Ideal Weight and Why Leaner Is Better

Also, the molten lava cake recipe is free for everyone

Our dogs get a lot of compliments on their body shape. Cedric was complimented by a passersby earlier this week and Edith has been likened to a greek goddess in our comments section (lol). Though people are likely just being nice, we do put a lot of effort into ensuring that the dogs eat the right amount of food. Quality is important, but so is quantity. This week we are covering our feeding guidelines as well as the ideal body composition for dogs. But before that, our molten lava cake recipe is free for everyone!

Is my dog fat?

Chances are if you’re reading this your dog is overweight. According to studies, approximately 60% of pets are overweight or obese. Harvard University says that excess weight diminishes every aspect of health and that obesity is the single biggest risk factor for a variety of diseases from diabetes, to heart disease, to cancer and dementia.

Though you don’t want your dog to be emaciated, what you think is “too skinny” is probably about right. Cedric sometimes gets comments that he looks starved, but his body shape is pretty close to ideal! Your dog should have a waistline. You should be able to feel your dog’s ribs with a light rub. For fluffy dogs, the bath is a good place to check. If your dog is more rectangular in shape and you can’t feel their ribs, then they need to eat less, even if they act like they are starving. Cedric and Edith always act famished even right after a big meal.

Why are dogs always hungry?

Studies done by Waltham (a subsidiary of Mars) show that nearly all dogs will overeat. In one study, dogs eating wet food consumed up to 2.6-times their calculated caloric need. Similar to people, dogs are scavengers and evolved in environments where food was scarce. We have the ability to store excess calories as fat on our bodies so we could eat a lot when food was plentiful in order to survive times when food was hard to find.

Also, because we domesticated dogs for special traits such as herding animals and being docile to humans, food motivation was useful. In other words, dogs that are always hungry and motivated by food are easier to train. So, in a way, dogs are bred to continuously beg for food.

Is it true that fasting animals leads to longer life?

Caloric restriction (CR) is a practice where researchers reduce food consumption of animals by about 25-30%. Though there are many studies that show CR extends life in the lab, the science is actually very nuanced. Animals in a lab are often in sterile environments and not exposed to the same pathogens and environmental stressors that wild animals experience. Furthermore, in almost all studies, caloric restriction’s benefit to lifespan was not uniform across all animals.

Caloric restriction affects different species and individuals differently. Approximately 30% of animals that are calorically restricted show no effect or die earlier than controls. Also, severe caloric restriction is just malnutrition, which is uniformly unhealthy. So, although CR may work for most animals in a lab setting, practicing CR on yourself or dog is not very practical.

My dog is just a little plump. It’s not that bad right?

Similarly to malnutrition, obesity is also uniformly unhealthy. Not only do the metabolic effects lead to diseases such as cancer, dementia and cardiovascular issues, the added weight increases incident of joint deterioration and osteoarthritis.

In the recent past, humans and dogs were subject to seasons and recurrent famine from natural disasters or disease. These days we have a near limitless food supply. Cycles don’t get to play out as nature intended and the body starts to panic (stress). This stress response is usually acute, like running from a predator. When an animal has metabolic syndrome, however, the stress becomes chronic, causing long-term inflammation, insulin resistance and high blood pressure.

Why is a stress response bad?

In small bursts a stress response is actually very good for both you and your dog. Exercise is one example. It causes stress on the body, and the short-term increase in heart rate, blood pressure and blood sugar creates positive adaptations in our muscles and tissues. But long-term or chronic stress, where the body remains on high alert causes excessive wear and tear on vital organs and blood vessels.

Cardiovascular disease in people is actually most tightly correlated with metabolic syndrome and stress rather than cholesterol alone (excluding people with cholesterol disorders). The calcification and hardening of arteries can be seen as an adaptation to stabilize or repair damaged arteries and blood vessels using cholesterol as a repair medium. Just like tires that are pumped with too much air wear out faster, so too do the tubes that carry blood.

To add further insult, glucose is actually toxic to blood vessels. Because glucose is regulated very tightly by the pancreas and liver, mitochondria (the power plants in cells) are overwhelmed by small changes in blood glucose. A non-diabetic has a fasting glucose level of less than 5.6 mmol/L. In total this is about 5 grams of glucose or only 1 teaspoon of sugar in the entire bloodstream! A diabetic might have a fasting glucose of 7 or 8 mmol/l or about 7 grams (or less than 1 1/2 teaspoons) of sugar in their blood. So the total difference between a diabetic and non-diabetic is about a half teaspoon of sugar or 0.04% of the blood.

To put this in perspective, the amount of extra sugar in the bloodstream that makes a person diabetic is just one drop in a small glass of water.

With additional damage to tissues, the immune system is taxed and weakened. Overworked immune cells that usually keep cancers at bay may let some cancers go undetected. Compounding this weakness in the immune system is excess sugar in the blood stream that feed cancers, creating the right environment for cancer to proliferate. For example, people with metabolic syndrome have about a 60% increased risk of colon cancer compared to the general population.

Conclusion

Your dog needs less food than you think and WAY less food than they want. Food motivated dogs are easier to train and were likely selected during breeding over the last 10,000 years. So pups continue to act hungry, even when eating more is bad for them. Feeding your dog too much leads to insulin resistance, which damages blood vessels and arteries, kicking off a cascade of events that cause disease. It’s up to us to limit our dogs’ food intake to help reduce their risk of painful diseases like cancer, liver disease and kidney failure.

That’s all for now. Have a great weekend!

All the best,

Joelle and the Precious Creatures Team