I with you. I am on day 14 and have had to do a steak day once. I am thinking tomorrow might be another one because the scale is inching up again. I'll go about 3 to 4 days doing fine and then it starts crawling up. I am at 1.4 over LIW right now.

I know the Steak Day stays in our back pockets from here on out but what length of period signifies stabilization?

stabilization is not necessarily staying within 2# of your liw (although that's what you aim for initially)- some people stabilize 3-4# over their. the important part is that you stabilize somewhere- and wherever it is you "land", that you don't see big weight spikes when you eat something different. you should stay roughly within the same 2-3# range for a wk or two. but there is always normal weight variation, especially with women- so don't expect to stay right at the same number. being stable might look like this: 150, 149.4, 150.2, 151, 150.6, 149.8, 149.4, 150.2, etc.

Doing a steak day will certainly get your weight to drop, but frequently it is only water weight and your weight will go back up. Sometimes you don't have all that much control over where it wants to stabilize- you can bring it down with steak days or high-protein days, only to have it go back up. if that is happening, chances are that it would drop back down to some point on it's own when you're not retaining as much water. If you're still seeing jumps of 2# or more from one day to the other, chances are you're eating something that you have a sensitivity to.

Thanks mgsondance. I find P3 somewhat frustrating because my body doesn't seem to want to stablize at my LDW - both rounds I've done it's jumped to 3.5 above that, kind of like a sick joke!! I thing today should be my first day of P4, so I guess I'll add in a whole grain and see how the day goes (I won't mention the cookie I had this morning, OMG it was sooooo good!!!)

If anyone else could weigh in (no pun intended) on how they knew they were "stablized" I would appreciate it. What I love about this forum is that everyone has a different experience and is willing to share theirs. I've found a few folks who have had experiences that resonate with me, so THANK YOU to everyone who gives me some feedback.

I think P2 is easier too. I think it's because it's very defined and there are no chocies, you get what you get. If I could stablize within 1 pound of my last drop weight I'd be so happy. Seems like the last 3 pounds I lost were all for nothing, or maybe I need to know that the last 3 will just come back and I should get over it. Even though today should be day 1 of P4, I think I'll keep eating P3 for a few days.

I figured I finally reached the point my last round I felt stable when I was holding steady to right at my LIW to sometimes 1 pound or 1 1/2 pounds over. My last drop weight was 135 1/2 and about after a week into phase 3 I stayed there mostly. Some days I was 136, even 136 1/2 or 137, but then I'd come back down doing nothing different so I knew it was water weight. I kept doing that for the last 2 weeks of p3 & four weeks of p4 before I started my second round.