IMO, a ‘cheat meal’ is when the food gates are so wide open that you vomit your guts out…

…or at least get dizzy of biblical proportions:

Hang on, this study told me that a ‘cheat meal’ is a single ad libitum meal (read: eating as much food as you want) without specific calorie or macro-/micronutrient targets. In other words, no restrictions on what and how much you can eat.

You may say Ok, but why would you do it? Well, 97 reasons for that. 3 to be more precise:

When you’re trying to lose weight, your metabolism slows down due to metabolic adaptation. Creating a large surplus of calories would stop that from happening. Ripped boyz on Reddit would say you keep your metabolism guessing.
Leptin levels. And just what the duck is leptin? Chill out, man. Let me finish. Leptin is a hormone that controls metabolic rate, appetite, that sorta thing. When you diet, leptin levels drop, making hunger control more challenging. Having a ‘cheat meal’ should normalize leptin levels and make dieting easier.
‘Mental break’ break from dieting. Sticking to a calorie deficit isn’t something you’d like to do on your own free will. It sucks, sucks beyond words. So, from a psychological perspective, a ‘cheat meal’ can offer you a ‘mental break’ from strict dieting. A reward for sustaining a commitment to your fitness goals.

Lucky for us, we don’t need to fall for this mambo-jumbo pseudoscience because the previously mentioned 2025 study investigated the physiological and psychological effects of ‘cheat meals.’

Researchers investigated whether ‘cheat meals’ actually offer any benefits to weight loss, metabolism, and psychological well-being. They reviewed 8 relevant studies:

Results? Well, the study found that ‘cheat meals’ didn’t interfere with weight loss. Eating an unlimited amount of food didn’t wipe out the entire calorie deficit that was created before. Which means that if this eating spree doesn’t erase your overall calorie deficit at the end of the week, you’ll lose weight. Calorie deficit always works.

What about a metabolism boost? Leptin? In their words,

If you eat a meal for a party of construction workers at one sitting, your metabolism will increase, but mainly due to an increased thermic effect of food (your body burns more calories digesting all the extra calories you consumed) and an increase in non-exercise activity thermogenesis, aka NEAT (people tend to move more after overfeeding).

The same goes for leptin changes — the effects of acute overfeeding on changes in leptin levels are short-lived. Once you go back to eating in a calorie deficit, leptin will return to where it was before you had a ‘cheat meal.’ As Eric Trexler has explained in this article,

So the whole logic behind having a ‘cheat meal’ is shaky to say the least.

But the biggest reason why ‘cheat meals’ are killing your progress is related to the psychological aspect — a ‘cheat meal’ overlaps with binge eating. Researchers found 3 studies showing a possible link between cheat meals and disordered eating. One study…

…analysed a boatload of images — 1.6 million images to be exact — with #cheatmeals on social media and revealed that more than half contained portions of food that represented ‘a volume of food consistent with an objective binge episode’. Some meals contained as many as 9,000 kcal. Seeing that much food would bring tears of pleasure for someone living in Kenya.

When a ‘cheat meal’ turns into a huge binge like that, it can easily trigger cycles of overeating, guilt, shame, and even stricter dietary restriction and increased exercise afterward. No wonder I received this question when I did Instagram Q&A:

It’s because the term ‘cheat meal’ implies you’re engaging in a taboo activity, which implies guilt. Looking at any food as ‘cheating’ takes the joy out of eating. In fact, by classifying certain foods as ‘cheat’ foods, you label those foods as ‘bad’ or ‘unhealthy’, which can lead to an unhealthy relationship with food.

Is there anything you could do instead?

Yes. But keep in mind that whatever you choose to do needs to be accounted for. A ‘cheat meal’ is typically untracked. It’s a free meal. A free pass to eat as much as you want because you deserved it. It doesn’t matter. Oh, it does matter.

Engaging in mindless episodes of unplanned and excessive eating is dangerously close to what we call disordered fecking eating. So, a few things I recommend to my clients:

Allow more flexibility for weekdays

People tend to avoid foods that they think are ‘bad’, only to eat more food than some Kenyan villagers eat in a lifetime. Having a little bit of ‘fun foods’ every so often removes the need to ‘cheat’.

If your daily calorie budget is 1,500 calories, feel free to use ~20% of that for anything you like. 300 calories won’t get you the whole cheesecake, but it’ll allow you to have something that would keep deprivation at bay and make dieting more sustainable long-term.

Non-linear dieting/planned hedonic deviation

In this scenario, you have lower- and higher-calorie days. Your calorie intake fluctuates rather than staying static the whole way through the week. It could look something like this if you like going out on Friday and Saturday:

It may look similar to a ‘cheat day’, but there’s a big difference — it’s tracked. It’s accounted for in your calorie budget. It’s not a justification for unplanned and untracked binge-eating.

Refeed days

A refeed is typically a 1- to 3-day period in which calorie intake is increased to maintenance. Traditionally, it comes from an increase in carbohydrate intake specifically. But to me, low-fat diets taste like an ashtray.

So, if I have a client who wants to implement a refeed day, we opt for a mix of carbs and fats. In other words, we keep protein as it is and then stay within our daily calorie target, not worrying about carbs and fats.

Now, even if you do a 3-day refeed, it’s probably still not enough time to reverse hormonal or metabolic adaptations. Any increase in leptin levels and metabolic rate is very small and short-lived.

However, by eating more food for a day or two, you may feel more energetic and stronger in the gym. You may also feel less restricted, which is great for long-term adherence to the plan.

Just keep in mind that unless you purposefully reduce your calorie intake even more on other days of the week, refeeds will slow down your progress because, at the end of the week, your total calorie deficit will be smaller.

What does this mean to you in practice?

‘Cheat meals’ may support weight loss if you don’t eat so much that it wipes out the entire calorie deficit you created during the week.
‘Cheat meals’ don’t seem to attenuate hormonal or metabolic adaptation due to their short duration. So don’t expect any meaningful metabolic boost.
Taking all that into consideration, I think only a lunatic would use ‘cheat meals.’ Not only do they not improve physiological aspects that come with dieting, but they also increase the risk of developing an unhealthy relationship with food.
If you want to eat more food when dieting, first try to give yourself more wiggle room during the week. Understand that you don’t need to prohibit yourself from eating your favorite foods, whether it’s Monday or Saturday. If, however, you’re one of those people who just cannot eat in moderation, non-linear dieting would probably be your second-best option.
Although refeeds are a viable option, it’s not something I use with my clients very often.

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Cheers, Egis
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Btw, I need to make money to make a living, so if you want to build muscle and lose fat at the same time, apply for my 1-on-1 Coaching. I tend to get cool results. Check my approach and results on Instagram. Or…

If you want something free, sign up for my Weight Loss Formula that’s designed to help you create the foundation of good habits & sustainable strategies that set you up for long-term weight loss success (it comes with “5 pillars of weight loss”).

Originally published by me on Medium on the 1st of August, 2025