Wednesday, July 11, 2018

Calculating Daily Calories


With today's pet obesity epidemic, I highly recommend not only measuring your pet's food portions with a measuring cup, but also calculating your dog or cat's daily caloric needs to keep them at a healthy weight or to help them lose weight to achieve a healthier weight and maintain it. It's not hard to do but does require a little math.

To calculate the kcal (kilocalorie) requirements for your pet, first you have to figure out what is their ideal weight. If you don't know what the ideal weight is for your pet, the Association for Pet Obesity Prevention provides a chart of ideal weight ranges for popular breeds of dogs and cats or ask your veterinarian.

To use an example, let's say your dog🐶 is 60 pounds and his/her ideal weight is 50.

Daily calories (canine) = Body Weight (kg) x 30 + 70
To use this formula, first you need to convert his/her weight from pounds to kilograms.
One kilogram = 2.2 pounds, so divide her ideal weight (not her current weight) in pounds by 2.2. 50/2.2 = 22.7, so you dog's ideal weight in kilograms is 22.7.
Now our formula looks like this: Daily calories = 22.7 (kg) x 30 + 70
And finally, it looks like this: Daily calories = 751
If your dog eats 750 calories a day he/she should drop steadily to his/her ideal weight of 50 pounds and maintain it.

Experts recommend the total daily calories should be split between two or three meals.

The formula for cats has a slight variation to account for the very sedentary lifestyle of most house cats:
Daily calories (feline) = Body Weight (kg) x 30 + 70 x 0.8
Let's say your cat🐱 is 12 pounds and should be 10.
Divide your cat's ideal weight (not current weight) in pounds by 2.2.  10/2.2 = 4.5, so your cat's ideal weight in kilograms is 4.5. 
Formula looks like this: Daily calories = 4.5 (kg) x 30 + 70 x 0.8 = 164

If your cats eats 164 calories a day he/she should drop steadily to his/her ideal weight of 10 pounds and maintain it.
Of course the calories don't have to be exact, but you can get it pretty close, and they may vary a little with each meal if fed a variety of foods. It's best to divide the daily calories into two or more meals a day.

Now that you've figured out how many calories they need per day for an ideal, healthy weight, you have to figure out how many kcal are in the portions of the foods you currently feed, INCLUDING any treats given throughout the day and modify accordingly.

If you're feeding a dry kibble, the serving amount will be listed on the back of the bag and is usually a cup. The calorie content will be listed per serving, such as 373 kcal/cup in the example below.


On can foods, the calorie content is usually listed per can, like 131 kcal per 5 oz can, as shown below:


Treats will usually list the kcal per treat. Most pet foods and treats will have the kcal listed on the back of the package. If not, you can usually find it on the manufacturer's website.

Now add up the kcal of foods and treats you give your pet in a day based on the portions they are currently given. Are you feeding too many calories? Not enough? You may have to do a little math to figure the amounts you need to cut back (or add in) and should be feeding each meal for a healthy weight. And this may vary a little if you feed a variety of foods or change foods, etc.

As pet guardians it is our responsibility to educate ourselves on how to properly care for them, including what and how much we should be feeding. They depend on us for their well-being. 

And we can't leave out the importance of daily exercise for your pets too!




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