Hi. I guess I found this site late in the game. I have been in phase 4 for about a month now, after losing 70 lbs in phase 1,2, & 3. The first week in phase 4, I was in Aruba, and managed to gain 12 lbs (mostly water weight), which quickly came off after a week of phase 1 & 2, right back down to my goal weight.

The next two weeks, I had my 2 cheat days. I was told to eat whatever I want, without any guilt, and then do a day of phase 1 to take the weight off. I have found that it has taken me 2 or 3 days of phase 1 to take the weight off from my cheat days. I am wondering if I am going a little overboard on the cheat days. After all, I was told to eat anything, without guilt, but I am thinking maybe I should start exerting some degree of control on my cheat days. Any advice?

I think you hit the nail on the head when you mentioned exerting some degree of control :-)

I was afraid somebody was going to tell me that. Lol. :-)

Welcome, however late. If I were you I'd go up to the second stickie at the top of the site and look for the Maintenance thread. Looks like this.

IP Maintenance Support:
Archive 1
IP Maintainers - Currently open for posting

This should help a great deal. And of course, join the thread. Nice job with the 70 pounds!

Thanks! I just spent the last hour going through the Maintainers threads. There was a lot of great info there.