How to Cheat on a Diet and Still Lose

Eating too few calories slows down your weight loss, says Joel Marion, author of The Cheat to Lose Diet. When you drastically cut your caloric intake, your body tightens the clamps on your ability to burn fat. Instead, Marion recommends splurging sometimes — like Rose did!

Go for 90 percent. If you stick to healthy food choices 90 percent of the time, eat whatever you crave (in moderation) the other 10 percent.

Make Saturday cheat day. Pile all your cheat meals into one day. That way you will be diligent the other six days.

Don’t starve yourself to “save up” for a single feast. Cheating aims to trick your body into continually burning fat and skipping any meal slows down your metabolism.