Hello to everyone.  I am desperately looking for some help and I don't
know where else to turn.   Any advice would be greatly appreciated.  

My cat is 8 years old now and we have kept pretty much the same regime
since the day he came home 8 years ago.  I  have fed him at the same
time every day until recently.  I take him to the vet religiously on or
around the same date every year.  Every year he is pronounced healthy
with a good shiny coat of fur and nothing abnormal, not even a worm.  He
is an indoor cat who enjoys chasing after shadows and imaginary
creatures up and down the halls.  

Lately he has become very dependant upon me almost to the point where I
feel smothered.  He has also become VERY hungry.  Now that I type this I
realize that he has two types of hunger.  One is for attention, and the
other is for food.  This behaviour began about  six months ago.  What
happened just over six months ago?  Charlie and I moved out and began
living alone again.  It was just the two of us for the first four years
of his life, then or the next three we lived with other people, some of
whom had other cats.  Finally six months ago we resumed our original
lifestyle.  Yes, at the beginning Charlie did go through withdrawal, but
after a week he seemed to be back to his old self.

While we were living with the last person who had two cats I realized
that Charlie was putting on some weight.  I decided to cut his portion
by a 1/4 cup to a  1/2 cup per day.  The problem was that between 3 cats
they thought that they were having a twenty-four hour buffet.  I had to
separate his food from theirs and play the food police.   One of my
roommate's cats is a very big 22 pounder and Charlie hovers around
14lbs. or used to anyway.  Charlie did not seem to mind and most times
would still have food left over from his previous feeding even after the
cats were separated (while still in the same house).

A few months ago I woke up and discovered that all of the food in
Charlie's bowl was gone.  That is when I began to split the same portion
into two feedings per day.  Charlie would cry and cry for more food.  I
remember my ex-roommate saying that her vet told her that one must feed
their cat the amount of food for their goal weight, and not just rely on
the food to make the cat lose weight.  I stuck to my guns and decided to
then divide the same portion into 3, and feed him 3 times a day.  Well,
guess what?  Charlie is still hungry and he is not losing any weight.  I
once fed him a day and a halfs portion all at the same time, and he
never left the bowl until he had eaten the very last morsel.  I thought
"Okay, that should keep him until at least tonight", but on no!  Two
hours later there he was crying for food again.  This has become a daily
battle and I feel like I am abusing him.  I just don't want him to be
overweight and develop any problems.  I was just reading "What your cat
needs" by Liz Palika and even she says "If you are feeding your cat the
recommended amount and your cat is getting a little chubby, cut back on
her food a little".  Well I'll tell you, Charlie will not hear of it!  I
am feeding him prescription food from the vet and the portion that was
indicated on the back of the bag which I verified with the doctor.  

I know that this is very long so I will end here. Whaaat!? should I do?

~Dee~