Why Tori Spelling's Post-Baby Body Confession is a Game Changer

Open any tabloid and you'll read about a celebrity mom who dropped her baby weight by breastfeeding, chasing toddlers around, and snacking on 12 almonds per day. But in her new book “Spelling It Like It Is,” actress Tori Spelling made a startling confession about her post-baby weight-loss regime — and it’s truly a revelation.

Calling it the “Just Keep Your F*****g Mouth Shut And Eat Air Diet,” Spelling says she lied in April when she told US magazine that swimming helped her shed pounds after the birth of her fourth child, Finn Davey. “My publicist had given me clear instructions about what to say about my weight loss,” she writes in her book. “Women didn’t want to know that I had lost weight through dieting, not exercising. … So I said that I swam,” even though “I can’t do much more than a doggy paddle.”

Yes, she lied (and needs a new publicist), but more importantly, Spelling’s admission symbolizes a new shift in Hollywood, one in which mothers are rejecting pressure to not only drop the baby weight, but erase any evidence that a human being was ever growing inside them. Take Jessica Simpson, who on Monday, told ABC News that her weight-loss motto is “So far so good” and that "I'm taking it week by week so I don't get frustrated with myself.” Victoria’s Secret model Doutzen Kroes recently told the New York Post’s Page Six column, “Sometimes it makes me feel guilty now that I am in this profession that makes certain girls insecure,” and that “I wake up sometimes like, this is not what I see when I look at the magazine, who is this visitor in the bathroom?” Ivanka Trump made her feelings on the matter clear, when, after the birth of her second child in October, she posted a hospital selfie looking exhausted and happy, with matted hair and no makeup. Meanwhile, in 2010, when OK magazine put Kourtney Kardashian on its cover following the birth of her son, Mason, she blasted the publication for slimming her down. “And I gained 40 pounds while pregs, not 26...But thanks!" she tweeted.

Other famous mothers send mixed messages. Kim Kardashian griped about the unfairness of body scrutiny while pregnant with daughter North West — then debuted her mommy body on Instagram with a butt selfie, accompanied by the hashtag #nofilter. And in August 2012, Janice Min, former editor-in-chief of Us magazine all but took responsibility for the celebrity weight-loss obsession in a New York Times essay, while simultaneously plugging a diet book called “How to Look Hot in a Minivan.” 

Celebrity mom or not, the post-baby weight-loss war is a losing battle. According to a survey conducted by the parenting website Baby Center, although 61 percent of new mothers assume they'll bounce back to their pre-pregnancy weight a year after giving birth, 60 percent don't achieve their goal. So, in a world where Gwyneth Paltrow doesn’t allow her children, ages 6 and 8 to eat bread and Kate Middleton can’t spike a volleyball without the world keeling over at the sight of her washboard abs, confessions like Spelling’s are just what we need.