December 23, 2022 • 6 min read
Can You Have a Cheat Day on Intermittent Fasting?
Published on December 23, 2022 |
Update on October 17, 2023
MS, Registered Dietitian, Former President of CT Academy of Nutrition & Dietetics
Table of Contents
When it comes to dieting, cheating has a whole new meaning.
Cheat days are scheduled days when you take a break from dieting and indulge in otherwise non-permitted foods in your diet.
Here we will try to explain how cheating works with intermittent fasting. We’ll also provide actionable tips on how to incorporate a cheat day into your intermittent fasting schedule without reversing your weight-loss progress.
By definition, on a cheat day, you can break your diet rules and eat anything you like.
However, eating anything you like does not break any of the intermittent fasting (IF) rules.
This is because the intermittent fasting guidelines do not restrict what you eat—they simply tell you when to eat and when to fast. That means when it comes to IF, cheating means deviating from your eating and fasting schedules.
So, can you have a cheat day while intermittent fasting? Yes, absolutely. An occasional cheat day will not hinder your weight-loss progress if you do it right.
In fact, it’s scientifically proven that intentional cheat days can even enhance your metabolism [1]. The key word here is intentional. If you wish to take a day—or two—off from your diet, you should go about it with a plan.
Before incorporating cheat days into your routine, learn the pros and cons of cheat days and if and how they can ruin your diet. After all, a cheat day, when done right, can do you more good rather than harm.
As we previously explained, no meals are off-limits when it comes to IF. All food and drinks are allowed within reason—even alcohol.
Cheating on intermittent fasting refers to eating a meal or two after your eating window is over. You can easily resolve this by adjusting your eating/fasting periods.
The biggest goal with incorporating cheat days into IF is to stick to a similar calorie amount as you usually do. The biggest difference on cheat days is in the timing of when you eat and fast.
If you’re new to intermittent fasting, you’re encouraged to practice flexible fasting schedules, such as the 5:2 method. Here we’ll explain how you can tweak your eating window to incorporate cheat meals or days.
For time-restricted fasting schedules, you can simply restart your fasting window if you accidentally eat past your eating phase.
This will re-adjust your timing, but it won’t matter much if it’s an infrequent occurrence.
If you know beforehand that you’re going to have to eat during your fasting period—say, at a prearranged social occasion—you can plan ahead to fit your eating window within that time. This might mean you’ll have to slightly lengthen or shorten your fasting period.
You can also try to eat smaller meals during your extended eating window, thus keeping your caloric intake the same.
Incorporating cheat meals on a 5:2 schedule is even easier.
In this method, you simply eat a normal diet within the first five days and stick to a calorie-restricted meal (500 calories max) on the other two days.
If you plan your feasting days to fall within the first five days, you don’t have to worry about cheating at all.
On an alternate-day fasting regimen, you will eat a regular diet for one day and limit calories to 500 the next day.
Like for the 5:2 method, all you have to do is plan your cheat day on an eating day.
This, however, still requires some planning to ensure you don’t completely veer off schedule.
In this method, you fast for a full day a couple of days per week.
If you somehow end up having a cheat meal within your regular fasting window, you can fall back on this method by fasting for the following full 24 hours instead.
As we’ve already explained, an occasional cheat day won’t make you gain weight.
It’s actually scientifically supported that a flexible eating schedule induces better and longer-lasting weight loss when compared to strict programs [2]. In fact, these cheat days or meals can last one meal, one day, or even a week if you carefully plan them and stick to the plan [3].
However, if you’re deliberating whether you can take a day off from IF, there are a few things you should keep in mind. You need to understand how intermittent fasting brings about fat loss in the first place.
Here’s how it works: when you abstain from eating for prolonged periods, your body’s glucose reserves get exhausted. As a result, your body starts to burn fat instead of glucose to produce energy [4]. This process is known as ketosis. [5]
Having a meal or a sugary beverage during the fasting period will introduce calories into your system and interfere with that ketosis, the fat-burning phase. This will not profoundly affect your results if done only once in a while. However, if it takes place too often, it can affect your metabolism and slow down your weight-loss progress.
Thus, you still need to be careful when incorporating a cheat meal or a cheat day into your intermittent fasting schedule, and you shouldn’t necessarily have cheat days every week.
Well, it happened: you had a cheat day.
To make things easier for you, you can use our weight-loss app to track your meals and their nutrient density as you get back to your fasting routine.
On the whole, does intermittent fasting allow for cheat days? Yes, but within limits. You can even adjust your eating/fasting windows to fit in cheat meals or days, and you won’t feel like you’re cheating at all.
However, as with everything in life, this has to be done in moderation, so it does not work against your weight-loss goals.
If you happen to cheat on your IF regimen, you can easily bounce back and catch up with your regular IF schedule without damaging your weight-loss progress. After all, success is not about perfection—it’s all about consistency and the habits you are practicing the majority of the time.
This article is intended for general informational purposes only and does not address individual circumstances. It is not a substitute for professional advice or help and should not be relied on to make decisions of any kind. Any action you take upon the information presented in this article is strictly at your own risk and responsibility!