WHY DIET PROGRAMS FAIL WHY DIET PROGRAMS FAILDespite our best efforts, some diet programs just don’t seem to work. Reasons for this include:
Underlying disease. While an underlying disorder such as Cushing’s disease, thyroid disease, or diabetes is only present in at most 5% of obese dogs, all of our obese patients should be screened for these (and other) diseases prior to starting a comprehensive weight-reduction program. Failure to do so will result in no weight loss and potential serious illness or death in the patient with one of these conditions.
Lack of doctor involvement. Many owners decide to implement a weight-reduction program on their own without proper veterinary supervision. This is unlikely to work for several reasons. First, in those rare cases with underlying medical disorders causing or contributing to the obesity, the true problem will not be diagnosed, and the diet will not work. Second, most owner-implemented diet programs simply consist of the owner feeding a “Lite” diet or just “feeding less.” As we have discussed, Lite diets are basically worthless for weight-loss programs. Feeding less rarely results in weight loss for two main reasons:
Pets who eat less are hungrier, beg more, and ultimately are fed more as the owners become impatient with the constant begging for food.
As pets (and people) eat less, their metabolism slows down. Pets who are fed less will adapt to this lower metabolism and maintain weight.
Fear of “starving” the pet. Most owners do not want to see their pets starve, and we certainly must question whether or not this procedure is humane. Starvation will reduce fat but also burn muscle. People who starve can develop medical complications due to deranged glucose and fat metabolism. While this may not be as much of a problem in dogs (unlike in cats who can develop serious fatty liver disease within a matter of days), starvation is not recommended, as significant metabolic problems could arise in pets who are starved.
Impatience. Obesity does not happen overnight, and neither does weight loss. Owners must be patient, especially with larger dogs who might require many months of eating a proper diet to slowly lose weight.
To conclude, obesity adds to the stress on damaged joints for our arthritic pets. Therefore, weight control must be an important consideration as part of our overall therapy for the pet with arthritis.
Before feeding a pet with a medical condition one of these natural diets, please check with your doctor first to make sure the diet does not compromise your pet’s health care.