I am also interested in this!

I have not followed the meal plan but have maintained about 1200-1400 calories a day. I don't usually eat back my exercise calories. I have only completed phase 1, but so far am down 8 lbs and 5 inches.

GREAT JOB!

I am starting to see results but I cannot follow the food plans due to my IBS and tons of food intolerances. I have not lost weight but I know I have lost inches since my clothes are starting to fit better. I have vanity pounds as Jillian Michaels refers to...so I dont have a lot to lose. I have 10-15 pounds I am trying to burn off. I try to stay with in 1200 calories a day and have been lowering my sugar intake. I am currently on the start of Phase 2 and I believe I have lost about 1-2 pounds.

I have not been following the meal plan but I've taken lots of advice from other posters on MFP and have been eating just above my BMR which is 1400. I've set my daily calories on MFP to 1450 but usually eat back a lot of my exercise calories if it's a workout day.

Having lost weight quickly in the past by eating way less than I should ahve been I'm trying to do it the right way this time. You WILL lose a lot of weight if you eat 1000-1200 calories per day but it will all be water and muscle and you'll end up 'skinny fat' like I did. I weighed 122 lbs at my lightest but I was weak and hungry a lot of the time! I also had a very high body fat % and looked horrible in a bikini even though I was small and wore a size 8 (UK) or 4 (US).

I don't expect to put on muscle as I'm still eating at a defeceit (my TDEE is 1680 without exercise) so as long as I eat under that I know I will lose weight. By following BR I am hoping that I'll be able to maintain muschle and lose fat instead of muscle/water which is what the advice on here suggests.

I am currently reading Jillian's book about diet and metabolism and in that book she basically says that people who are active and work out should be eating around 1600-2000 calories per day and I am basically eating about 1600 on workout days so I'm within that range.

So far I've lost 3 lbs, the first lb I lose by eating low calories and my body fat didn't change but the other 2 lbs I've lost since increasing calories as well as some body fat (1-2%) and I've also seen a little inch loss. I'd therefore definitely recommend doing the maths to figure out your BMR and TDEE and then eat 15-20% below your TDEE which working out plus workout calories added back. I calculated my TDEE based on being sedentary as I sit down all day and work from home.

Don't be scared to increase your calories, it might take a few weeks for your body to adjust but when I did it I found that at first my weight loss stalled and I stayed the same but now I've started losing again.

I should also add that I've been doing extra cardio too, not every day but around 3 days per week when I have time to try and speed up my weight loss too. Today I did Jillian's Yoga Meltdown as it was a cardio day so I did her cardio dvd (workout 1) first and then the yoga workout 1

i didnt follow the food plan at all really, save for a few ideas for snacks and salmon but i kept my calories between 1300-1800 (it varied because i realized in phase 2 i wasnt eating enough) and lost about 25lbs and 2 dress sizes. as long as you are eating enough to fuel your workouts (above BRM at the very least) and eating at a deficit, you will lose.

I'm doing 1200-1300 cals and don't eat back cals. I don't follow the meal b/c I am a veg and I have very little time to prepare anything right now that isn't super quick and easy (but still healthy).