Is My Cat Overweight? — ideal weight & body check 🩺

Body Condition Score (BCS) is the vet-standard 9-point scale for feline body fat, where 4–5 is ideal. We read your three hands-on answers — ribs, waist and belly — to estimate where your cat sits: each "ideal" answer keeps the score near 5, each "heavy" answer nudges it up, each "lean" answer nudges it down.

For the target weight we use the widely used rule of thumb that each BCS point above ideal (5) is roughly 10% of extra body weight. So a cat at BCS 7 is carrying about 20% over its ideal — ideal weight = current ÷ 1.20. Below 5 we do the reverse to estimate a healthy gain target. It's an estimate, not a diagnosis.

One thing that trips people up: the primordial pouch, a loose flap of skin and a little fat that swings along a cat's lower belly. It's a normal feline feature — even lean, fit cats have one — so don't mistake it for the cat being overweight. Judge the whole body, especially whether you can feel the ribs.