Does doing this result in a lower amount of weight lost?

Answer

No, you’ll just lose weight slower. Especially if you aren’t exercising.

If you cut 500 cals for 6 days out of the week you cut 3,000 cals. If you surplus 1000 calories (on top of your maintenance cals) then you’ve now cut 2,000 cals for the week.

3500 cals in 1lb of fat.

Answer

If you’re in a total weekly deficit, no. You’ll lose weight (sort of, not completely) proportionally to the deficit (again, not completely true).

A 5 day deficit, 2 day surplus approach has been useful for quite a few, especially when it comes to adherence and not adapting to the new caloric intake. But again, even with that, you’d still need a weekly deficit. You couldn’t just be in a small deficit for 5 days and than eat 5 whole pizzas for 2 days.

Answer

I think people do this so they stay committed by having one day where they can ease up on what they eat, which gives them the motivation to eat lower calorie for the rest of the week, which leads them to successfully completing a week in a calorie deficit

So for some it may work better (as they have the motivation). So mentally; potentially Calorie deficit wise; I don’t think so

Answer

calories in/calories out balance = weight loss. however, the pattern of caloric surplus/deficit interacts with other decision making and life stress, so some people find it easier to eat with a very steady deficit and others find it easier to eat as you describe. This has been studied extensively and found to have no clear reason to preference one over the other at a population level, but at an individual level one or the other is quite likely to work better. It is also likely that changing life circumstances and dietary makeup influence it as well, but it is all about “dietary compliance” to actually get to the point of having a net calorie deficit, not about whether there’s a “better” way to have the deficit.

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