Best Weight Loss Dog Food

If your dog needs to lose weight, chances are you are looking for the best weight loss dog food. And with canine obesity reaching epidemic proportions, there certainly is no shortage of weight loss dog foods to choose from.

Unfortunately the most common type of weight loss formula is not the best weight loss dog food.

High Fiber, Low Fat Weight Loss Dog Foods

Most weight loss dog foods on the market are high in fiber and carbohydrates with low levels of fat and moderate amounts of protein. The high fiber levels are supposed to make your dog feel full on fewer calories, making it easier to stick to the diet. But do they?

Studies have demonstrated that neither soluble, nor insoluble fiber at levels up to 16% of dry matter have any effect on satiety in dogs.

One study did show an appetite suppressant effect when 21% of the diet consisted of fiber, but fiber levels this high might have the potential to interfere with nutrient absorption. The risk is probaly compounded when high amounts of fiber are combined with reduced calorie and fat levels, as is usually the case in weight loss dog foods.

The typical weight loss dog food provides 45-55% carbohydrate, 18-28% protein, and less than 10% fat.

Fat levels are often in the 6-8% range, which can result in dry skin and poor coat condition in addition to difficulty absorbing fat soluble vitamins.

Low fat content also tends to mean reduced palatability, particularly when combined with high fiber levels. It is not unusual for dogs to refuse to eat these types of weight loss dog foods or to eat them with such a visible lack of enjoyment that their owners give in and return to the regular diet.

The High Protein, Low Carbohydrate Alternative

While fiber content typically does not promote satiety in dogs, high protein/low carbohydrate diets have been shown to make dogs feel full on less food. A meat-based, high protein, low carbohydrate weight loss formula also has the added advantage of being extremely palatable to dogs, particularly when combined with a moderate amount of fat.

The importance of satiety and palatability should not be underestimated given that the owner's perception that their dog is miserable on the diet and constantly hungry is the main reason most canine weight loss efforts fail.

As crucial as these factors are, the advantages of high protein/low carb weight loss dog foods go beyond satiety and palatability. One problem with traditional weight loss dog foods is that dogs don't just lose body fat on them; they also lose significant amounts of muscle tissue.

Loss of lean muscle mass is undesirable for a host of reasons, not least of which is the fact that it results in a lower metabolic rate, making it more difficult to maintain an ideal body weight.

Several studies have demonstrated that dogs losing weight on a high protein/low carb diet retain a substantially greater percentage of their lean muscle mass.

While traditional high fiber/carbohydrate weight loss diets can result in significant weight loss when calorie intake is severely restricted, high protein/low carb dog foods have the advantage that they require only minimal caloric restriction to produce substantial weight loss.

One study (see Reference) compared overweight dogs losing weight on a exsperimental diet providing 52% protein and 22% carbohydrate to a control group of the same breed losing weight on a traditional high carbohydrate diet supplying 28% protein and 43% carbohydrate (note that the high carb diet in this study was actually somewhat higher in protein and lower in carbs than most traditional weight loss dog foods).

Both groups had approximately the same percentage of body fat at baseline, and energy intake was reduced to 85% of maintenance calories.

After twelve weeks, the high protein group had lost over twice as much as weight as the high carbohydrate control group (10.9% of body weight vs. 4.4%). The difference was even more pronounced when looking solely at the percentage of fat mass lost: 37.7% for the high protein group vs. 6.1% for the high carb group.

The two groups initially lost weight at nearly the same pace, but the high carb group's weight loss slowed after week two and hit a plateau after the first month, while the high protein group continued losing weight steadily throughout the entire twelve week period.

Both the high carb and the high protein diet used in this study were low in fat, providing 10-11% fat and 8-9% fat respectively. Other clinical trials comparing high protein/low carbohydrate diets to traditional high carb diets have also studied only diets with low fat levels. Unfortunately I am not aware of any commercial weight loss dog foods that provide nutrient values comparable to the diet that proved so effective in the above study.

Best Weight Loss Dog Food Suggestions

So, what are your options for the best in weight loss dog food short of hiring a pet nutritionist to formulate a diet with more than 50% protein, but less than 10% fat?

The good news is that there is a commercial weight loss dog food that provides the 52% protein used in the above study: EVO Weight Management dry dog food is a high protein/low carb formula with 52% protein and no more than 11% carbohydrate, but it does have 15% fat.

In other words, half the carbs but nearly twice the fat of the high protein diet in the above study.

This makes EVO Weight Management more energy dense than the low carb diets studied thus far, which means somewhat smaller portions are in order. That said, as long as you restrict energy intake to 80-85% of maintenance calories, your dog should lose a steady 1-2% of body weight a week.

The best weight loss dog food is meat or fish based and contains at least 40% protein, less than 25% carbohydrate, and 10-15% fat. Indeed, if I was to formulate the ultimate weight loss dog food, I would use lots of lean meats and fish, some fatty fish or fish oil for omega-3 fatty acids, egg whites, non-fat yogurt or cottage cheese, plus vegetables (particularly leafy greens and cruciferous vegetables) and berries to arrive at a nutrient profile that's quite similar to the one offered by EVO Weight Management, though I would attempt to reduce the fat content a little more.

The Bottom Line

Your dog can lose weight on any dog food as long as he consumes fewer calories than he burns during the course of the day. However, to ensure that your canine friend receives adequate vitamins and minerals, it's best to feed a dog food that is designed for lower energy consumption, such as a weight loss or senior diet.

Moreover, research indicates that even when calorie intake is identical, high protein/low carbohydrate weight loss dog foods have several advantages over traditional high carbohydrate formulas:

• They promote greater satiety, making it easier to stick to the diet.
• They are highly palatable to dogs, since they're almost invariably meat-based.
• They require only a small restriction of caloric intake for continued weight loss.
• They produce greater weight loss and far greater fat loss.
• They allow dogs to maintain a greater percentage of lean muscle mass when losing weight.

All of these factors combine to make high protein/low carbohydrate diets the best weight loss dog foods. However, before making dietary changes, you should always check with your veterinarian to make sure your dog doesn't have a health condition that makes such a diet inadvisable.

Reference - The American Society for Nutritional Sciences J. Nutr. 134:2087S-2089S, August 2004, High-Protein Low-Carbohydrate Diets Enhance Weight Loss in Dogs: By Tiffany Linn Bierer and Linh M. Bui.