Start with what a fit Van actually looks like
The Turkish Van is a substantial, athletic cat — broad-chested, strong-boned, and famously slow to mature, with males in particular becoming large, powerful adults under a semi-long coat patterned mainly on the head and tail. That substance misleads owners in both directions: a fit Van can look huge, and an overweight Van can be excused as just a big cat. The distinction lives in shape and feel, not in the headline number on the scale. A fit Van carries a defined waist and lean muscle over the shoulders and hindquarters; a cat gaining fat loses that definition while the scale quietly climbs.
Rib feel and waist on a broad-chested cat
Run your palms along his ribcage behind the shoulders. On a muscular Van you will feel ribs under a thin-to-moderate layer, and the chest will feel firm rather than spongy. If you have to push firmly to find ribs, or the whole torso feels uniformly padded, fat is covering the frame. From above, look past the broad chest: the body should still narrow behind the ribs before the hips. A back that looks like a flat, wide table with no narrowing is a classic gain sign in this breed. From the side, check for a tuck where the belly rises toward the hind legs; a belly that hangs level, swings heavily when he trots, or rests low between the legs points to fat rather than the loose primordial pouch many cats carry.
Activity changes that back up the hands-on check
Vans are energetic, agile cats that typically love climbing, playing hard, and exploring high routes. A cat who once cleared tall furniture in one bound but now hesitates, takes intermediate stops, pants after short play, or sleeps through sessions he used to demand may be telling you his joints and stamina are carrying more than they should. Compare current behaviour with his own younger baseline, not with a quieter breed's habits — for a Van, a drop in that trademark athletic enthusiasm is an early and useful weight clue.
Weighing and when to involve your vet
Weigh him monthly using the hold-and-subtract method or a pet scale, and record the figure with what he is eating, including treats and any food stolen from other pets — Vans are clever, and multi-pet free-feeding is a common hidden source. See your vet if ribs are hard to find, the waist has gone, weight keeps rising across two or three monthly checks, or he shows new breathing effort, grooming difficulty, or reluctance to jump. A vet can score his body condition against his individual frame, rule out medical contributors to gain, and set a gradual target — important because rapid food restriction is unsafe for cats of any size.
A record that respects the breed's build
Because a Van's healthy weight is so individual, a personal history beats any generic chart. Keeping his weights, condition checks, and diet notes together in KinsLe's Pet Passport lets your vet judge him against his own muscular baseline instead of a one-size range.