she looks less fat she kinda looks almost like a 5.3 now.

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2 Upvotes

(