400 Calorie Fix

The crew at Prevention Magazine have been the source of some gimmicky diet programs in the past (The Peanut Butter Diet, The Ice Cream Diet), but here they’re actually onto something practical and realistic. As the title suggests, it’s pretty simple: eat 3 or 4 meals a day in 400 calorie portions to lose weight.

The 400 Calorie Fix was authored by Prevention’s Liz Vaccariello. The fundamentals of this portion/calorie controlled diet are consuming a maximum 1600 calories a day, in 400 calorie, small meal increments. The book contains dietary guidelines: Red Star meals are rich in monounsaturated fats (olive oil, avocado, Mediterranean diet stuff) - which contribute to raising good cholesterol. Orange Star meals are fiber-rich - each recipe contains at least seven grams – which curb appetite by making you feel fuller, and aid in digestion. Blue Star meals are protein rich - twenty grams or more per recipe – which also curb appetite by creating feelings of fullness, and build and maintain muscle. Lastly, Green Star meals feature at least a cup-sized serving of fruits and vegetables (for obvious reasons).

Vaccariello instructs you to eat one meal from each group a day, keeping you at 1600 calories max while doing your best to meet proper nutritional needs. This is all well and good, but it’s also important to note that the book also indicates that you can choose to plan your own meals, choosing your own favorite foods, provided you don’t exceed 1600 calories a day. This is acceptable, will not impact your ability to lose weight, and in will obviously make it easier for you to stick with this program, but bear in mind that you may find yourself nutritionally deficient on a number of levels.

Dieters will find that the book contains the very useful feature of pictures of meals, which both aids in learning to measure portion sizes by eye, and encourages cooking with the recipes provided. Vaccariello’s aim is to get you to become so accustomed to 400 calorie meals, that eventually you’ll be able to easily determine how many calories you're eating without needing to weigh or measure your foods.

If there is one complaint about this program, it’s that the importance of exercise isn't stressed nearly enough. You will lose weight on a reduced calorie diet, but you will lose more weight if you are exercising at the same time. Furthermore, though you may have lofty notions of staying on a 1600 calorie per day diet forever, it is totally unrealistic to think that you will not slip from time to time. And so what if you do – because you will keep the weight you lost off, or not gain much, if any, more - if you are exercising regularly.

Still, this is a good weight loss program overall. It’s not overly complicated or reliant on supplements. More importantly, it’s not too drastic in its calorie reduction, or its specific food requirements – making it practical and realistic. Eating 4 smaller meals in a day should be enough to keep you feeling even-keeled and not hungry, and if you have problems with digestion you may find the smaller meals strategy can combat it effectively. Combine this program with regular exercise and you have a winning combination for weight loss and weight maintenance.