that needs to lose weight ASAP....

My bro has a nice black cat who is sadly grossly overweight. They just give her too much food aS food is always available to her and she is very greedy. After spaying she started gaining weight (or so they say)...

They have been of course feeding her whiskas and other supermarket brands . He said that he knows she is overweight but doesn't have the heart to deny her food as if they give her less she is constantly begging.

And she is realy VERY overweight. I picked her up and it felt like holding a ball - I am not kidding, you can't feel her ribs at all and she is just fat and no muscles

So I said they should be feeding her some better foods like I feed mine (from online stores). But is this really best? I am not sure...
Cause at first I was going to recomend they go to the vet but than I stareted thinking that vets don't know a whole lot about cat nutrition and they will probably just going to sell them Hills for weight reduction...But than I also read an article about how these kinds of foods (with more fibre and less meat) make cats even hungrier as they don't get the required proteins. And I have seen on the forums that many had stated the cats were very hungry when eating such weight reduction diets...
So I really don't know. I know cats can die if they lose weight to fast so I really need help...

I was thinking about recomending food with a lot of protein but not too much fat? Like giving the cats more lean meat like chicken... Is my thinking OK or flawed?
I have never had to deal with this before as none of my cats is fat...

So what wet food would you recomend? I remember Hobbs writing about some tins have too little fat - but in this case I think this would be OK?

Any input is welcome...

No, cats, even obese cats, need fat in their diet. I should imagine that feeding those fatless cat tins, which are mostly complementary food anyhow, will have the same effect as feeding diet food; the cat will be hungry.

Don't necessarily think it is the type of food that is to blame here (after all there are plenty of cats on Whiskas etc that are not obese) but rather the amount that she gets. Do you know how many tins/pouches she is getting a day?

Moving her over to a better quality food might help but it might not (i.e. her eyes are bigger than her stomach). What will help though is to gently decrease the amount of food she is getting while at the same time upping the amount of exercise she is getting. Is she using it to get attention? Is she perhaps a lonely cat? Could she perhaps have an underlying health issue?

And have a word with your bro to stop being her "feeder", to stop feeling guilty, that food will not make her happy but that too much food might get her into an early grave (fatty deposits around organs etc....)

And any weight loss needs to be gradual; nothing too drastic as otherwise there could be health consequences too.

Ah, Ok so no low-fat foods for her than...

She is the only cat but I don't think she is lonely as she gets plenty of attention and likes to play and cuddle with people but hates other cats...

As for how much food she gets...She has dry food down all the time and than she gets a pouch (100 gram) of whiskas or similar in the morning and one in the evening. Tho my bro admits he sometimes gives her another pouch in the middle of the day - so 2-3 pouches a day. She really likes them and wolfs them down....But I think the main problem is the dry food she has available all the time...I don't know what feeding recs are for whiskas as I forgot to look but I think the pouches alone should be enough for her in that amount?

So I will try to convience him to ditch the dry food...But than because she is overweight should she at first be given lets say 4 pouches a day since there will be no more dry food? Or preferably I would really like them to buy some better foods as they do love her but just aren't that into cat nutrition...But what amounts should she be given? The amounts recomended for her weight as of now or her desired weight (like I 2-3% of her bodyweight now or of her ideal weight)? I don't know how much she weighs but when I picked her up she seemed very heavy to me so she must weight at least 8 kilos (and she is a normal moggy, not big like MCs)

I was also thinking - would adding water to the food (smallish amounts) help to fill her more up so it would be bigger volume and she wouldn't be hungry so soon? Just a tought but I don't know if it is OK? (She isn't fussy as she eats whatever wet food they buy her (obviously supermarket brands) but is a bit more fussy about dry).

I think she is just fed too much as she is otherwise playfull and likes cuddles so I don't think there is something medically wrong with her but I can advise them to go to the vets tho I am affraid that if they do te vet will recomend Hills reduction dry (which they sell) and my bro will of course believe the vet more than me as I am not in this proffesion....

Oh and one more think. She does get milk occasionally (she is OK with it) - are these just empty calories and should they reduce the amounts given (every 3rd or so day a bowl)?

The only way to get a cat to lose weight is portion control. Just as with humans, the correct portions of good food are far more satisfying than junk food. Just as with humans, much eating is habit rather than hunger. We owners find it very difficult to deny our beloved pets anything, especially food as we often equate feeding with love and affection. As she has dried food constantly available this could be the easy start to better habits. I'd place a pretty fair bet on her not becoming any more demanding if this were strictly controlled with a view to cutting it out completely as soon as reasonably possible. It's definitely the carbs that kill.