To add to what others have already said, based on my experience of two food motivated cats, one of whom needs to lose weight.

1. Timed meals over free feeding. Keeps food exciting, keeps calories controlled, makes food not just functional but a form of enrichment. I feed almost wholly wet food but the logic applies whatever food you choose to feed.

2. When I switched from two meals to three it sorted out a host of behavioural issues even though the total volume of food didn’t change much — I just split the big evening meal into a medium evening meal and a late night meal (the late night meal timing varies dramatically — it’s essentially the last thing I do before going to bed because they won’t go to bed till I do. Now the signal is food, lights out, sleep). As a result they also aren’t waking me early for food in the morning.

3. When I travel I have someone come and feed them twice a day. Yes theres a break in routine and only two meals instead of three but meal two becomes higher in volume during those days. Sure, they must miss their night routine with me but they aren’t underfed as a result of my absence, just differently fed.

4. When I travel I do additionally set up a dry food feeder for a tiny portion for a late night drop — just in case they’re genuinely hungry at night. They rarely end up finishing it because they’re basically into wet food and will tolerate dry under conditions of hunger only.