Cheating on diet could actually help burn more fat

According to a new study, a regular cheat day can actually help the body lose more weight by encouraging it to burn more fat.

According to nutritionist Susie Burrell, who wrote in her blog Shape Me, a cheat meal after a period of calorie restriction tells the body that it doesn't need to go into starvation mode. In starvation mode, the body literally hordes all the calories it can.

Burrell adds that physiologically, after periods of strict calorie restriction, a cheat (note not binge) meal, which contains significantly more calories actually helps to body to continue to burn body fat.

A study published in the Journal of Consumer Psychology found that dieters who had a cheat meal once a week lost the same amount by the end of the week as those who didn't cheat.

However, there is a catch.

A cheat meal does not necessarily mean that one can go eating an entire pizza or something extremely unhealthy.

Instead, a cheat meal should be something simple, yet appealing, that does not pack thousands of calories.