We all know that when we fall off the diet bandwagon, we often feel like giving up hope. After you’ve polished off a chocolate binge, while you get that instant hit of sugar satisfaction, chances are you might feel a tinge of regret. Apparently you can now bin that guilty conscience with the wrapper. It turns out that if you have a small chocolate induced lapse of judgement once in a while, chances are it won’t appear on the scales. Leading obesity researcher Amanda Salis from the University of Sydney in Australia found that those who had an occasional chocolate binge were more likely to get away with their splurge rather than someone who only has a small taste every day. Not quite sure how that works? It’s all down to our bodies’ natural reaction to a hit of calories. Explaining the reasoning of the metabolism speeding up, Salis explains: "The larger that increase in kilojoules, the more your body will rev up metabolism. "If you have them all in one go you're more likely to induce that response to protect you from weight gain than if you have a small amount every day." Before you take this up the wrong way, you will still absorb those calories, but your body might be in better shape at tackling them if it’s all at once. Salis adds: "If you hardly ever do it and you feel like indulging yourself on a chocolate or ice cream very, very occasionally, it's not going to do you any harm. "In the longer term that doesn't make any difference." So you can have your cake, and eat it too. But just make sure it’s all at once and not a daily occurrence… H/T Science Alert