Two comments here:

1) for many people feeding=love, we see that time and time again at work. Horribly obese animals than can barely walk in the door and panting like crazy because of the weight. When we stress to the owner the health risks of obesity we usually get many responses like "but he just keeps begging", "she just loves those treats", "I know that but hubby/kids keep giving them snacks", "yeah he's a fat thing that's for sure (usually announced very proudy by the owner as if it's a good thing)". Some owners are obese themselves and just don't see anything wrong with an obese pet. We constantly see weight related diseases come in, including most recently, a very obese cat that had a glucose level of 600+ (normal should be 100 or less) the machine couldn't even go high enough to give us the exact glucose level!!

2) sometimes a failure to lose weight despite cutting back on food or increasing excercize can be a low thyroid problem. A blood test can determine this and the medication is reletively inexpensive (at least in my area) and usually has great results.