Keeping Up with Kirstie

Fifty-five pounds ago, Kirstie Alley came on the show to talk about her struggle to lose weight . Even though the weight she'd gained over the past several years allowed her the opportunity to star in Showtime's Fat Actress , Kirstie says it was a painful adjustment for someone who spent most of her career as a skinny actress.

"I made some good decisions simultaneously with some bad decisions," Kirstie says of her weight gain. "The good part of it was, 'I'm going to spend more time with my kids, I'm going to cook.' The bad decision was—and this is the dumbest decision I've ever made in my life—it went like this: If a man really loves me, he will not have to love me for my body. He will really love me just for me. … When did I decide I was a big fat girl?"

When Kirstie began following Jenny Craig's diet plan and working as the program's spokesperson, her weight started dropping . Kirstie also kicked her smoking habit and found more benefits to her healthy new lifestyle. "There are things that have happened that I didn't think about happening—I've lost 17 1/2 percent body fat," she said.