Hungry Girl Snacks Her Way to Success

By Kat Ahn on April 24th, 2009

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Lisa Lillien loves food.  Actually, she loves to snack and prefers that the food she eats is delicious, but still lets her fit into her skinny jeans. (Don’t we all?)

She’s best known as Hungry Girl, a cartoon character, that gives readers diet tips on the best, tasty snack foods that are out there from low-fat doughnuts to low-carb ice creams.  Let’s not forget the fun way that she writes as well as the cartoon character that gives you tips on topics such as  which baked chip tastes best.

Lillien is a former TV producer who lost 25 pounds 8 years ago and then started to send out her recipe/diet tips to friends.  Soonafter, the character of Hungry Girl was born and she has almost 700,000 subscribers to her health-filled e-mails.  The intriguing aspect about Hungry Girl is that she speaks the language of an American pasttime which is snacking.  From chips, cookies, fruit snacks to cupcakes, the Hungry Girl talks about which ones can provide the best caloric bang for your buck.

Her book, “Hungry Girl: Recipes and Survival Strategies for Guilt-Free Eating in the Real World,” is a best-seller and her newest book “Hungry Girl 200 Under 200: 200 Recipes Under 200 Calories,” will debut at No. 1 on the New York Times bestseller list May 3.

Her influence on snack foods is huge, but is she swayed by the tons and tons of free products that she now receives on a daily basis?  Lillien says she’s true to her own tastebuds and that’s only what she’ll promote saying, “I know exactly what people will like.  I just know. I’m that way. When I taste something, I can say, ‘You know what? I like it okay, but only 20 percent of the people will like it,’ or ‘If I really like it, then 99 percent of people will like it, too.”

I’m hungry.