Cheat days and all-or-nothing eating: Yoni Freedhoff's fix

Is a cheat day good for weight loss? Usually it's a sign that the rest of the week runs on rules too strict to keep, and research links strict, all-or-nothing control with losing control more often. So put the foods you love inside the plan, decide in advance how you'll handle the moments you can see coming, and treat the morning after as an ordinary day.

Maria Godoy, who covers health and science for NPR, opened an episode of Life Kit with her own cabbage soup diet. After about a month, she says, "pizza started to look real, real good to me." She gave up, and the weight she'd lost came back (NPR Life Kit). Her guest, Yoni Freedhoff, an obesity medicine clinician and assistant professor of family medicine at the University of Ottawa, summed up the pattern in one line: "We do try this all-or-nothing approach, where all or nothing, you know, almost always brings you back to nothing."

You may know your own version. Monday is perfect. On Wednesday someone brings cake to work and you have a slice. The day now feels ruined, so you finish the package that evening and promise yourself a fresh start next Monday. Or you hold the line all week and save everything for Saturday, the cheat day.

Freedhoff built his clinic, and his 2014 book The Diet Fix, around getting people out of that loop. In the book he names the belief behind it: "the notion that suffering is a prerequisite to success" (Penguin Random House). His alternative is a way of eating you'd be glad to keep. The steps below show how to spot the rule behind your cheat day, give the food a planned place, and get through the morning after without starting over.

Why does a cheat day backfire?

1. See the rule behind the cheat day

A cheat day needs a rule to break. In The Diet Fix, Freedhoff describes diets run like commandments: "Transgressions against the diet are framed as being almost sinful, leaving dieters with a real sense of guilt over a plate of pasta." The word "cheat" carries that frame: the food is wrong, and you're getting away with something.

In a large German study, Westenhoefer and colleagues combined questionnaires and food diaries from 54,517 people in a year-long, computer-based weight program with a separate survey of 1,838 people aged 14 and over. Rigid control (all or nothing) went with more frequent and more severe episodes of losing control over eating. Flexible control (some of everything, adjusted as you go) went with fewer of those episodes and with a higher chance of success in the program (Westenhoefer et al., 1999). These are links from the study's abstract, not proof of cause.

Some restraint is fine. A review of dietary restraint concluded that it can help people manage their weight and wasn't tied to more eating problems when practiced inside a well-validated program (Schaumberg et al., 2016). The trouble starts when the rule is so strict that one bite breaks it.

2. Notice the "might as well" moment

A rule with no room in it turns a small slip into a lost day. Alan Aragon, who has coached clients on fitness nutrition for more than 30 years, described the loop on the podcast of ZOE, a company that sells nutrition products. When people finally allow themselves a food they see as off-limits, they think, "Okay, I'm going to eat this whole pint, or I'm going to eat this whole bag right now," and then promise never to do it again. His advice: "Take the power away from the food and put the power back in your hands, and just know that you can have it every day if you want it, or you can leave it" (ZOE).

The everyday data fit. In a study that checked in through the day with 189 adults in a year-long weight program, people slipped four to five times a week on average, most often at home, in the evening and at weekends. The most common slip was eating a food they had meant to avoid, and feeling hungry or deprived went with a higher chance of a slip soon after (Forman et al., 2017). The program prescribed a reduced-calorie diet, so slips were measured against it.

In a study of 54 women who had lost weight at slimming clubs, all-or-nothing thinking was one of two things that predicted who regained over the next year (Byrne et al., 2004). A web survey of 241 adults found that black-and-white beliefs about food linked strict eating with regain (Palascha et al., 2015). Both are links from small studies.

3. Drop the metabolism story

A popular claim is that a big day of eating "resets" a metabolism slowed by dieting. Nothing in the research we drew on supports it. In a trial with 71 adults on a strict low-calorie diet for eight weeks, resting metabolism dropped a little more than predicted right after the weight loss. Once their weight had been stable, the gap was about half as big, and a year later, in the 45 people with every measurement, it could no longer be detected (Martins et al., 2020).

If a cheat day helps you, it's probably because it gives you something to look forward to. The steps below keep that and drop the rule.

Give the food a planned place

4. Put one "banned" food back, on purpose

On Life Kit, Freedhoff described his goal for patients as "the healthiest life they can honestly enjoy," and his reason for leaving room for treats: "Food's not just fuel. Food is comfort. Food is celebration... Food is the world's oldest social network." Godoy adds that he has written prescriptions for chocolate and fried chicken. His idea of a "best weight" follows from it: "A person's best weight is whatever weight they reach when they live the healthiest life they can actually enjoy."

Pick one food you've been banning and give it a place this week. Decide the day, the place and how much you'd like, then have it on a plate, sitting down, and enjoy it. Put it in your calendar. If your hardest food feels like too much to start with, choose an easier one. Eaten this way, the food is part of the plan: you decided in advance, so it has nothing left to break. A planned slice of cake on Friday is just Friday's dessert.

5. Decide before the moment comes

Some moments you can see coming, like the cake that goes around at work. Deciding in one sentence what you'll do there is a well-tested tool in behavior change. A review of 94 tests with 8,461 people, many of them university students and on all kinds of goals, found that these "if-then" plans helped people follow through (Gollwitzer & Sheeran, 2006). For food, a separate review found the plans worked better for adding healthy foods than for eating less of something (Adriaanse et al., 2011), so expect a modest help. Our guide to implementation intentions explains how to write one.

The plan doesn't have to be a no. "When food comes around at a friend's place, I have some on purpose, and stop when I've had enough" counts as a plan, and keeping it counts as success.

Plan the morning after, not next Monday

6. Make the next meal a normal one

Some evenings will still go further than you meant. The next morning matters more than the evening. Eat your first meal as usual. Don't skip lunch to make up for it, because hunger and feeling deprived went with more slips in the study above. Don't add a punishing workout, and don't step on the scale that morning. The whole plan fits in one line: if I eat more than I meant, the next meal is a normal one.

Portugal's national manual on behavior change in obesity tells professionals to help people change all-or-nothing thinking to "progress, not perfection" (DGS, 2026). And missing a day doesn't undo a habit you're building: a review of habit research for doctors notes that missing the occasional chance to do a new behavior didn't seriously set the habit back (Gardner et al., 2012).

Be kind to yourself about it. In one small experiment, 84 women students heard a kind message after eating a doughnut ("Everyone eats unhealthy sometimes"). Those who usually held back hard on food ate less chocolate afterward than those who hadn't heard it (Brenton-Peters et al., 2021). It's one lab study, reported in a review, so take it as a hint: a kind word after a slip didn't lead to eating more, and for strict eaters it went with eating less. Our article on procrastination guilt covers self-compassion in more depth.

7. Keep a minimum for hard weeks, and look once a week

The Monday restart has a pull of its own. The psychologists Polivy and Herman call the cycle of failing and trying again "false hope syndrome," driven by unrealistic expectations about how fast, how much and how easily people can change (Polivy & Herman, 2002). A Monday fresh start usually brings back the same strict rule.

Two habits replace it. First, agree with yourself on a minimum for hard weeks, such as your first meal and a regular bedtime, and count a week on the minimum as a week kept. Portugal's guidance recommends a minimum like this for demanding weeks of physical activity; using it for the whole plan is our own step. Second, take a short look once a week: which habits held? Keep one, and make one smaller.

In a US registry of 2,400 people who had lost weight and kept it off for years, small regains over the next two years were common and few who regained got back down. Those who recovered had gained less (Phelan et al., 2003). It's a self-selected group, but the lesson is to catch a drift early instead of waiting for Monday.

Choose a plan you would keep

Godoy's cabbage soup ended the way most all-or-nothing plans do. Freedhoff's fix is slower, and it's built to be kept: a food you love gets a planned place, and a hard evening gets a normal next meal. In his words: "So the goal is not the destination. The goal is the road." Our guides to losing weight sustainably, emotional eating and portion control without counting go further.

To build this into your own week, try the 1h Protocol to Lose Weight Sustainably. It's practical education about everyday eating and movement habits. The first chapter is free and finds your pattern from a few questions, and if you're the All-or-Nothing, your first step is to put one food you've been banning back into your week, on purpose. The full program takes about an hour. You set up one day from waking to sleep at your own times and plan for the "just one" moment and the morning after. You leave with a page of the habits you chose, a moment card for your lock screen, a fourteen-day sheet, and days seven and fourteen in your calendar. You can write your own goal, a weight goal included; the program never sets a target, calories or a diet. Four short one-tap check-ins follow by email on days 1, 7, 14 and 30. Start free

Frequently asked questions

Are cheat days good for weight loss?

There's no good evidence that they help. In a large German study, rigid all-or-nothing control of eating went with more episodes of losing control, and flexible control with more success in a year-long program (Westenhoefer et al., 1999). Planning the foods you love into an ordinary week keeps the enjoyment without the rule.

Does a cheat day boost your metabolism?

Nothing in the research we drew on shows it. In a trial of 71 adults on a strict eight-week diet, the slowdown in resting metabolism was small, shrank once weight was stable, and couldn't be detected a year later in those with every measurement (Martins et al., 2020).

What is all-or-nothing eating?

It's eating by rules so strict that one slip breaks the whole plan, followed by "might as well" eating and a Monday restart. All-or-nothing thinking has been linked with regaining weight in small studies (Byrne et al., 2004). Loosen one rule at a time: give one banned food a planned place. If eating still feels out of your control after two weeks of trying, talk to someone you trust.

What should I do the day after I ate more than I meant to?

Have an ordinary day. Eat your first meal as usual, don't skip meals or add a punishing workout to make up for it, and don't weigh yourself that morning. Hunger and feeling deprived went with more slips in a study of people in a weight program (Forman et al., 2017).

How do I stop starting over every Monday?

Remove the reason to restart. Keep a minimum version of your plan for hard weeks, count those weeks as kept, and take a short look once a week to adjust one habit. Among people who had kept weight off, those who got back down after regaining had gained less (Phelan et al., 2003).

Sources

This article draws on Yoni Freedhoff's interview on NPR's Life Kit and the publisher's excerpt of his book, Alan Aragon's interview on ZOE Science & Nutrition, Portugal's national guidance, and the studies listed below.

• A Saner Mindset for Weight Loss (podcast episode with Yoni Freedhoff and Gary Bennett, NPR Life Kit, 2019)
• Yoni Freedhoff, The Diet Fix (book, publisher page and excerpt, 2014)
• Forget crash diets: How to maintain a healthy weight (podcast episode with Alan Aragon and Sarah Berry, ZOE Science & Nutrition, 2025)
• Westenhoefer, Stunkard & Pudel, Validation of the flexible and rigid control dimensions of dietary restraint (program data from 54,517 participants and a survey of 1,838, Germany, abstract only, 1999)
• Schaumberg et al, Dietary restraint: what's the harm? (review, abstract only, 2016)
• Forman et al, Ecological momentary assessment of dietary lapses across behavioral weight loss treatment (study of 189 adults in a 12-month program, 2017)
• Byrne, Cooper & Fairburn, Psychological predictors of weight regain in obesity (one-year follow-up of 54 women, abstract only, 2004)
• Palascha, van Kleef & van Trijp, How does thinking in Black and White terms relate to eating behavior and weight regain? (web survey of 241 adults, abstract only, 2015)
• Polivy & Herman, If at first you don't succeed: false hopes of self-change (review, abstract only, 2002)
• Martins et al, Metabolic adaptation is an illusion, only present when participants are in negative energy balance (trial of 71 adults, 2020)
• Gollwitzer & Sheeran, Implementation intentions and goal achievement (meta-analysis of 94 tests, 2006)
• Adriaanse et al, Do implementation intentions help to eat a healthy diet? (meta-analysis, abstract only, 2011)
• Brenton-Peters et al, Self-compassion in weight management (systematic review of 20 studies, 2021)
• Gardner, Lally & Wardle, Making health habitual (review for general practice, 2012)
• Phelan et al, Recovery from relapse among successful weight maintainers (registry study of 2,400 adults, 2003)
• DGS, Promoção da mudança comportamental na pessoa com obesidade (Portugal's national guidance for professionals, 2026)