Lose Pounds With Your Hound

  Kimberly Neiland and her dog,"Bear," are both fighting the battle of the bulge.

  Bear is 30 pounds overweight, and when the vet examined the dog, he felt an extra layer of jiggle where he should have felt ribs. Meanwhile, Neiland wants to drop 50 pounds.

  "I tried Weight Watchers, I was doing some online thing and was able to stick to it for about two weeks and then just kind of fell off the wagon," Neiland said.

  They're not the only pet and pet owner who have edged into a heavy zone.

  Over 60 percent of adult Americans are now overweight or obese, and an estimated 60 million cats and dogs in the U.S. are overweight or obese. That is 50 percent of the pet population.

  To try to combat the trend, the Wellness Institute at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago and Hill's Pet Nutrition have teamed up for a new research study, a 12-month weight management program for people and their pets. The nutrition and exercise program aimed at satisfying pet owners, their heavy hounds, and their chunky cats will be run in the Chicago area, and is called People and Pets Exercising Together (PPET).

  Under the program, people and their pets eat together, exercise together, and weight in together, based on the theory that the buddy system will help pets and their owners lose weight. It calls for counting calories, and having pets and their owners exercise together for 30 minutes daily.

  Now Neiland and Bear will work on achieving their weight loss goals as a pair.

  "It will be something to entice me to get out and walk with him, and it's good for both him and myself," Neiland said.

  金柏林·尼蘭德和她的寵物--一只名叫"熊熊"的獵犬，正在一起同自己的滿身贅肉作斗爭。
熊熊超重了30磅，當它進行體檢的時候，獸醫能感覺到它兩肋上的層層贅肉在顫動，而不是摸到它的肋骨。不過與此同時，它的主人尼蘭德也因為肥胖需要減掉50磅體重。

  尼蘭德說："我也曾試過Weight Watchers這樣的減肥網站，在網上做一些關于減肥的努力，但是我只能堅持兩個星期左右，很快我就又大開酒戒了。"

  尼蘭德和熊熊并不是唯一共同為肥胖所苦的寵物和寵物主。

  現在有超過60％的美國成人體重超標或者大腹便便，而且據統計在美國有6000萬只貓狗也同樣是超重或體態臃腫。這些肥胖的寵物占了全美寵物總數的一半。

  為了及時制止這種不健康的發展趨勢，位于美國芝加哥西北紀念醫院的威爾利斯研究中心和美國希爾斯寵物食品有限公司合作進行了一項研究，為那些肥胖者和他們的寵物制定了一項為期12個月的瘦身計劃。這項名為"主人和寵物一起鍛煉（People and Pets Exercising Together）"的計劃將在芝加哥地區進行。該計劃結合了營養調配和身體鍛煉，適用對象是那些肥胖的寵物主以及他們的寵物--身材臃腫的狗或者矮矮胖胖的貓。

  在這項計劃中，主人們要和寵物們一起進食，一起鍛煉，一起稱體重，而指導理論則是這種人和寵物親密無間的生活方式有助于雙方共同減肥。這項計劃對參加者的卡路里攝入量進行嚴格限定，此外還要求寵物和其主人每天一起進行30分鐘的鍛煉。

  如今尼蘭德和熊熊正準備共同努力，一起實現他們減肥的目標。

  尼蘭德說："我很喜歡帶著它（熊熊）出去散步，這對我來說誘惑無窮，而且對熊熊和我自己都有好處。"