Dietary intake of amino acids and vitamins compared to NRC requirements in obese cats undergoing energy restriction for weight loss

• Published in: BMC veterinary research 2020-11, Vol.16 (1), p.1-426, Article 426
• Main Authors: Grant, Caitlin E, Shoveller, Anna K, Blois, Shauna, Bakovic, Marica, Monteith, Gabrielle, Verbrugghe, Adronie
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Amino acids; Arginine; Body weight; Body weight loss; Care and treatment; Cats; Choline; Diet therapy; Dietary intake; Dogs; Domestic cats; Energy; Energy restriction; Essential nutrients; Feline obesity; Food and nutrition; Health aspects; Nutrients; Obesity; Phenylalanine; Physiological aspects; Proteins; Threonine; Tyrosine; Veterinary dietary supplements; Vitamins; Weight control
• ISSN: 1746-6148; 1746-6148
• DOI: 10.1186/s12917-020-02649-0

Background This study aimed to determine if obese cats undergoing energy restriction for weight loss would meet the National Research Council's (NRC) indispensable amino acid and vitamin recommendations when fed a purpose-formulated diet. Thirty cats were placed into one of two groups; obese (BCS 8 to 9/9; n = 16) and lean (BCS 4 to 5/9; n = 14) and included in a non-randomized retrospective observational study. Cats were fed a veterinary weight loss food during a 4-week period of weight maintenance. Obese cats (O-MAINT) refers to obese cats during this period, L-MAINT to lean cats. After this initial 4-week period, the lean cats finished the study at this time and the 16 obese cats continued and were energy restricted for a 10-week period (O-RESTRICT). Analysis for dietary concentrations of indispensable amino acid and vitamin contents were performed. Daily food intakes were used to determine minimum, maximum and average daily intakes of individual nutrients for all three groups and compared against NRC 2006 minimum requirements (MR), adequate intakes (AI) and recommended allowances (RA) for adult cats. Results Over 10 weeks, O-RESTRICT cats lost 672 g [+ or -] 303 g, representing a weight loss rate of 0.94 [+ or -] 0.28% per week. Daily intake of the majority of indispensable amino acids and vitamins was greater than the NRC 2006 recommended allowance (RA per kg ideal body weight ^0.67), except for arginine, choline, crude protein, phenylalanine plus tyrosine and threonine. All O-RESTRICT cats had minimum, average, and maximum arginine intakes less than the NRC AI. Minimum daily intake of choline was below NRC RA for all O-RESTRICT cats and below NRC MR for two. All, except one, O-RESTRICT cats had a maximum and average choline intake below RA. Conclusions All cats remained clinically healthy and showed no clinical signs of deficiency. Dietary choline and arginine requirements of obese cats as well as health risks associated with low dietary intake during energy restriction warrant further investigation. Keywords: Energy restriction, Feline obesity, Essential nutrients, Choline, Arginine