Hilary Duff looks so good that she was chosen for the cover of Us Weekly’s first annual swimsuit issue. But when the singer/actress was 15, she came across a press report criticizing her for her weight.

“It made me obsessed,” she tells Us of the story that drove her into a hard-core diet and exercise binge. “I would beat myself up if I had some fat.”

But when the 5-foot-2 star’s weight plummeted to around 100 pounds in 2005 (down from 130 in 2003), her sister Haylie, 22, finally intervened.

“She said, ‘Why are you being so strict with yourself?’It was like an awakening,” says Duff, who eased up on her rigorous program.

“I don’t want to be so skinny that people are like, Oh my god, she’s lost a lot of weight.”

Now, at 19, Duff tells Us that she’s content at 109 pounds. “As you get older, you just get more comfortable in your own skin.”

Instead of counting fat grams or calories, she relies on a hearty helping of common sense: lots of greens, lean protein and fresh fruit.

“You need to find balance,” she says.

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