13 Cheat Meals Help You Burn More Calories

“This is a hot topic now,” says Roberts. It’s true that dieting for an extended period can cause your metabolism to slow. Cheat meals – or even cheat weeks – have been proposed as a way to prevent this. That could mean bringing your calorie intake up to maintenance levels (hardly cheating), or even introducing a surplus. “For the period when you’re refeeding, your metabolic rate might be restored,” says Roberts, “but studies suggest that it will fall again when you return to the diet.”

That’s not to say that boosting your calorie intake is of no benefit, however. A recent study noted that a break decreased “diet fatigue” – the boredom of being deprived of your favourite foods – “so it may help people adhere to an eating plan, and therefore see more weight loss”.

Eat Healthyish –