@basmith0702 I think we have at least one person who is not strictly following the food plan and I'm sure they'll chime in but I have a few questions for you.

1) Have you tried the 1300 food bracket?
If your answer is No, I would encourage you to follow the plan as it is designed. Beachbody hires experts and test markets their products before they ever reach the general public to ensure that the products work. And they do--from the workouts to the meal plans. So just try it and see what happens.

If your answer is Yes, I have another question for you.

2) Did you successfully lose weight?
If your answer is Yes then why are you wanting to change what works?
If your answer is No then I would say try eating only the top 1/3-2/3 of the food group lists so, for instance with the purple container, at the bottom there are figs and papaya but at the top you have berries and such. Also, Autumn suggests eating all of your yellows by lunch and your blues before dinner. That's something to bear in mind as you plan your meals.

If you firmly believe you need more calories to have success then by all means go up one bracket. But if you haven't fully committed to the program, I would say first give it a try as it is before trying to improve on it.

(Full Disclosure: I'm not experiencing success (and haven't been for while) in my food bracket so I will be moving up to a higher bracket. However, I am also doing 2 workouts, not just one, and sometimes throwing in a 30 minutes cardio at the end of my day so I'm exercising more than 30 minutes a day.)

I tracked my food carefully on MFP while following the 21DF a few months ago and my calorie count was often under 1200 until I realized it's because I wasn't always using the blue container and the teaspoons! Those fats are pretty important it seems. Make sure you get them in

When I bumped up to the higher food bracket, I gained weight so I have dropped back down to the lower food bracket again.

I tracked my meals because I too was curious as to what exactly my calories were looking like. If I ate exactly to the food plan then I usually hit right in the 1400-1800 bracket I was in. The big decider was whether or not I had all 4 servings of oils and nut butters. Those fats are obviously what give a majority of the cals, so on days I just didn't feel like having foods that involved those, I was closer to 1200. Other days I was closer to 1600. In the end, I didn't let the calorie count get to me too much. I decided that it's 21 days. If it works it works, if not, I know what I can change because I was tracking calories. I didn't go hungry and I lost weight so no changes were made. Go with what you body works best on. If you're feeling an energy lag, bump up the cals a little. If it's more of a mental thing, thinking you're eating too few but still feeling great and doing fine, I'd just stick with it. Your body is pretty good at telling you if it needs something And some days are just slower than others to where lower cals works out fine

Bumping this up. I just started the program and I am finding the food guidelines to be very limited. I am hungry! I entered a day's worth of container meals into MFP and came up with 1250 calories and yet I am supposed to be in the 1500-1799 range. I realize I need to eat less to lose weight but at 5'8 and with a fairly active job (on my feet a lot), and the workouts, 1250 is NOT enough food for me.

I'm still waiting for my kit to arrive. However I started looking at my calorie allowance and I'm in the 1200 bracket. Worried about going so low as I'm planning on doing my regular gym activities as well as the 21 day workouts. I don't have a lot of weight left to lose, just want to get rid of that skinny fat look. Suppose I'll just have to try it and see.

I use the containers for a different program (Hammer & Chisel) and have had no issues with the amount of food or calories- sometimes I find I'm on the lighter end of calories but always within the given calorie parameters. A friend of mine however, is weary because he's tracking his food on MFP and it consistently tells him he is well under 1000 calories UNDER what he should be. On 21Day Fix he's in the 2100-2300 cal. bracket. Any input on what/how he should tweak this? I'd love to see him stick with it and succeed!

So there is definitly a difference if you eat 3 green containers of baby spinach as a salad ( 7 cal per cup per MFP) or 3 green containers of sauteed bellpepper and onion (83 cal per cup per MFP) ...so yes..you can be low on calorie count but used all your containers. - that's my thought on it and I'm sticking to it ..haha...hope it helped a bit