You might want to look into the research being done on other causes of obesity in cats as well as other mammals. Lab mice, street rats and human infants have ballooned in recent years, which suggests there is more to it than too many carbs, lack of exercise or lack of “willpower.”
I was intrigued, and I did look into the research. Here’s the original article in question: Lab Animals and Pets Face Obesity Epidemic.
It’s not just people that are getting fatter.
A statistical analysis of more than 20,000 animals suggests that the obesity epidemic is spreading to family pets, wild animals living in close proximity to humans, and animals housed in research centers–perhaps indicating that environmental factors beyond diet and exercise are at least partly to blame for expanding waistlines.
It’s true: the statistical analysis shows fatter animals. But I came to an actual conclusion, and it wasn’t the ones my commenter and many scientists apparently came to. I still believe these varied obese mammals all have the same root cause, and it is extremely simple; it is what they eat.
That’s the common denominator in all of the organisms described. As I delved into the article, what was the only thing lab mice, street rats, and human infants have in common, along with our pet cats? We humans, directly or indirectly, feed them.
After all, the subtitle of this article is: Animals in human care are fatter than they were 20 years ago. It’s the “human care” part that is significant; animals in the wild show no such changes. And it goes on to say:
In some cases, the explanation might be obvious: the more than 40 percent jump in body weight in feral rats scavenging on the streets of Baltimore may reflect the increasing richness of their diet as they feed on our more calorie-dense refuse.
Here’s a solid assumption we can actually fact check: Have our food scraps become more calorie-dense? Let’s see.
According to the American Heart Association, as of 2001:
The current average macronutrient composition of the American diet is 12% to 16% of calories from protein, 34% from fat, and 49% from carbohydrate.
I have decided the protein figure must be 17%: this is how the proportions will add up to 100, and it’s the only one they indicated they are not sure of. Also, I have not run across any data on people radically juggling their protein the way they have their fat and carbohydrate consumption since the New Food Pyramid appeared in 1988.
How far back can I find another such data item for comparison? I found data from 1965-66 quoted in a paper devoted to the macronutrient composition of the American diet:
The protein:fat:carbohydrate distribution of energy was found to be 18:44:38%.
Now, we calculate the calorie density using the established ratios: protein and carbohydrate equal 4 calories per gram, while fat equals 9 calories per gram. This accepted fact is one of the tenets of the calorie restriction theory of obesity reduction: reducing fat will reduce the calorie density of the foods we eat, because fat is more than twice the density of either protein or carbohydrate.
That’s easy math, as seen here, expressed in spreadsheet format:
1965: =(.18*4)+(.44*4)+(.38*9) results in a caloric density of 6.5
2001: =(.17*4)+(.34*4)+(.49*9) results in a caloric density of 5.9
And they are right! Our caloric density has gone down. Well, that actually wasn’t the theorem: they figured it was our caloric density going UP. Since that is NOT what is actually happening, what is going on?
Well, first of all, this theorem has support:
Caloric density is inversely correlated with mammalian obesity.
Yes, that’s what the longitudinal studies show: over thirty six years, a decrease of calorie density, expressed in a preference for carbohydrates over fat in the diet, shows an increase in bodily obesity.
Yes, I know that’s the opposite of what we’ve been told. But here we are, working with SCIENCE; a totally different creature than what the popular media works with. So what does SCIENCE tell us to feed our cats?
This web page lays out some often-ignored principles of feline nutrition and explains why cats have a better chance at optimal health if they are fed a canned food diet instead of dry kibble.
That’s a start.
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Well I certainly can’t do any major scientific analysis, but I can relate my personal story about cat food:
In July I adopted a very petite adult cat (just over 7 pounds). I asked my vet about wet v. dry food, having already decided wet was the way to go with this new cat. Vet assured me any high-protein, good-quality dry food was fine for a cat her age, so I figured, okay, it’s certainly easier and cheaper. I bought a very good brand, the highest protein count I could find, and fed very moderate amounts.
About September or so, I noticed that my petite cat had filled out — and then some. Round, one could say. So I did some internet research, donated my leftover dry kibble to a friend who feeds a feral colony, and purchased some high-quality, grain-free wet food.
With no other changes in her lifestyle, by Halloween, my petite cat was once again petite!
I think you have an interesting theory. However, it is important to remember that correlation does not always equal causality.
Also, I think wet cat food is a great diet for cats. But according to the “calorie density” theory, dry food should theoretically be better. For example, Hills Adult wet food has around 1009 kcal per kg as fed. Hills Adult dry food has 4000 kcal per kg as fed, making it more calorically dense.
I think that is part of the reason that cats get obese more easily on dry food – being more calorically dense, it is easier to overfeed compared to canned food.
That might be why I don’t believe “calories in/calories out” really works; several decades of diets that don’t work suggest this is a fatally flawed theory.
This post is genius and I don’t believe in Calories in / Calories out for humans either. I mean, one word: homeostasis.
Do you have any tips for weaning your carb-loving cats off the wet food?
I meant dry. In my case, my cat loves his dry food (which, by the way, is medically prescribed – it’s Urinary SO, since he had a urinary infection which actually led to him getting a penis amputation). So I have the twin challenges of a carb loving kitty and possible guilt if his urinary issues return when I wean him off the dry.
(even though I am pretty sure dry food is what caused the original issue).
@Alina
I believe the Urinary SO also comes in a wet formulation. If not, you can get other prescription urinary diets which are a wet food.
Changing to wet food would be a great benefit to your kitty. By the sounds of it, he developed bladder stones which would have lodged in the urethra, requiring the penis amputation. Wet food increases water intake, which helps to dilute the urine, leading to less crystals and stones.
We have three cats, all about the same age within a month or so, and fed with Purina Cat chow.
One cat is a grey tabby, is quite slim and active, and always has been.
The second is a tuxedo cat, is also quite active, and is a bit heaver than the tabby.
The above cats love our new laser pointer.
The third is an orange marmalade cat, is sedentary, and is heavier than the others by a pound or two. He’s the top kitty but doesn’t chase the laser pointer.
The differences are either genetic or just personal habits.
Go figure.
I have not scrutinized the studies they have done, but I can give you a personal anecdote, the experience of which has convinced me that carb-dense food will at the very least create weight issues, and at the most truly screw up your kitty’s metabolism.
When my cats were kittens, I decided that I was going to stick to a grain-free, 85% canned diet for them, because boy-kitty had tummy problems related to dry food and grains. When my cats were 9 months old, my boy-kitty developed struvite crystals. These were stress-related and not diet-related, as we later determined, but my vet asked me to put him on a prescription diet until we could figure that out. I was not a fan of this plan, but I agreed for boy-kitty’s sake. He absolutely refused the canned food, so with my vet’s blessing I fed him his regular canned food and I just switched out their dry food (I leave a tiny bit of dry out for them to snack on during the day and some out overnight for them.)
The prescription dry food was like kitty crack. Neither cat could not get enough of it. But the important part is this: although my girl-kitty wasn’t eating any more than usual, she gained over two pounds on it in LESS THAN TWO MONTHS.
The number 1 ingredient in the prescription food? Corn. Ugh. I took them off it as soon as I possibly could, two months after we started.
Fast forward to 6 months later, and poor girl-kitty is still struggling with her weight, even though they are now on a reduced-calorie diet with no corn or wheat products. She gets plenty of exercise and there is no reason she should be as overweight as she is, but poor baby cannot seem to lose the weight. And I blame the corn.
Note that all of our cats are fixed, and eat the same food, Purina Cat Chow. The gray cat, a male, is slim and athletic, the tuxedo cat (a girl) is a bit heavier than the gray but is also athletic, and the male marmalade cat is heavy. I think the differences are all genetic.