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I Know What You're Thinking – I'm Fat !

Originally posted Thursday April 05, 2007 12:00 PM EDT

As a young actress under pressure to be thin, "I pretty much stopped eating until I realized I couldn't live my life that way," says Bertinelli (at the Emmys). Photo by: JIM SMEAL / WIREIMAGE

Although she remains guarded about her current weight – "Tom doesn't even know and he's not going to until I get down" – she is blunt about her goals. "I don't know how my size, 14, has become obese while size 0 is normal," she says. "It's insane. I'm not even going for a size 6. I'll be happy with a size 8."

So how did the cheery actress – whose screen-brightening smile, apple cheeks and thick brown mane remain enviably unchanged from her TV heyday – get to a size 14 in the first place? "I love food," she says simply. "The only thing I can think of that I don't love is liver and onions. I like sweet, savory and everything in between." One particular favorite: New Orleans-style gumbo. "When I finally learned how to make gumbo – oh my God! – I would have a big bowl with red beans and rice."

Like many women, she slowly put on the pounds without realizing the cumulative effect. "I enjoy being a mom, and I love to cook," she says. "I never binged – I grazed. A lot. My portion [size] wasn't T.G.I. Friday's but not Jenny Craig's either."

In January "I was playing a game of touch football during the halftime show for the Super Bowl, and I got winded quickly," she recalls. Her "rock-bottom" moment "was seeing pictures of myself and realizing I looked like Jabba the Hutt. I reached a point where I didn't want to be fat for the rest of my life."

Bertinelli is equally frank about body image. "Don't tell me I have to lose weight to feel good about myself or worthwhile," she says. "I want to lose weight to have more energy and feel better, but it's what I want to do."