Will a "cheat day" kill me?

Howdy. I'm 14, 5'8 (well, really 5'7 and 3/4 ), and when I weighed myself this morning, I was 125 lbs. I'm a little unhappy with that, as my ideal weight is 127. So, I decided that I wanted to eat a little more today to stop losing weight so rapidly (I row three hours a day, five or six days a week, so I have to eat a lot to maintain my weight. I guess I haven't been eating enough this week)

    However, it's only 12:11, and I've had about 1,110 calories! I'm doing nothing physical today because it's my day off, so I'm worried that I'll gain too much weight from this, considering that I have dinner as well to eat. I only want to get to 127, not higher! Could I write this off as this week's "cheat day", considering that I've eaten clean every day this week? And it's not like I've been eating junk food to get it up this high! (Well, I had some honey with my bananas and oatmeal this morning... but that doesn't count, I don't think)

    Am I overreacting? Please tell me I am.

What have you set as your daily calorie target?

Since CC's calculators are not geared towards teenagers, I used this calculator to get the following information:

1900 Calories - Inactive (Never Active)
2250 Calories - Low Activity (Less than 1 Hour a day)
2580 Calories - Moderate (About 1 Hour a Day)
3120 Calories - Very Active (More than 1 Hour a Day)

Since you said that you are going to remain inactive today, you still have an extra 790 Calories before you reach your maintenance calories for the day.

It takes an estimated 3500 calories to gain one pound.  So unless you plan on eating an extra 3500 calories on top of your maintenance calories, you are good to go. 

Make sure you are taking in enough calories on the days that you row.  You are probably losing weight so rapidly because you are very active and not taking in enough calories to supplement your activity.

Enjoy your "cheat day".   

Don't forget that it takes 3500 calories ABOVE what you're burning to gain 1 lbs.  So, unless you eat like 9000 calories today, you're not going to gain both lbs back in one day.  You might have a temp water weight gain from eating a higher volume of food, but that's it.

You're VERY active and you're still growing.  If you have 2 lbs you want to gain, you need to eat a lot more then that!!

I agree with Kukua. Yet, when I started a diet in my middle school years, I was doing fine until I had a 'cheat day'. Soon thereafter I had a few more cheat days, until eventually, my diet was down the drain. Yea, it's okay to have a cheat day once in a while, but you gotta watch, because sometimes (depending on how much extra u eat) cheating will catch up on you pretty quickly.

Since you're trying to gain anyway, I don't really think this will be a problem for you.

Eating a lot in one day can make you feel crummy, but consider this:  unless you can magically figure out your physiology and calculate the EXCACT number of calories you are burning, which will change every single day, AND you spend every waking moment calculating the exact calories of everything you eat, you will NOT eat the right number of calories to maintain every day.  You can't; it would be totally impossible.

Luckily, maintaining is not a single-day thing.  It is the average of days and months of careful balancing.  In order to keep your weight the same over time, you'll have to eat a little more some days, a little less on other days.  In fact, the goal would be to go slightly over half the time and be slightly under the other half. 

The point is that one day of going over WILL NOT KILL YOU, in fact, as long as you balance it out with a lighter-eating day, it will probably help.  Don't restrict crazily tomorrow, just know that maintaining is a balancing process.  You will have minor fluctuations in both calories and weight.  The long-haul is what's important.

Have a good day - you'll be happier if you just enjoy it and don't stress about it ruining your weight.

Hello,

       I started CC back in 2007.  Currently I am 6'1" well 6'0" 1/2 but that's besides the point.  I am now 174.  January 1st of 2005 I was around 240.  January of 2006 I was 230 - 240.  January of 2007 I was 248.  I decided to get a plan going until I could hit 185.  Because from the middle of November of 2004 to January 1st, 2007 I was severly overweight and never got below 205.  I tried diets and it got me to 205. Diets and working out and restricting my urges for certain foods I liked. 

       &nb sp;  In January 2007 I decided to make a life style change on the weigh I eat.  Rather than eating only what would be good for me I started a free day.  Every Sunday was free day.  So I ate what I wanted.  If I was good all week I might have a peanut butter cup, or a snickers bar.  This controlled my urges.  On February 18th, 2007 I joined calorie-count.com.  I learned a lot of people who were trying to lose weight on this site had "free days"  Friday nights or Sundays and they ate a lot more than a snickers bar.  I took that into account, and started comparing my program with some weight watchers members I worked with.  They also had a day where they could binge and they said it is actually healthier to have spikes and drops than just constant drops.  My first month was drop beyond drop, plateau, drop, drop, plateau, plateau, plateau.  Meaning after the initial drop from 248 to 236 I could not lose anymore. 

       &nb sp;   When I joined cc I was 238.  I used this process of eat right, eat light and binge on Sunday and randomly would skip a Sunday here and there if I felt I was at a plateau point and went from 238 in February 18th to 185 September 7th, 2007.  Now 13 months later I have not been even at 185.  The highest I have been in the last 13 months is 183 for like a day.  Generally I am in the 170's. but I on Wednesday when I have a craving I hold off until the weekend and indulge.  let the scale spike and then Monday and Tuesday I hit the gym hard and watch the pounds come off.  Generally though even when I had a spike from 175 to 178 and I didn't work out the next day I would be 176.  Water weight you know.  Also I have found when I don't eat enough I gain weight.  Like two weeks ago I was starving, but I was like well it's too late to eat food, and I had 1500 cal's and worked out by doing like 80 pushups, and running for 3 miles and I gained 1 pound.  Last week I remebered this lesson and I was hungry and I knew I did not eat enough so I ate some buttery popcorn late and I went from 176 --> 175.  Why? Because my body doesn't have to look for that nutrition in my body and take some protein and use it as energy. 

The worst thing I have found in my failed attempts at diets was to just always eat the right food, and to try and starve myself.  Don't starve yourself.

~ Nate