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Have you tried a laser pointer? Even cats who don't like toys usually like the laser pointer.
Also, are you feeding her high quality food? That can make a big difference. Friskies and the like have a lot of fillers and such while the high quality stuff has lots of protien.
I would ask your vet about the safest way to go about this.
I know from experience that trying to put your cat on a diet without instruction from your vet can be harmful for your kitty! My old roommate adopted a 20lbs cat from a friend who couldn't take care of him anymore. Upon arrival to our apartment, my roommate decided to immediately put this cat on a diet- A handful of food in the morning, a handful at night. Not only was this cat a grazer all his life (he was 8 years old at the time), but he thought he was starving all day. Every time my roommate fed him, he'd eat it as fast as he could and then proceed to get sick from it. :( Poor cat.
Best of luck with your kitty diet. :)
Edit- I changed the food from "one cup" to "a handful" because really, he never measured it out and that's a closer estimate than a whole cup of food.
Aww I love fatty cats! Love to sqeeze them! But seriously priobably not healthy, I say cut down food intake.
Are you sure the fat cat can't reach the other cat's food? We have had to actually watch our cats eat their whole meals to be sure that each one is getting properly fed. It's tedious, but necessary.
I would recommend setting up a play area for the cats - our 5 yr old cat was looking bored last week, meowing at us and silently judging us for not getting on our hands and knees for the whole night to play with him, haha. I put two kitchen chairs 2 ft from each other, and pulled over the cats' carpeted perch and threw a queen sized sheet over all three, tucking the sheet in as best i could. I wanted it to stay up like a tent, but collapse if some pressure was on it and not wreck everything. I brought over a body pillow, laundry basket, scratching box, and a couple of nip covered toys and let them go at it - they play in this thing for HOURS. They run and hide in it, circle around, stalk, etc. Then they get to the point where they want to jump on the sheet and bring it down. Then they'll fight through the sheet and hide from the other. It's hilarious to watch, and it's a good work out for the cats. Ours are 5 and 1.5-2 years old. Move some furniture around and you'll see that they are more active than usual - cats hate/love when things change in the house.
I agree with hotchild about the laser pointer. If your cat responds to them, they are great! Also, they make a lot of foods that are specifically designed for weight loss. Sometimes an animal needs to lose a little weight before they feel up to exercising and weight loss food can help with this.
Just like our food, make sure to read the labels of what you are feeding him. Dry food usually has a ton of carbs in it that cats bodies don't need. If you look for food that is high in proteins and goodness then he will eat less because he isn't being stuffed full of filler that doesn't give them any nutritional value just fat. Our vet had us actually make his own food for a while until he got down to a healthy weight. It was pretty much baked chicken in a food processor but you can find other recipes out there.
My vet suggested putting a birdfeeder outside to get our 20 pound cat interested and moving- he scurries back and forth betweent he windows. Like the other posters, i also recommend the laser pointer. Of course, my advice may not be worth too much since my cat is still GINORMOUS.
starbag22.jpg (63.2 KB, 36 downloads) 2 years old
Meet Grady. my old roommate's 31 lb siamese. Three vets and various specialized foods could not explain or help his massive girth. We tried the lasar pointer to get him to exercise, and she even got him a leash to go for walks. He's just a FAT CAT=)
@twalila, CUTE CAT!!! I always wanted a cat but my SO is allergic:( I never knew cats can get that big!
@twalia- holy cow i'm sitting at my desk at work cracking UP. That cat is as big as my corgi (seriously. he's 31 pounds). Did she get him that big? was he a monster of a kitten?
OMG, that cat is the size of a dog! I thought my 17 pound fatty was a beast!
Oh man I know it is lame to have one of these in your house but get a cat tree. We LOVE ours, our cats have seriosuly lost weight and gotten more muscles by pulling themselves up and down on it. In addition, they nap on the top two levels a lot, which is totally out of our way, and have really almost stopped clawing the furniture. It has saved us in our small apartment.
catfurniture_cathammock_m.jpg (53.2 KB, 36 downloads) 2 years old 
i think one of my cats is really fat too but compare to other cats i think he is pretty average. i took him to the vet and the vet said he is fat but is healthy. i love him so much.
Meet my 23 pounds cat; and my other 20 pounds cat!!
We give them very little food, and split it in portions throughout the day, yet nothing seems to work for these two...
Chinook.jpg (41 KB, 31 downloads) 2 years old Nelson.JPG (88.3 KB, 28 downloads) 2 years old 
I currently feed them both Blue Buffalo Indoor formula dry food. We have always used a measuring cup to feed them exactly 1/4 cup per meal, two meals per day. We only recently discovered that our younger (and healthy weight) cat stops eating, leaving food in the bowl. And our fat finishes all of hers then jumps down to eat the rest of the other cat's food. We are pretty sure it's been going on since we got them both, but we never noticed before. (Bad kitty mommy, I know!) So she's getting VERY high quality food, in the proper amount, and any less and she starts scavenging (i.e. tipping over the garbage, licking the dishes, etc).
Now we keep the little kitty's food on the countertop next to the sink. Only little kitty can jump that high. Fat kitty can't jump much at all, so we know she can't get to it, even if she REALLY wanted to, LOL.
I will try the laser pointer, we have one, but I put it away when we got our dog so he wouldn't become neurotic. I also talked to the vet about it, and she said we're giving her the proper amount of food, and we should just get her to exercise to lean down.
My dad had problems with my old kitty gaining a bunch of weight. He switched him to some kind of tuna stuff that is sold at Trader Joes' (he also has diabetes so the regular food isn't good for him because it's mostly carbs). He lost about 5 lbs on the food and is now down to about 15 (which is good for his body because he is a big cat).
@mighty - that's it, right there. Big cat has probably been skimming food for so long that the pounds have packed on. This was definitely the case with our cats. We watch them closely now, and their weight is becoming more balanced and they're noticibly more healthy. it's a pain to watch them eat every meal, but whatever, if they live longer, happier lives, then I'm happier for it too.
@Mighty - My aunt and uncle had the same problem, one cat needed to gain weight and the other needed to lose some. Similarly to your counter trick, they put a cat door into their laundry room that only the skinny cat could fit through. Inside the little cat had free choice but the big guy had to make do with just his little portions twice a day.
Get her off the kibble! My family cat got diabetes at a relatively early age. Our girl, Zoey, was obsessed with her dry food and on track to get diabetes herself (our vet warned us.)
So we did research. Lots of it. And guess what? They put NASTY things in most kibble. Newspapers, feet and other unsavory parts of animals including the hair, and tons of chemicals for color that have been proven to be horrible for animals. They often brag about things like so many veggies, etc, but really cats don't need many veggies if any - they need lean meat.
Unfortunately, there is no FDA for animals. They don't get the same sort of rights that people do. Pet owners try to do the right thing and feed name brands, and even if they read the ingredient list they have no way of knowing what "chicken meal" really is in most cases.
The low-end canned food isn't usually great, either. One cheap solution is to make the food yourself. Alnutrin is what we make for R's parent's 18 year old cat who has hyperthyroidism. It has made a world of difference for her. It is kind of nasty, though, you have to blend raw chicken and chicken livers up with it.
We feed our girls Wellness, because it's easier. They looooove the chicken flavor. They made the transition to only wet food and it's great - they moderate their own eating. At first they were in the habit of gorging on the dry food, since it has so many additives, and they'd eat as much as we fed them. But now they eat about half their plate, and then snack throughout the day. They love it, but they're not constantly begging for food, and Zoey went from an unhealthy 15 pounds to a healthy 11 pounds.
Sorry for the novel! It's such an important subject to me.
ETA: Zoey herself!
@twalila-The look on that cats face made me lol! So priceless (WHY ARE YOU HOLDING ME?!?!?!?!).
@lilyfaith: Glad you're so passionate! I always appreciate that! Blue Buffalo is actually one of the healthiest foods you can feed your animal besides raw. They don't add any corn, wheat, soy, or "byproduct" to their food. My DH's best man watched the cats while we were on our honeymoon and he switched them to Meow Mix. The threw up nearly every meal and had TERRIBLE hairballs because their fur was just falling out like crazy! We changed their food back, and now they are back to their regular selves with shiny soft fur and NO hairballs! (My vet thought they were part persian, LOL.)
I think I'll switch to the diet formula, and see if she likes the laser pointer too...I'll let you guys know if it helps!
Maybe the weather? I thinks cats are more likely to layer on fat if they are cold bc their body temps are actually a few degrees higher than us and we always set room temp. to what is comfy for us. I always thought my cat was fat and then we shaved her last summer and she was actually slim but when you feel her belly now, after a long winter, it's all firm again. She never plays, we've tried a lot, even chasing after her toys for her, but she wrestles our new little one, I guess she has lost weight just from dispising him!
I just had this conversation with my vet a couple of weeks ago! She reccomended that we feed our cat wet food once a day. She said that cats do not need all of the carbs that in the dry food. She also suggested buying a dry diet cat food and mixing with the normal dy food. We are now feeding our two cats wet food in the morning and they love it!
Our vet also suggested that we not leave food out at all times for our cats. We don't anyways, but if you do maybe you should implement two meals times and no more food than that!
Good luck!
P.S. Our cats love toys that are not cat toys. Cardboard boxes are awesome, packing paper is cool, plastic mardi gras beads make them happy, an old piece of string is great etc...
Behold Kurby, our 26-pounder. :) His vet says that he is actually pretty healthy (strong teeth, no diabetes, etc) but I've always wondered about putting him on a diet, if only to help him get around better. Thanks for all the info you gals have shared! I'll look into it more closely and talk to his vet about it on his next check-up.
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Beekeeper
My 7 year old cat is fat. She's 14lbs and should weigh more like 10. She doesn't play with toys, and only sometimes will rough house with our other cat. She doesn't take to catnip like our other druggie cat either. Does anyone have any suggestions on how I can slim her down?
The obvious answer would be to cut down her food, but she's already on 1/4 cup per meal as recommended by the vet. We've caught her eating her sister's food, so now we guard the food or put it where she can't reach it (but her sister can).