Feeding only dry food to your overweight cat  – Dry kibble is similar to the bag of chips or can of nuts that you may or may not have been known to reach the bottom of while hanging out on the couch on a given Saturday afternoon. Canned food is around 70 percent moisture, so not only do cats get a beneficial dose of hydration when they eat it, they are also likely to feel full sooner than they would eating a comparable volume of dry food.

Canned food can be a bit inconvenient, for sure, so if you can’t feed it at every meal out of concern for keeping the food fresh, consider feeding one meal of canned food at dinner when you’re more likely to be around and can take the portion up that doesn’t get finished after an hour or so.