By H.M. Cauley

For the AJC

Chef and restaurant owner Kevin Rathbun is a big guy. At 6-foot-5, he towers over most of his staff and customers. But as prominent as his presence is, there’s less of it now than there was a year ago.

At the end of 2008, Rathbun and three friends made a New Year’s wager to lose weight. Each one put up $250 with the understanding that the biggest loser would take the entire pot. Not only was Rathbun motivated by the money; he was also egged on by his bathroom scale.

“I was cresting at 400 [pounds], which was scary, actually,” said Rathbun, 47. “It was time to do something about it.”

Foodies who have followed Rathbun’s career through various Atlanta restaurants might remember that he’s fought the battle of the bulge before. (A photographer once captured him doing sit-ups on the mats behind the stove at the Buckhead Diner.)

“I have lost and gained four of me in my lifetime,” he said with a laugh. “I am the classic roller coaster dieter, for sure. It’s probably been 18 or 20 years since the last time I lost a lot of weight, and I was successful for a long time, but I didn’t keep it up. I’d also tried low-carb diets but was bored with not being able to eat pastas and bread. But now, I’m at that point where I want to be healthy and enjoy what I have.”

To beat his friends, Rathbun joined a Weight Watchers group and started a food diary on his iPhone. After a few months, he started walking, playing squash and basketball, and giving up the golf cart in favor of strolling. Eventually, he added weight training. He’s lost 120 pounds and has been maintaining that loss for the past several weeks.

“The four of us lost about 200 pounds together, but I lost the most,” he said. “My wife even started doing it with me and lost about 20 pounds. That was good motivation for me. We ate together and had all the right stuff around the house.”

Of course, being around food in his restaurants is an ongoing challenge. “When I do line-checks and tasting, I do just a little bit and spit it out,” he said. “It’s not a pretty thing, but you have to do it. Of course, tasting is one thing and ‘let me have a bowlful’ is another. I’ve also learned that you need a balance. I was never a true believer of the food pyramid, but it really does work. Everyone wants bread, cheese and protein.”

Along with exercising regularly, Rathbun keeps close tabs on his alcohol consumption.

“For the first two months of the diet, I didn’t drink, and I’ve vowed not to drink for the first three months of this year,” he said. “It’s a silent killer: When you have a few, you want to eat a greasy cheeseburger, and then you wake up and say, ‘I don’t want to work out today.’”

If there is one food that’s going to throw him off course, it’s bread.

“I’m not a dessert person,” he admits. “I like it, but I don’t crave it. But one of my favorite things is good, hot, fresh bread.”

The chef’s goal for 2010 is to drop another 40 pounds and to weigh in around 235.

“That’s a really good weight for me, and nobody trusts a skinny chef, so I’ve got to have a little meat. But I am really going to kick up the diet this month. And I’ll probably find somebody else to gamble with!”