Charts that give cups of food by body weight are shared a lot, and they cannot be right for every dog or cat. The calories in a cup differ from one food to the next, and two pets of the same weight can need quite different amounts. What carries over from one food to another is calories. This page gives the daily calories for dogs and cats by weight, shows how to turn them into cups, cans or grams of your own food, and explains how to adjust from there.
There are three reasons. The first is the food. A cup of one dry food can hold more than twice the calories of a cup of another, so the same number of cups can be right for one dog and too much for the next.
Cat foods vary too. Even among foods sold for weight loss, a 2010 study found dry cat foods ranging from 235 to 480 calories per cup.
The second is the pet. Two dogs or cats of the same weight can need quite different amounts. How active they are matters, whether they are spayed or neutered matters, and so does the individual animal.
The third is that calories do not go up in step with weight. In the table further down, a 100-pound dog needs between 5.6 and 5.7 times the calories of a 10-pound dog, not ten times as much.
The feeding guide on the bag is written for that food, which makes it better than a general chart. But it is a starting point, and it tends to be generous. When a veterinary nutritionist at Tufts checked eight dry dog foods against the standard calculation, the directions on only two of them matched it.
The American Animal Hospital Association's 2021 guidelines give the same warning about label directions. A 2025 study of cat foods sold in Ontario, Canada, found that the label amounts missed in both directions, too little for some cats and too much for others.
Vets start from the resting energy requirement, the calories a pet burns at rest. It is worked out from body weight in kilograms.
That number is then multiplied by a factor for the pet's life stage and activity. These factors are from the American Animal Hospital Association's 2021 nutrition guidelines.
| Life stage | Dog | Cat |
|---|---|---|
| Spayed or neutered adult | 1.4 to 1.6 | 1.2 to 1.4 |
| Intact adult | 1.6 to 1.8 | 1.4 to 1.6 |
| Inactive, or gains weight easily | 1.0 to 1.2 | 1.0 |
| Losing weight, worked out at the ideal weight | 1.0 | 0.8 |
| Growing | 3.0 under 4 months, 2.0 from 4 months | 2.5 |
Other sources use one number for each stage instead of a range. The Merck Veterinary Manual's table, for example, uses 1.6 for a neutered adult dog and 1.2 for a neutered adult cat. That is one reason two calculators can give different answers for the same pet. Petipedia's calorie calculator does this arithmetic for you.
This is Petipedia's arithmetic from the formula and the factors above, for a dog at a healthy weight, rounded to the nearest 10 calories.
| Weight | Spayed or neutered | Inactive, or gains weight easily |
|---|---|---|
| 5 lb (2.3 kg) | 180 to 210 | 130 to 160 |
| 10 lb (4.5 kg) | 300 to 350 | 220 to 260 |
| 15 lb (6.8 kg) | 410 to 470 | 290 to 350 |
| 20 lb (9.1 kg) | 510 to 590 | 370 to 440 |
| 30 lb (13.6 kg) | 690 to 790 | 500 to 600 |
| 40 lb (18.1 kg) | 860 to 980 | 620 to 740 |
| 50 lb (22.7 kg) | 1,020 to 1,160 | 730 to 870 |
| 60 lb (27.2 kg) | 1,170 to 1,330 | 830 to 1,000 |
| 70 lb (31.8 kg) | 1,310 to 1,500 | 940 to 1,120 |
| 80 lb (36.3 kg) | 1,450 to 1,660 | 1,030 to 1,240 |
| 90 lb (40.8 kg) | 1,580 to 1,810 | 1,130 to 1,360 |
| 100 lb (45.4 kg) | 1,710 to 1,960 | 1,220 to 1,470 |
The same arithmetic for a cat at a healthy weight.
| Weight | Spayed or neutered | Inactive, or gains weight easily |
|---|---|---|
| 6 lb (2.7 kg) | 180 to 210 | 150 |
| 8 lb (3.6 kg) | 220 to 260 | 180 |
| 10 lb (4.5 kg) | 260 to 300 | 220 |
| 12 lb (5.4 kg) | 300 to 350 | 250 |
| 14 lb (6.4 kg) | 340 to 390 | 280 |
| 16 lb (7.3 kg) | 370 to 430 | 310 |
If your pet is overweight, use the weight it should be, not what it weighs now. Your vet can tell you what that weight is. Either way, the figures are where you start, and your pet's weight over the next few weeks tells you whether they are right.
Look on the bag or the can for the calorie statement. It has a heading of its own, and it gives the calories per kilogram and per cup or per can. A kilocalorie, written kcal, is what people usually call a calorie in food.
AAFCO, the group that writes the model rules for pet food labels, says the statement is spreading as US states adopt the rule. If your bag does not show it, the company that makes the food can tell you.
Then divide the daily calories by the calories in one cup. The answer is the number of cups a day.
A 50-pound spayed or neutered dog needs about 1,020 to 1,160 calories a day. With a food that has 350 kcal per cup, that is about 2.9 to 3.3 cups a day. With a food that has 450 kcal per cup, it is about 2.3 to 2.6 cups. The two foods are examples, not particular products.
For canned food, divide by the calories in one can. If you feed both, work out the calories the canned food gives and make up the rest with dry food.
The calories per cup on the bag assume a standard 8-ounce measuring cup, filled level.
A scoop or a mug is not a measuring cup, and a heaped cup holds more than a level one. In a 2019 University of Guelph study of 100 dog owners, the amounts people measured out were often far from what they meant to give.
A kitchen scale is more accurate, and the calories per kilogram on the bag make it easy. Divide the daily calories by the calories per kilogram and multiply by 1,000 to get grams a day. For 1,100 calories of a food with 3,600 kcal per kilogram, that is about 306 grams.
Treats count. The usual limit is 10 percent of the day's calories, with the rest coming from the pet's own food. For a dog that needs 1,000 calories a day, that is up to 100 calories of treats and 900 calories of its food.
The Cornell Feline Health Center gives cats a little more room.
The ASPCA sets a lower limit for people food. Petipedia's list of people foods shows which ones are fine to share.
Weigh your pet about once a month and check its body condition, which is how the ribs and the waist look and feel. On the 9-point scale vets use, the goal for most pets is 4 or 5. Petipedia's overweight check shows how to do it at home, and My Pet keeps a log of the weights with a chart.
If your pet is gaining weight, or the ribs are getting harder to feel, cut the amount by about 10 percent and keep weighing. If it is losing weight without being on a diet, talk to your vet.
A weight-loss plan is worked out at the pet's ideal weight, and it should go slowly. For dogs, Cornell's canine health center puts a safe pace at 1 to 2 percent of body weight a week. Cats should never be put on a crash diet, because a sudden cut in food can cause a serious liver disease called hepatic lipidosis.
Calorie needs can change as a pet gets older, but there is no separate factor for older dogs and cats and no official nutrient standard for senior pet food. Weight and body condition are the guide here too.
A growing puppy needs more calories for its weight than an adult, but more is not better. Extra calories make a puppy grow too fast, and that matters most in large breeds.
Tufts advises keeping a puppy on the lean side and weighing it at least once a month until it is 6 months old.
For a puppy expected to weigh more than 50 pounds as an adult, Tufts advises a large-breed puppy food, or one whose label says it meets the AAFCO growth profile including growth of large-size dogs. These foods have less calcium than other puppy foods and usually fewer calories. The label rules count a dog as large at 70 pounds or more as an adult, and Tufts uses 50 pounds to be safe.
Kittens need about 2.5 times their resting calories. The Merck Veterinary Manual notes that they can also be left with food available all day.
Calorie needs drop after spaying or neutering, in dogs and in cats. For cats, Tufts recommends cutting the food by 20 to 30 percent after the operation and watching the cat's body condition, while keeping a kitten on food for growing cats until it is at least a year old. When to have it done is covered on the spay and neuter page.
More than half. In the Association for Pet Obesity Prevention's 2022 survey, about six in ten dogs and cats were overweight or obese.
Sources read 23 September 2026. Quotes are copied word for word from each source.