I feel like a fat bloated cow!

I have been dieting since June and lost anywhere between 35-40 lbs.  I have been stuck at 265 so I got discouraged and just started eating how I want trying to up (zig zag) my calories for about a week and a half now.  I weighed myself today and Im at 270!?!  God help me! I feel so depressed and like such a failure I just want to cry.  I need to get back on track, but it just seems so hard :(

Ok dont feel bad! you lost 40 POUNDS.do you realize how amazing of an accomplishment that is?

its ok. that 270 can be from the time you weighed yourself,water weight or possibly the time of the month!dont worry!

Try cutting down on your sodium. It makes you bloated and this might be water weight.

so do I!!!

Not all of that is fat, probably - unless you actually ate 17500 calories OVER maintenance during that time. (The scale lies). Then again, maybe you did eat that much over maintenance. I certainly could, if I ate all I wanted for 10 days.

Honestly, eating "like you want" for a week and a half straight is not "an attempt to zigzag". I think you know this. When you zigzag, you eat at maintenance for maybe a day or two a week, and stick to your planned intake for the other days. Basically, you lost your motivation for about ten days, and returned to your previous habits! That's not the end of the world - it's just 10 days and five pounds. It certainly doesn't undo all your great work to date!! You've lost what, like seven or eight times as much as that five pounds already?

The trick will be to recommit to a permanent lifestyle change - don't "white-knuckle" it, make it livable and enjoyable. When you live a non-obese lifestyle, you will wind up non-obese! Normal-weight people do overeat sometimes, they do go to restaurants, they just don't eat like us (believe me, I know what it is to eat a lot!) every day.

Don't give up. You've done really well overall, and you CAN change your life for the better. Don't let moral values, or emotions, attach themselves to food and fat (good, bad, etc.) because they will make you anxious and depressed and will make you turn to the ultimate coping mechanism - overeating! Recommit to a healthy lifestyle because of self-love: wanting to be healthy and long-lived. You aren't a failure, you're a human, and humans have a hard time with huge changes like these. It's normal to have a few bumps in the road. That doesn't mean you're not still on the road!! :)

I just started with CC and saw your post. I can relate to the all-out-eating mode. All I can offer is what I've recently learned: forgive yourself and get back on the wagon. Learn why you went on a non-stop binge and avoid doing it again or at least control it: maybe binge for one 30-min meal, once a week.

And if seeing your weight gain is upsetting you, why are you doing it? That scale isn't the only determiner of weight loss: try on some clothes or take your measurements. Like Trustwomen said, focus on your accomplishments! And start again.