Experimental and numerical analysis of a single overload on the fatigue life of AISI 4140 CT specimens was studied. Fatigue tests were conducted on base line CT specimen under single overload ratios of 1.5 and 1.75. Numerical analyses were performed on 2D incorporating the stress intensity factor and the J-integral as driving force. Furthermore, ABAQUS commercial software was used to simulate elastic-plastic crack growth and crack closure. Overload-induced retardation effects on the crack growth rate are considered based on the crack closure concept. A novel model for considering pre-overload and post overload effect on the crack growth is introduced. This model is based on the effective stress intensity factor and the effective J value. Overload increases fatigue lives by factors of 1.24 and 1.5 for overload ratios of 1.5 and 1.75, respectively. Two dimensional FEM results are in good agreement with the experiment with a maximum error of 10% using stress the intensity factor based method and -6% using the J integral based method. Comparing present paper method with Harmain model indicates that this model requires fewer experiments and Harmain model requires less calculation.