Why Pet Weight Loss Starts With Us

Discussions about obesity and weight loss are as common in the vet’s office as they are at the human doctor’s office. Those discussions tend to be just as awkward and ineffective as they are in the human world. As I get older, I find the doctor fussing at me more and more to lose weight, and I find myself smiling and nodding while promising to do better. On the next visit, we do the same song and dance. I’ve come to realize that conversations about our pets’ weight go the exact same way.

In the spirit of trying to get out of this cycle of repetition, I wanted to directly address the truth regarding obesity in our pets: for every 10 animals I see in the exam room with a weight problem, only one has an actual condition that is contributing to obesity. In the nine other cases, owners are creating the problem through feeding or activity habits. If we can admit this, we can finally start to affect change in the health of our pets.

Although pets can have issues like hypothyroidism that will definitely contribute to weight gain, this is one of the only true conditions that will cause an animal to gain weight in the face of a proper diet. Otherwise, the pet must be managed by feeding less and exercising more. I think that is where the song and dance comes in. I consistently hear that “we haven’t been going for as many walks,” or “my husband/wife feeds them too many treats.” While these things may be true, they reflect the same types of excuses we make to our own doctors.

When a vet asks you to change your pet’s diet or help them lose weight, we are really asking you to change your own habits and behaviors regarding how you care for your pet. The fact is, dogs and cats are going to eat what we give them, so it makes sense that we have to change our behaviors in order to affect their weight loss. There’s an 80–90 percent chance it is not the pet’s fault.

So today, I pose this question: Are you stuck in a cycle of repetition regarding your pet’s weight? Are you smiling and nodding at your vet like I do with my doctor? Keeping pets at a healthy weight requires healthy habits on our part, and it often requires changes we’d rather not face. Once we recognize the truth about pet obesity, we can start to create real change.