The RackCan Cheating on Your Diet Help You Lose Weight?  Setting
aside a day to bend the rules—within reason—gives your willpower
muscle a break and ups your odds for sticking to a diet plan.
man eating chocolate cake out of the fridge  If your diet makes
you spit out other four-letter words, allowing yourself some
wiggle room could make weight loss more bearable. The problem
with sticking to an all-work, no-play eating plan 24/7 is that
willpower is finite. Think of it as a muscle—you can’t keep it
flexed forever.  But what exactly do we mean by wiggle room? “A
cheat day can help you stick with a plan the rest of the week,”
says Marjorie Nolan, RD, a spokesperson for the Academy of
Nutrition and Dietetics. It gives your willpower muscle a break,
and decreases your chances of falling off your diet plan
altogether. After all, a successful diet requires a positive
mentality almost as much as it does a handle on calories and
hormones.  See: 15-Minute Low-Calorie Recipes  Still, it’s
important to define what a 