now I have to give the dragondawg secrets to successful dieting out.

Calories are a measure unit of heat. The implication is that the heat is a result of generating energy. If energy is not needed then the potential for generating it is stored. Huh???

Let's try again... if you eat a cube of sugar it will be sky high in calories. Sugar has the potential to generate a lot of energy where the dollar currency of the cell is the molecule ATP. If the dog, or the human body consumes calories faster then it burns, then the storage takes the form of "fat". If the need for energy or ATP exceeds the calorie intake, then "fat" is burned. It is easier for the body to store excess calories in the form of fat then it is for fat to be turned into calories.

So the answer to your question ends up in two steps. To control the weight of the dog the most important component is calories, as most calories in food tend to be a direct measurement of sugar or carbohydrates. Likewise for us humans the quickest initially way to lose weight is cutting down on the sugar- not necessarly the Adkin's diet per se. The second step is to cut down on the fat in the diet, as a portion of the fat in the diet will be converted first to utilizable carbohydrate, and then converted back to fat. Huh again?

Ok the bottom line is you need to find a dog food that combines:

1. Lower calories - most important.
2. Lower fat.