Welcome to the rest of your life! You don't have to incorporate all the recommendations of this phase at once, but do the best you can. Consider the way you eat and exercise as a work in progress.

Maintain the changes you achieved in Phases 1 and 2, but add some "anything goes" calories—the chance to have foods you still hanker for. Everything you eliminated in Phase 2 is now allowable. Put "anything goes" calories toward "luxury foods" that are indulgent but still have something to offer, such as dark chocolate, full-fat cheese and yogurt, pizza with whole grain crust, or a glass of wine.

The number of calories you get per day depends on your activity level:

• Level 0: none
• Level 1: 100
• Level 2: 150
• Level 3: 210
• Level 4: 280
• Level 5: 300

Try to eat vegetables more than any other food group. Go easy on potatoes, corn and peas because they're as starchy (and about as caloric) as grains. Try to get beans into your diet a couple times a week—they are superfoods in terms of nutrition. At least two servings of fruit are recommended a day. Also, continue to replace refined grains with whole ones. Ideally, 75 percent of the grains in your diet will be whole.

As for sweets, eat fruit anytime. Otherwise, look at the packaging: All desserts and snacks containing more than 8 grams of sugar (2 teaspoons) per serving count as "anything goes" calories.

Getting to indulge in a few more of these extra calories may be one incentive to increase your activity level, which you should do again when you enter this phase. Exercise will help you maintain the weight loss you've achieved and allow you to eat more food without regaining. It will also help slow down the aging process. Weigh yourself no more than once a week and no less than once a month.