Dr Atkins tells us in DANDR to make sure we have moved to the third phase, premaintenance when we still have 5-10 pounds of weight to lose and lose those almost imperceptively (very sloooowly) in order to be able to keep them off once we move to maintenance eating.

So in order to be able to conduct the great OWL experiment where you test your body's reactions to adding the different foods you need to move to OWL a fair time before you are at those last few pounds!!