Cheat Meals: Healthy Fat Loss Strategy or Disordered Eating?

Send us Fan Mail Cheat meals are one of the most common strategies in the fitness and dieting world. The idea is simple: eat “clean” all week, stick to your diet, and then give yourself permission to eat whatever you want for one meal—or even an entire day. But do cheat meals actually help with fat loss? Do they boost your metabolism, prevent metabolic adaptation, make dieting easier to stick to, or provide some other physiological benefit? Or are we giving them far more credit than the evid...