You use “cheat days” as a pressure valve. Is this strategic or undermining your progress?
The Short Answer
It depends on execution. For some, a planned weekly indulgence may head off the restriction-binge cycle that restraint theory describes: on that theory’s logic, a planned treat is not a broken rule. For others, “cheat day” becomes license for extreme overeating that can undo much of a week’s deficit in a single day. The concept itself isn’t good or bad: the implementation matters. Ask honestly: Does your cheat day leave you satisfied and ready to resume normal eating? Or does it become a binge that triggers guilt, bloating, and difficulty returning to normal? The answer tells you whether it’s strategic or self-sabotage.
Something to Sit With
What has actually happened on your recent cheat days?
Does the practice serve your goals, or does it undermine them?
What would happen if you had more flexibility daily and no cheat days?
Learn More
The Case For Planned Indulgence.
Cheat days can serve legitimate purposes:
Psychological relief. Knowing indulgence is coming reduces the sense of permanent deprivation that restraint theory places at the start of the restriction-binge cycle; the direction of cause there is the model’s account rather than a separate finding.[1]
Metabolic signal. Some evidence suggests occasional higher-calorie days may counteract metabolic adaptation from chronic deficits (though this is debated).
Hormonal signal. A short carbohydrate surplus raised leptin by about 28% in one overfeeding study, though a fat surplus did not. On Friedman’s lipostat model, which is contested, leptin signals full energy stores and dampens appetite.[2]
Social flexibility. Having a planned day for indulgence makes social events manageable without daily negotiation.
Sustainability. A pattern that includes occasional treats may be more maintainable long-term than pure restriction.
For people who can eat moderately on cheat days and return to normal eating after, this approach works.
The Case Against.
Cheat days become problems when:
“Cheat” becomes binge. What was planned as a relaxed meal becomes a 5,000-calorie day. One meal of pizza becomes an entire day of eating everything in sight.[3]
The math doesn’t work the way the tidy version says. A 500-calorie daily deficit is often described as a pound a week, and a single large surplus day as erasing it. The tidy version is already generous: expenditure adapts to intake rather than holding still, so the deficit side shrinks as you go and plateaus arrive earlier than a fixed calculation predicts.[4] The surplus side moves too: in one overfeeding study, extra carbohydrate raised 24-hour energy expenditure by about 7%.[2]
The psychology backfires. For some, permission to eat freely is followed by eating that does not stop where they meant it to: the pattern the restraint literature describes, on its own account of why.[1]
The term itself is problematic. “Cheating” implies wrongdoing, reinforcing the morality attached to eating that causes trouble in the first place.
Returning is difficult. If the day after a cheat day is consistently hard (intense cravings, difficulty returning to normal), the cheat is creating problems.
Honest Assessment.
Ask yourself:
What does a typical cheat day actually look like? Be specific. How many calories? What foods? How long does eating continue?
How do I feel afterward? Satisfied and ready to resume? Or bloated, guilty, and struggling for days?
Does the next day go smoothly? Can you return to normal eating easily? Or does the cheat day create momentum that’s hard to stop?
Is this a pressure release or an explosion? Does the valve release gradually, or does the pressure blow everything apart?
Am I using “cheat day” to avoid moderation? Sometimes the concept justifies extreme behavior that wouldn’t be acceptable otherwise.
Alternative Approaches.
If cheat days aren’t working, consider:
Controlled indulgences instead of cheat days. One piece of pizza, not a whole pizza. A dessert, not a dessert binge. Indulgence contained within otherwise normal eating.
More flexibility daily. If you need cheat days because normal eating is too restrictive, perhaps normal eating should be less restrictive.
Treat meals, not treat days. A planned treat meal limits damage more than an entire day of permission.
Remove the concept entirely. Some people do better with consistent eating than with cycles of restriction and permission.
The “Refeed” Alternative.
Some structured approaches use “refeed” days instead of cheat days:
Higher calories, but still controlled. An extra 500-1000 calories, not unlimited eating.
Focus on carbohydrates. In the overfeeding study, carbohydrate raised leptin and fat did not.[2]
Planned foods. Specific additions, not “anything goes.”
Still within structure. More eating, but not the abandonment of structure that “cheat day” implies.
This captures some benefits while limiting the damage potential.
Making Your Decision.
If you currently use cheat days:
Track what actually happens. Not what you intend, what you actually eat and how you actually feel.
Evaluate the evidence. Is this approach producing results, or is it undermining them?
Adjust accordingly. If it’s working, continue. If it’s not, modify or eliminate.
Further reading:
- Polivy J & Herman CP, “Dieting and binging: A causal analysis”[5] — American Psychologist, 1985
- Dirlewanger M et al., “Effects of short-term carbohydrate or fat overfeeding on energy expenditure and plasma leptin concentrations in healthy female subjects”[6] — International Journal of Obesity, 2000
- Fairburn CG, Overcoming Binge Eating[7] (2013) — On planned versus unplanned eating
Written by AI, directed and approved by me. How this is made →