How much to feed a 170 lb dog: puppy under 4 months, food at 400 kcal per cup

Daily food

13.66cups a day

5,465 kcal for a 170 lb dog — puppy under 4 months, food at 400 kcal/cup

Daily calories	5,465kcal
Cups per dayat 400 kcal per cup	13.66cups
Twice a dayper meal	6.83cups
Three times a dayper meal	4.55cups
Resting energy (RER)70 × 77.1 kg^0.75 — what a dog burns doing nothing	1,822kcal
Activity multipliergrowth — three times resting needs	× 3
Body weight170 lb	77.1kg

Body weight: 170 lb
Life stage: puppy under 4 months
Food energy: 400 kcal/cup

The formula, and why the bag disagrees

Resting energy is not proportional to body weight. The veterinary formula is

RER = 70 × (weight in kg)0.75

That exponent is the whole story. A 170 lb dog needs 1,822 kcal at rest, and a working figure of 5,465 kcal a day once the ×3 multiplier for puppy under 4 months is applied — 13.66 cups at 400 kcal per cup.

Scaling in a straight line from a 20 lb dog would say 23.33 cups: 71% off. Feeding charts printed on bags interpolate linearly, which is why large dogs fed off the bag tend to end up heavy.

Check the calories on your bag

Dry food runs roughly 300 to 500 kcal per cup depending on brand and formula. The same "two cups" can therefore be a third more or less food than intended. The figure is on the bag, usually in small print near the guaranteed analysis, and it is the single most useful number on the packaging.

Meals

At 13.66 cups a day that is 6.83 cups twice a day, or 4.55 cups three times. Deep-chested breeds do better on smaller, more frequent meals.

Treats count, and they are the usual culprit

Treats should stay under 10% of the daily total — 546 kcal here. That is less than most people expect, and it is the common reason a carefully measured bowl still produces an overweight dog.

Where this page stops

This is arithmetic for a healthy adult dog, not medical advice. Puppies of large breeds, pregnant or nursing dogs, and any dog with kidney, heart, pancreatic or endocrine disease need a plan from a vet, and weight-loss diets should be supervised — dogs that lose weight too fast can develop serious liver problems.

Notes

Calories do not scale with weight. The exponent is 0.75, not 1 — a 170 lb dog needs 13.66 cups, but scaling straight up from a 20 lb dog would say 23.33 cups, 71% too much. Feeding charts printed on the bag usually interpolate in a straight line, which is why big dogs on them get overfed.
Check the kcal per cup on your bag. It ranges from about 300 to 500 across brands, so the same "two cups" can be a third more or less food. The figure is on the bag, usually in small print near the guaranteed analysis.
The ×3 multiplier is for genuine sustained work — a sled dog, a herding dog on a farm, a dog running with you daily for hours. A long walk is not it, and using this multiplier for an ordinary pet is the fastest route to an overweight dog.
Healthy adult dogs only. Puppies of large breeds, pregnant or nursing dogs, and any dog with kidney, heart, pancreatic or endocrine disease need a plan from a vet — the calorie figure is the least important part of those diets.
Treats count. They should stay under 10% of the daily total, which is 546 kcal here — less than most people think, and the usual reason a carefully measured bowl still leads to a heavy dog.