Actress Tapsee Pannu, recently, recalled her struggle to attain a flat midriff, urging women not to subject themselves to unrealistic beauty standards.

In a post on her Instagram stories, Taapsee wrote, “I remember I had this obsession because while growing up, I was extremely fit, but I never understood why the lower belly fat always stayed. I worked out intensely almost to an extent that I overpushed myself, and rightly said, when you overpush yourself, it rings an alarm in your brain that your body needs protection.”

“So instead of actually losing water retention, the body starts retaining it and then that lower belly fat, which might actually not just be fat, it’s also water retention, it stays, and it increases by overworking out, which I really believe people should not do,” Taapsee added.

Pannu further said that having a bit of belly bulge is normal and encouraged women to be kinder to themselves.

Crediting her nutritionist for helping her understand this, Pannu noted, “It cannot look like any other girl, so you need to accept this. I accepted it very late after really torturing myself, and then I realised that some days it happens and some days it doesn’t.”

“My nutritionist Munmun Ganeriwal explained it to me how it’s actually important to have that little bit of fat, a little bit of water retention under the belly because that’s where your reproductive organs are, and they need protection, and by virtue of being a woman, you need that protection...It's healthy for you.”

“So just to get those picture-perfect Instagram pictures, please don’t torture yourself. It’s supposed to be healthy to have that little bit of bulge and have that fat there. Please don't torture yourself,” she signed off.

Taapsee is known for her roles in movies like Pink, Baby, Thappad, and Mission Mangal.

Taapsee was last seen in Anubhav Sinha’s courtroom drama Assi, in which she played the role of a lawyer fighting to secure justice for a rape survivor.