Can you please help me get back on track!!!

I was doing SO WELL losing weight and exercising, but then since Friday night, I've had to stay away from home, which meant less exercise and worse food. On Friday, I ate 200 more calories than my maintenence. On Saturday, I ate very well during the day, but cracked and ate tons of chips and cheese dip my aunt made (I'm estimating that the dip and cheese is at about 1,000 calories at least.) Yesterday, I was on track until I got to my friend's house and probably ate 500 calories more. And then today, I woke up, thinking, "I WILL get back on track!" Well, I ate wonderfully until dinner. Then I had a slice of garlic bread and TONS of pasta with meat and cheese sauce. I'm betting that today I must have overate by at least 2,000 calories.

I feel so horrible, and I bet that I've gained a pound over these past 4 days! Tomorrow, I'm going home, which means back to eating well and exercising.

I guess I just need to motivation and support right now. God, I feel so horrible and fat!

I'm a teenage girl whose maintenence is 1750 calories. This weekend the only physical activity I even did was a 10 minute bike ride and I played badminton for about half an hour, but we walked through the game. I walk around school, though, but I know that it's probably not enough. :(

I feel so horrible- I usually exercise 4-5 times a week, and I feel like crap!

"15 year old girl, 5'3, and 129 pounds. I'm moderately active, so I need to eat 2,110 calories a day just to maintain my weight."

This is your profile, so you know that 1700 is not a maintenance amount of food for a 15 year old girl. You also should know that you are currently classed at a healthy weight.

Girls at a healthy weight should never diet. 30-40% of them will develop obsessive food/control issues and of those a further 30-40% will develop full-blown eating disorders. And although we know this happens because of changes in the brain due to restricting calories, we don't know ahead of time which girls it will happen to. So, you are playing Russian Roulette.

Dieting is for overweight people with immediate or imminent health issues.

If you continue to restrict your calories to 1700 then you are damaging your body's ability to grow. You will force your body to get energy elsewhere -- it will pilfer calcium from your bones (stunting your growth and leading to osteoporosis). It will shrink parts of your brain so that you have increased stress hormones in your body; are unable to remember well; and develop dementia in later life.

Those are just two of the dangerous highlights to restricting calories in your teens when you are not overweight or obese.

The amount of food you've consumed this past weekend is fine and given that you have a very active life, you probably need 2500 calories a day to stay healthy in any case.

Go ahead and be active as you are, but eat your maintenance amount of a minimum of 2100 and more on days you train.

Did you have fun on the weekend? It sounds like you did -- focus on that!

Besides, one weekend of celebration never made or broke a healthy lifestyle. You may feel bad because of the TYPE of food you ate, but that will be out of your system soon naturally. Eat healthy food, drink lots of water, resume your activity and DON'T go below maintenance.

It sounds like a great weekend!