My cat Pepper has been on a diet for about 9 months. He was definitely overweight and has lost about 2 pounds, but I'm starting to worry he's being underfed now. He just seems more stressed when he goes to check his food bowl and it's empty and will wait for the machine to dispense for hours before his feeding times.
He's a bombay, and I found some info online that says they should be under 15 pounds and some that says under 12. He's 12.6 now, and he still looks kinda chubby, but it's hard to tell because he has a big primordial pouch(loose skin in the belly area).
I know I should ask a vet, but I can't afford a vet visit.
As people have said ribs are a good indicator, as well as the back hips and shoulder blades peaking out to form a visible "waist" as well alongside ribs being easily visualized (spinal segments being visual as well is bad). For the food anxiety I'd recommend play stimulation and likely catnip and/or catgrass.
His large pouch makes it tricky to use his back hips as an indicator, it sort of pulls the skin taut in that area. Even when he was quite obviously overweight he had a visible waist. But I checked his ribs and he definitely still has a solid layer of fat.
It never occured to me that boredom might be a factor. It's gotten colder here recently so he hasn't been spending much time in his catio. I do play with him at least once a day, but he's almost 14 years old and he's not as into it anymore. I'll get him some cat grass.
Thanks