Low cal pet food often not so

If Fluffy or Fido are a little on the portly side and your veterinarian suggests putting them on a low-calorie diet, don’t look for much help from commercial food.

A study, published this month in the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, has found that those low-calorie diet foods for cats and dogs may actually be just as calorie heavy as their regular counterparts.

The study examined nearly 100 commercially available diets with weight management claims. Among their findings is that dry dog foods range in calorie density from 217 to 440 kilocalories per cup (kcal/cup) and a recommended intake that ranged from 0.73 to 1.47 times the dog’s resting energy requirement. The diets also varied wildly in price — from 4 cents to more than $1.10 per kilocalorie.

Similar findings were made in wet dog food and cat food marketed for weight control. The results may be significant for owners whose cats or dogs are overweight or obese, according to Lisa M. Freeman, DVM, PhD, DACVN, the study’s co-author along with 2010 Cummings School graduate Deborah E. Linder, DVM. Nearly 50% of domesticated animals are overweight or obese.

“There is so much information — and misinformation — about pet foods, it’s understandable that people are confused about what to feed their dogs and cats,” said co-author Dr. Lisa Freeman, professor of nutrition at Tufts University’s Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine. “To counteract these myths, people are accustomed to turning to the labels on food — but, as this study shows, packaging might not always be a reliable source of information.”

Under federal guidelines, pet foods labeled “lite,” “light,” “low calorie,” “less calorie,” or “low calorie” must provide the caloric content. Foods with a light, lite, or low-calorie designation must also adhere to a maximum kilocalorie per kilogram restriction. However, Freeman points out that more than half of the foods evaluated in the study exceeded this maximum.

Find out if your dog is overweight by clicking here.

(Science Daily and The Associated Press contributed to this story.)