RCIP is the abbreviation I’m using for something that is definitely not a diet. No sir, no way, it’s not a diet at all. Diet means, at least to me, that I’d deny myself parts of my life that I find highly enjoyable in the vain goal of looking better. Diets are what stick-thin people already do because “I have to lose that last 10 pounds” or “I’m sooo fat… I’m like 130!”. Diets are exercises in restraint with lofty dreams of future compliments.

RCIP, or a Reduced Calorie Intake Plan, is not a diet. It’s a choice I made 2.5 weeks ago, and it’s got absolutely nothing to do with looking better – it has everything to do with survival. You see, I simply can’t stay the weight I am now, or I’ll be dead sooner than I like. I’ve known this for some time, but over the last few months I’ve decided I care enough about it to do something. You see, diets are about controlling urges, RCIPs are about rejecting apathy.

So starts a new series of blog entries, for anyone who cares, which will talk about where I am, what I’m doing, and how I’m trying to lose weight to get down to a healthy size. Size is relative, because while I believe I can definitely lose fat around my midsection and on other parts of me, I doubt I’ll lose my broad shoulders, large hands, etc… And that’s fine – as long as I can look a MD in the eye and have them tell me that I’m doing alright weight wise, even if that weight is what some might think of as “fat”, I’m happy. I figure that’s somewhere between 200 – 250 for me, so my goal is to investigate it more fully once I get down to the upper bounds of that range. In the mean time, the goal is simple, lose weight quickly but safely.

I posted a few weeks ago that I knew my weight for the first time, and invited anyone who cared to ask me for it. Admittedly my first weigh-in was at the wrong time (i.e. it was just after dinner, fully clothed, etc..), but the number didn’t change much over the next few days. My starting weight was 419.2 lb on Friday, March 18, 2011. However for comparison and for the “official lb lost” count, I’m using 415.6 on Tuesday, March 22, 2011. Since that day I’ve lost 12 lb, taking me to this morning’s reading of 403.6.

I’ve been losing by counting calories (using both fitbit.com and myfitnesspal.com which has an infinitely better menu db), and using the fitbit tracker which has helped me see how many calories I’ve burned. I generally burn around 4k a day, and try to take in around 2500. A severe drop in what my body was getting, something I realize. However I do splurge on occasion (in fact tonight I’ll be visiting a favorite restaurant that I could “over do it” at, although I’m going to attempt not to!). Largely I’ve done nothing other than limit my calorie intake. My eventual goal is to incorporate exercise sometime this summer, although I want to get to a weight where the stress on my body isn’t as severe, perhaps around 360 lb.

So follow along if you’d like to keep track of my progress. Let me know tips if you have them, make comments if you’d like, etc… I hope to write on a number of topics over the next few months, including my thoughts on “control issues versus apathy”, caloric equilibrium, meal sizes/times, and more.