Gemma Atkinson struggled with self-esteem while trying to lose her baby weight.
The 35-year-old actress – who has 11-month old daughter Mia with partner Gorka Marquez – believes every mum should "feel good" about their bodies after giving birth, but even she struggled to find the right balance to achieve her goal weight.
Speaking to The Sun newspaper, she said: "For some people it’s harder because they don’t know where to start. But once you have an idea of what you should be eating and what you should be doing you begin to see the changes.
"Every mum deserves to feel good about themselves after what they’ve been through. I am lucky, now the only thing that has changed about my body is I have a few stretch marks."
Gemma gave birth by cesarean last July, and waited 10 weeks before she began exercising again, as she needed time to recover and let her hormones settle down.
And now the former ‘Emmerdale’ star has urged new mums to ditch the scales, as they undermined her self-esteem when she was cutting back but adding muscle weight.
She explained: "I’ve never been a fan of scales because I think they can be very misleading, especially for those who are weight training. And it’s not good for people’s self-esteem.
"I know when I did my 12-week body plan transformation they had to weigh me to check in on me. I was the heaviest I’d ever been, but I was also the fittest and the leanest I’d ever been.
"So if anyone had seen the scales they would have thought, ‘Christ, she’s massively overweight,’ but then when they saw me in the flesh they’d be like, ‘She’s actually really lean, strong and fit looking.’ So it’s good to ditch the scales now and again."