Will human food make my cat overweight?

Weight comes down to calories in versus calories out, so if we're feeding a full calorie count with cat food and then adding human foods on top, we will end up with an overweight kitty. However, if we're being aware of how many calories are going into our kitty each day, and maybe reducing some of the kibble when we want to give a little treat with some boiled chicken or something like that, that's fine. You just want to be aware that some foods are maybe not the best for cats. Limit the amount of dairy they take in because sometimes they're not tolerant of dairy. I would also not feed anything that's high salt or high fat, as that could cause stomach upset.

It definitely can, so I don't recommend feeding a lot of human food to cats and anything you do give them, do so in moderation. Cats can have a pretty sensitive system. And especially with the overweight cats, we can push these guys into diabetes or some other conditions when we get them overweight. So I would try to avoid giving cats human food if you can.

No. Human food won't make your cat overweight. What will make your cat overweight is feeding more calories than they're expending and a sedentary lifestyle. Many of our kitties are inside now. And for important reasons, they stay inside. But part of the downside to an indoor lifestyle is they move their bodies less, and they have less to do. So we need to continue to engage them in interactive play and give them things to do to exercise their brains and bodies to burn those calories they should be burning. So again, in your mind now, it's not the food specifically. It's the number of calories that they're getting in excess.

Human food can make your cat overweight. Once again, it's all about calories. Also, cats are made for a high-protein, low-carbohydrate diet, so carbohydrates can add to obesity.

Maybe. It depends on the food. I'm not going to demonize human food for cats because, let's face it, we eat steaks, venison, chicken, tuna fish, or something like that. If you give that to your cat, I don't have any problem with that at all. But again, we want to make it a protein. If you started trying to give Cheetos and pizza crust to your cat, that would be a no. Don't do that. Human food can be harmful, but it can also be beneficial. You just have to be aware of a cat's nutritional needs.

Human food will not necessarily make your cat overweight. However, the more human food your cat eats in addition to their regular diet, the more likely they will become over-nutritioned and overweight.