It is important to remember that there are 2 stages to the diet. During the first stage you lose weight at a rate of 1–2 pounds a week until you reach your goal weight. During the second stage—the maintenance stage—you neither gain nor lose weight, but maintain a stable weight.
Included below are 2 different three week meal plans. The first plan is a 1200 calories a day plan (for weight loss), and the second plan is a 2000 calories a day plan (for weight maintenance). Feel free to modify these plans. They are meant to give you an idea of the sorts of foods you can eat, but you can eat different foods—just make sure they have a low caloric density!
For example, suppose you are on the Thursday afternoon of week 2 of the 1200 calories a day plan (for weight loss). The recommended afternoon snack is nonfat yogurt with fruit, which contains 213 calories. But you don’t like yogurt, you like cottage cheese. Then by all means substitute a cup of nonfat cottage cheese (123 calories) and 1⁄2 a cup of blueberries (41 calories) for the yogurt.
Just make sure to substitute items that have a similar number of calories. What’s important is that the total number of calories for the day is about the same, that the foods all have a low caloric density, and that you space the calories out through the course of the day. (Don’t have 1000 calories for breakfast and 200 calories for the rest of the day—you’ll get hungry.)
Feel free to look through the tables in this book to help you make substitutions—the tables show the caloric density and number of calories of practically every food known to man.
Please note that the number of calories listed for each food is from the USDA.338,339,340

The 1200 Calories a Day Plan (for Weight Loss)

Start off by following the meal plans—each is about 1200 calories a day.
If you are losing 1–2 pounds a week, 1200 calories is just right—stick with the 1200 calories
meal plan.
If you are losing less than 1 pound a week, you need to eat less than 1200 calories. The easiest way to do this is to decrease your portion size gradually.
If you are losing more than 2 pounds a week, you are losing weight too quickly. The easiest way to do this is to increase your portion size gradually.