If your cat is overweight, you've probably come across advice telling you to calculate calories, weigh every meal and feed a 'light' or 'weight management' diet.
While calorie intake certainly plays a role in weight management, it overlooks a much more important question: Are we feeding cats the diet they were biologically designed to eat?
At Raw Love Pets, we believe that for many overweight cats, the first step isn't reaching for a calculator—it's returning to a diet based on fresh meat rather than highly processed carbohydrates.
Cats Are Obligate Carnivores
Unlike people and dogs, cats are obligate carnivores. They have evolved to obtain the vast majority of their nutrition from animal tissues. Their natural prey is rich in animal protein, moderate in fat, naturally high in moisture and extremely low in carbohydrates. Cats have no biological requirement for grains and rely on nutrients found naturally in animal tissues, including taurine, arachidonic acid and preformed vitamin A.
The Problem with Many Commercial Diets
Most dry cat foods require starch to manufacture the biscuit. As a result, many commercial dry foods contain substantially more carbohydrates than a cat would naturally consume. Even many commercial wet foods contain relatively modest amounts of meat, with much of the remainder consisting of water, gelling agents, thickeners and other non-meat ingredients.
Is kcal/100g the Most Important Number?
'kcal/100g' simply tells us how much energy a food contains. It does not tell us whether the protein comes from meat or plants, how digestible the food is, how biologically appropriate the ingredients are, how much moisture the food contains or whether the diet resembles what a cat evolved to eat. Calories are one piece of information—not the whole nutritional story.
Why Raw Feeding Takes a Different Approach
Rather than beginning with calories, raw feeding begins with biology. A balanced raw diet aims to provide high-quality animal protein, natural animal fats, very low carbohydrate levels, high moisture content and minimal processing. Many owners find that when cats transition from carbohydrate-rich dry foods to a balanced raw diet, maintaining a healthy body condition becomes easier.
Weight Loss Is About More Than Eating Less
One of the biggest misconceptions surrounding feline obesity is that cats simply need fewer calories. In reality, what those calories are made of matters too. High-protein diets help preserve lean muscle during weight loss and may improve satiety compared with carbohydrate-rich diets.
The Importance of Moisture
Wild prey contains approximately 70–75% water. Raw diets closely resemble this natural moisture level. By contrast, dry kibble contains very little water, meaning cats must rely heavily on drinking to compensate—something they are not naturally inclined to do.
Calories Still Matter
We are not suggesting that calories are irrelevant. An overweight cat still needs an appropriate amount of food, and weight loss should always be gradual to reduce the risk of hepatic lipidosis. However, we believe that choosing a biologically appropriate diet should come before obsessing over calorie calculations.
Feed the Cat in Front of You
Every cat is an individual. Rather than focusing on a single number such as kcal/100g, monitor body condition score, muscle tone, energy levels, coat quality, stool quality and overall health.
A Species-Appropriate Philosophy
For us, helping overweight cats isn't about feeding less of the wrong food. It's about feeding the right food. Cats evolved as hunters—not grain eaters. By returning to a balanced, minimally processed raw diet that reflects what nature intended, many cats can achieve a healthier body condition while enjoying a diet that better matches their biological needs.
References
- Dr. Lisa A. Pierson, DVM – CatInfo.org: Feeding Your Cat: Know the Basics of Feline Nutrition
- Dr. Lisa A. Pierson, DVM – CatInfo.org: Feline Obesity: An Epidemic of Fat Cats
- CatNutrition.org – Feline Obesity
Raw Love Website related pages of interest: