Katherine Heigl Admits To ‘Terror’ Of Gaining 40 Pounds During Pregnancy

Katherine Heigl gave birth to her son last month and is now getting real about her feelings on gaining the baby weight

The 38-year-old actress did a candid interview with People and admitted she felt terror about gaining weight while pregnant. Heigl stated it was hard for her to see the numbers on the scale going up as she’s one to constantly monitor her weight, but she’s glad her body did “what it needs to do” as her son was born healthy.

Katherine stated she knew gaining weight was part of being pregnant, but that didn’t make her any less nervous about it.

“What was rough with the pregnancy was just the terror of the weight gain. You’re going to gain weight — that’s just part of the whole thing.”

She went on to discuss how hesitant she was about weighing in at doctor appointments as she’s used to closely watching her weight— not willingly gaining. Heigl also said she felt like she needed to be careful when it came to gaining weight as she felt she need to “rein” it in.

“Stepping on that scale every month in the doctor’s office was heartbreaking for me because I’m used to watching that so closely, and the moment I start putting on weight being like, ‘Oh no, I have to rein it back in.'”

And while Katherine tried to be as healthy as possible, the actress still gained 40 pounds, which she sees as a lot. However, now that her son, Joshua Bishop, is here, she’s glad her body did what it was supposed to do while carrying a baby.

“I gained like 40 lbs. That’s hard for an actress who’s spent her whole life trying to always lose that last 10. But I’m so grateful for my body right now because I feel like it’s doing what it needs to do.”

Us Weekly reported on Heigl’s pregnancy cravings before she gave birth, stating she was trying to avoid junk foods. Katherine said this was hard when it came to certain foods, such as doughnuts.

“[I’m] trying really hard to stop [eating junk food]. Just eat one doughnut a week. Just have one and then stop thinking about it.”

It was also harder for her to avoid the sweet temptations while working on set as plenty of sugary goods were always around.

“If I’m not on set, I don’t think about them that much. And I don’t eat them because they’re not around. But on set, crafty always has a plethora of doughnuts in really pretty pink boxes, and I can’t stop thinking about them.”

However, it seems Heigl is quickly losing the baby weight much to her surprise, as reported in the People interview. Katherine attributes losing 20 pounds within the first two weeks to breastfeeding. She said once she realized her body “knew what it was doing,” she stopped stressing so much about the weight gain.

“Within a week and a half after he was born, I dropped so much weight, and I was like, ‘Oh my God, my body really does know what it’s doing, I’m just going to back off and not stress about this.'”

However, the former Grey’s Anatomy actress said she’s going to take her time losing the rest as she’s off work for awhile now that she’s welcomed her son.

“I still have a good 20 to lose, but I’m not going back on camera as an actor for quite some time and I can take my time and do this healthy, and do this slow, and do it kindly to myself and not beat myself up about it.”

It seems motherhood is agreeing with Heigl as she and husband Josh Kelley posed for photos with their newborn for People, and she starts accepting things about her body that she hadn’t before. She and Josh are also parents to adopted daughters Naleigh, 8, and Adalaide, 4, as well.

[Featured Image by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images]