"Cheat" days while maintaining - good or bad?

All the time I see people giving out the advice that every couple weeks dieters should have one day when they eat maintenance level worth of calories, so that their metabolism gets a boost and won`t become adjusted to the intake.

Is this the way to go while maintaining as well? Should I have a day when I eat, say, 500 cals above my maintenance level, every other week or so? On the one hand, it makes sense to keep your metabolism alive and kicking, but on the other, people also do this in order to avoid plateaus, whereas plateaus are in fact the goal when maintaining.

So.. I`m a bit confused here. Help, anyone?

(and just to explain the title - by "cheat" days I don`t mean indulging in deep fried fast food and tons of sweets, just eating healthy and sensibly, but above the recommended intake)

I just go out to restaurants once in a while with my friends. I guess it counts as cheat days. *shrug.

I wouldn't do it as a planned thing as in "I haven't had my cheat day this week/month" .  But yeah, if you're going out for a nice dinner, or there's a special occasion or if you're just extra hungry once in a while your body seems to handle a little extra just fine.

Not sure about scheduling it per se but yeah I do sometimes go over my typical intake.  I've been working on getting *to* target so days that I'm over (only slightly like 300 max) I guess could count as a "cheat".  I usually factor in things I want that you're not 'supposed' to have on a diet to my calories so I don't let it stress me out.

What you describe really only applies to dieters that have been restricting calories for a long time in order to avoid 'starvation mode'.  If you're maintaining, presumably you're geting a good 1900-2100 cals a day (or more if you're very active) so you'll never experience that problem anyway.

Few people eat the exact same number of calories every day.  Most people don't count calories so they'll have days when they eat a little less and days where they eat a little more.  If you're maintaining your weight try to be consistent about what you eat but be flexible within reason.  If there's a special occasion, enjoy a little extra.  The next day you might not feel quite so hungry, so eat a little less.

Thank you, everyone, that was very helpful. :)

Well every Friday we go out... I just allow enough Calories throughout the day to allow me to eat what I want within reason.... so I might cheat a little bit but not a lot...