Liz Vaccariello - 400 calorie fix : the easy new rule for permanent weight loss!

To Mary Murcko, whose passion for the Prevention brand knows no bounds. Thank you to Bethridge Toovell and Lauren Paul for their early and tenacious enthusiasm (book it! book it! book it!). To Jenny Sucov, who showed me the lens. And to the lovely woman on my left and Steve Madden on my right, for their in-flight cover wisdom. But now I must go back to the beginningand acknowledge the inspiration of Prevention's brilliant creative director, Jill Armus, who loved Flat Belly Diet! and suggested a whole book of 400-calorie meals. Her vision for this project is reflected in every page of this gorgeous and infinitely useful book.

Endless gratitude to Andrea Au Levitt, who has kept 400 Calorie Fix so close to her heart and been a careful, caring steward of this project every step of the way. This book would not have been possible without her or her team, including Marielle Messing, Hope Clarke, Chris Krogermeier, Sara Cox, JoAnn Brader, Brooke Myers, Liz Krenos, and Jennifer Giandomenico. A zillion thanks to this project's unsung heroes: A huge shout out to Rebecca Simpson Steele, who made more than 700 pictures happen in 2 months; Katie Kackenmeister, who never met a calorie she couldn't count; Carol Angstadt, who ran photo shoots with one hand while marshalling production troops in two cities with the other; Kerrie Keegan and John Mok, who mastered the art of managing the art (among many other things!); David Bonom, who helped to develop the most delicious 400-calorie recipes ever; and Marlea Clark, who masterminded the 400 Calorie Fix extravaganzas. Thanks also to Leah McLaughlin for bringing us Mindy! And of course to Mindy Hermann, the fastest, smartest, most organized, and most good-natured coauthor a gal could ever havethanks for giving up your nights and weekends to the 400-calorie cause! We'd also like to extend our gratitude to our 400 Calorie Fix test panel, which was conducted in the summer of 2009. Thank you, Sandi (Fagan) Hill, Patti Robbins, Janet Sartorius, Donna Agajanian, Virginia Simpson, Judi Herrmann, Denise Bernstein, Gladys DiSisto, Melody Rubie, Bill Berkowsky, Jordan and Ronni Metzger, Francesca Minerva, Kristin Lewandowski, Helen Cannavale, and Lisa Frankel for providing us with the essential insights that helped us develop this book into a diet plan any type of eater could love. Thanks also to Alyssa Shaffer, Teresa Dumain, Diana Kelly, Marisa Bardach, Amanda Junker, Lisa Schnettler, and Deborah Wilburn, who've all touched and shaped this brand in many vital ways.

And to Elizabeth Goodman, Alyson Cameron, Jenelle Wagner, Sunny Stafford, Paul Kramer, and Will Pelkey for their timely assistance. As always, thanks to Courtenay Smith, Polly Chevalier, Jonathan Bigham, Fotoulla Euripidou, and Bill Stump for their counsel and wisdom around all things Prevention. And to the smartest photo and art team in the business, including Prevention's Helen Cannavale, Leah Vinluan, Maureen O'Brien, Jessica Sokol, Donna Agajanian, Mallory Craig, and Tiffany Lee. And finally a huge hug for the lovely Susan Graves for keeping me... heck, all of us... sane (and running on time).

I was in my late thirties and exercising a dozen hours a week, eating healthfully, and coming off a 7-year stint as a senior-level editor at a popular fitness magazine. I was intimately familiar with the major tenets of exercise, nutrition, and weight loss. After all, we informed and inspired millions of women every month, and I proudly lived the advice I doled out. I was strong, fit, full of energy. And yet. And yet I was also 10 pounds heavier than I wanted to be.

The more I exercised, the hungrier I was. And, because I exercised so much, I usually ate whatever food I wanted, in whatever amount satisfied me. I mostly ate healthy foodsfresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains, lean proteins, lots of fat-free milkso I didn't think to watch my portions too carefully. The trouble was, my laissez-faire attitude about the foodthe caloriesI was putting into my mouth meant I was gradually, stealthily gaining a pound or two a year. It wasn't anything to worry about, but the rising numbers on the scale were enough to make me look up one day and realize what an impact a little inattention to calories can have. It was my job to understand how to achieve a healthy weight, and yet the pounds crept up even on me! I could easily imagine the frustration of people whose lives didn't revolve around health.

Then I came upon this statistic: In 2007 the average American consumed close to 2,800 calories per day. In 1970 it was 2,200 calories per day. That 600-calorie difference might not seem like a lot, but eating an extra 500 calories a day can translate into 1 pound of extra fat per week! Most of us don't gain a pound a week (52 pounds in a year is pretty extreme), but putting on an extra 2 or 5 or 10 is pretty common. And it's why so many of us look up one day and think, Where did this weight come from?

They are bigger everywhere, as pointed out by Brian Wansink, PhD, Cornell University professor and researcher, whose revealing work shows that when packages, plates, and portions are larger, we eat more. It's bad news, then, that our plates and bowls have gotten about 36 percent bigger since 1960, Making your own meals is usually healthier than eating takeout, but even your cookbook may not be as slimming as you think. Classic cookbooks like The Joy of Cooking have upsized: A recent study found a 42 percent increase in recipe portion size and a 170-calorie increase per serving since 1931. Wait. There's more. Like so many Americans, I was raised by clean-your-plate parents who applauded the finished dinner and scorned the untouched serving.

And like many of us, I've been finishing everything that was in front of me ever since, thanks to this sense of duty, my own frugal-minded distaste of waste, and sometimes even boredom or mindless eating. What I didn't realize was that all that extra food shouldn't have been there in the first place. It shouldn't have been there at my first apartment, where I piled pasta onto my oversize Pottery Barn plates, whose massive circumference tricked my eye into serving way more than I needed. Nor should it have been there at my favorite restaurants. Restaurant portions are nearly double (or triple) what they used to be, with some meals clocking in at upwards of 1,500 calories, close to what most people need for an entire day. Finallyand here's the real rubit doesn't help that so few of us know how many calories we need, let alone how many we are putting into our mouths.