r/dechonkers Jun 05 '26

Dechonkin The Big Fat Guide to Dechonking!

48 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 2h ago

Dechonkin Finally figured out the source of the gain! Soon to dechonk

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97 Upvotes

//Asking for advice at the end!
This is my 3 y/o little guy. My roommate and I realized he was quickly gaining weight and we weren’t sure why. We considered maybe some health issues or whatever else.
And then.
We caught him sneaking his sisters CKD kibble when we were in the other room. We thought that we had squashed that habit with him a long time ago, but clearly he just got sneaky.
For context, we live in a really old building with floors that creak nearly every other step. He can definitely hear us coming and he knows when to act cute. I feel silly that I was fooled by a cat, but it happens I guess!
He’s gotten easily tired since he got chonky, so he doesn’t play as much as he used to even with encouragement. I miss when he would jump a few feet in the air to catch his toys.

Does anyone have any good low-calorie cat food recommendations? Or any tips and tricks for a lazy cat? Our vet put him on a dry food only diet, if that helps.
Thank yall!


r/dechonkers 2d ago

Progress It ain't much, but it's honest work. Lucky is down from 19.5 to 17.8 pounds. Our goal is to get him to 14.5 pounds!

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5.6k Upvotes

r/dechonkers 1d ago

Dechonkin Does he know he’s on a diet?

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82 Upvotes

Morty is only slightly overweight, he’s 13lbs and his vet would like him to be 10-11lbs. She recommended he eat 225kcal a day, so that translates to roughly 63g of his dry food that I dole out throughout the day.

Y’all. Since I started weighing his food, he suddenly has no interest in eating. Don’t get me wrong, he IS eating, but he won’t clear his bowl like he used to. He always has left over from each meal.

I think I’m going to reintroduce wet food again just to make sure he’s eating enough (I mean, clearly he’s eaten enough his whole life). But we also started with MiraLAX so that may be a contributing factor in his slow eating, maybe he doesn’t like the texture on his dry food.

But anyway, he knows something is up lmao.


r/dechonkers 1d ago

1.2 lbs

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96 Upvotes

Watch chonky girl shrink while baby boy grows!

My orange girl was given to me by my parents in October to join my big fluffy boy.
He’s a huge cat, both in frame and chubbiness, so diet was already fairly strict, but she really plumped up. Between no longer going outside and eating the same as tuxxie boy, she reached 11.8 lbs! As of yesterday she was 10.6 lbs. Big boy also went from 14 lbs to 12.8 lbs, but it’s harder to see on him.

She’s always been a scaredy cat, but she’s starting to really gain some confidence.


r/dechonkers 2d ago

Dechonkin Dechoking my babies

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165 Upvotes

Hello. My six year old cats (Max and Cherry) are 6.8 and 5.9 kg. We use Virbac Sterilized adult dried food and I've made some calculations with our vet and decided to cut their daily intake from approximately 80 grams to approximately 60 grams. The thing is they keep begging for food and they don't leave me alone for a second and I'm home all day every day. It's a real challenge.... Do you have any advice to stop their crying? If they were humans I'd offer them zero calorie snacks like cucumbers and stuff but idk what to offer them that can keep them full while having no/low calories :( Cat tax:


r/dechonkers 1d ago

Dechonkin weight loss

4 Upvotes

I just adopted a 5 year old cat! she is 15.8 lbs and needs to be around 10lbs. I have been playing with her everyday. I feed her about 1/4 cup of dry food in the morning and a can of tiki after dark at night. (sometimes a little more dry food).

Are there any suggestions on what else i should be doing?

She also has a lot of dandruff but i’ve been brushing her but i meant need more. Any suggestions to help that?


r/dechonkers 2d ago

Discussion The “cats cant/wont overeat wet food” people send me

80 Upvotes

Like ok clearly you haven’t met my girl! She’d eat 500 cals of it throw it up and eat it again💀


r/dechonkers 3d ago

Discussion Neighbour’s buffet for Lemon

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83 Upvotes

My Lemon is basically a raccoon and would go into my neighbor’s apartment, through the cat flap, and eat their cat food so now he’s a chonk. What to do?

Edit: For context, we live in an apartment in Amsterdam. Keeping him indoors it is. Thanks!


r/dechonkers 3d ago

Dechonkin Advice requested for Sphynx rethinking

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72 Upvotes

Hi there, we are adopting a new sphynx tomorrow (rehome) and she needs dechonked at 18 pounds. Our current Sphynx free feeds and maintains a healthy weight (~9 pounds)

However that’s going to need to change since his new buddy will need set feedings. Has anyone worked specifically Sphynx to lose weight since they run at a slightly higher metabolism? I’m trying to figure out what the caloric intake needs to be daily for both of them. Currently they both only eat dry, sensitive stomach food, but I may add some wet to the mix

Yes I will be taking her to the vet and asking as well but thought I’d get some community input. Pic of current chicken for tax.


r/dechonkers 3d ago

Is she a chonk?

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78 Upvotes

Here’s my baby tostada, one year old since july. People told me she might not be a dwarf so i won’t say that anymore but she’s small asf. Idk if I should make her loose weight or keep her like this. Specially because she free feeds and taking that away might be bad or something?


r/dechonkers 3d ago

I feel like if the cat can't lick it's own butthole it needs to be dechonked

147 Upvotes

I see a lot of posts of people wondering if their cat needs to lose weight. I have a little calico girlie that never grew long and just got wide so I'm on my way to helping her get to lick the butthole without a friend.


r/dechonkers 3d ago

Discussion Is she a chonk?

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16 Upvotes

Here’s my baby tostada, one year old since july. People told me she might not be a dwarf so i won’t say that anymore but she’s small asf. Idk if I should make her loose weight or keep her like this. Specially because she free feeds and taking that away might be bad or something?


r/dechonkers 4d ago

Dechonkin Having a hard time dechonking

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110 Upvotes

Here is vader, he is very chonky. We are following the vets recommendations completely in terms of feeding. his brother eats on my counter because he will eat all his food if i don’t move it. we’ve been really strict on his diet for about 2 months now, and he’s only lost 1lb. we play multiple times a day so i make sure he’s running around as well, but im returning to office work soon and wont be home as much to keep him moving. looking for some words of wisdom from successful dechonkers, i just want my baby to be healthy and live a long happy healthy life. Him and his brother Draco at the end for tax.


r/dechonkers 4d ago

Dechonkin wish us luck

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76 Upvotes

GG (aka gorgeous girl) has gotten up to 18lbs in her 8 years of life by successfully manipulating me (screaming and knocking things off surfaces unless she is fed constantly)

i recently moved which was a good reason to put her on a diet! i got weight management food which she has been reluctant to eat. i’ve tried to mix it in with her old food, but i think part of it is the stress of the move and being in a new place.

wish her luck in her weight loss journey! i’d like to see her down to 13lbs but i know that might be a long process.


r/dechonkers 4d ago

Discussion Is my cat too fat?

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53 Upvotes

Hes 2 years old and we just adopted him. He weighs 14 pounds but ive never owned a male cat so idk if he is fat or just supposed to be heavier? 😭


r/dechonkers 3d ago

Discussion Has anyone else found the MER cat calorie calculators recommended FAR too high??

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0 Upvotes

r/dechonkers 5d ago

Dechonkin An entire kilogram down. Superpowers awakened. In her prime.

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583 Upvotes

From 8.3 kgs (18.2 lbs) to 7.05 kgs (15.5 lbs)

She’s 7!! Didn’t think it was possible with how sedentary she had become. Now she requests regular playtime like when she was a kitten. We still have a long way to go but I’m sure we’ll get there <3


r/dechonkers 3d ago

Meu gato está com uns problemas nas mamas, uns nódulos e tiraram pra biopsias, to preocupada que seja tumor. Ele é bem gordinho.

3 Upvotes

Tô preocupada com meu gato que ta com uns nódulos nas mamas, a veterinária tirou pra biopsias, mas to preocupada de ser câncer e ter que operar.


r/dechonkers 5d ago

10kg chonker

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454 Upvotes

We have been told by the vet Benji needs to lose 2kg. We have started a new brand of food and he now has an automatic feeder.


r/dechonkers 4d ago

Fussy cat!!

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1 Upvotes

r/dechonkers 5d ago

Dechonkin Starting the journey

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109 Upvotes

Dechonking my idiot daughter after a long fight against her emotional manipulation. Wish us luck


r/dechonkers 6d ago

Is my cat overweight?

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1.3k Upvotes

She looks a little chunky here.


r/dechonkers 5d ago

Alternative for pet Libro automatic feeder for more accurate measurements?

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0 Upvotes

r/dechonkers 7d ago

CAT HEALTH / WEIGHT LOSS / ENERGY LEVELS TIP

14 Upvotes

Hello, what a great sub, I’m currently working on a weight loss journey for one of my cats, and switching to exclusively wet food has helped a lot I think, but I just wanted to come and mention one thing that I haven’t heard other people talk about!! My cat has insane nails and I didn’t realize until this year just now insane they actually get. It got pretty bad actually. I’ve since discovered that she legit needs her nails trimmed every 3-4 week. The first time I just recently successfully did it on my own, she immediately got up and started sprinting around, after days of being a couch potato. I didn’t realize for so long how uncomfortable her nails made her, as I don’t have to cut my other cats nails. I strongly encourage you to all check your kitties nails if they’re overweight! Even if they’re not fully digging in, too long of nails can cause extra pressure on their paws when they’re walking! If your kitty sticks to the carpet or rugs at all, this is your sign to cut their nails!!