Big Love star Ginnifer Goodwin, 32, is defending herself from criticism after recently admitting she’s been on Weight Watchers since she was nine years old. She explained that she was heavy as a little kid and that Weight Watchers helped her lose weight safely along with other children her age. Goodwin also said that she now indulges in occasional treats but that “you don’t have to go through that horrible yo-yo cycle of binging.”

“I was so shocked when it was this whole, ‘Ginny’s been on a diet since she was 9 years old!’ I was like ‘No!’ I’ve never had body issues, I’ve never had an eating disorder,” she tells PEOPLE. “I’ve never had to go on a diet and that’s because of Weight Watchers.”

Goodwin, however, says she was an overweight child, which led her to the program. “I began to identify myself as fat.” Goodwin says. “At 9 years old I weighed about 10 lbs. less than what my weight is at 32. I needed to get help.”

“I ended up going to my mother crying,”she recalls. “With the counseling of my family doctor, my mother ended up turning to Weight Watchers and their children’s program. I went to weekly meetings, got counseling and would exercise with my peers who were my size. It was the first time I saw a proper children’s portion size, and it wasn’t two burgers, it was one.”

Losing the weight, recalls Goodwin, “was extremely easy to accomplish.” But she adds, “It takes time because you lose the weight slowly. It’s a healthy way to do it.”

And she’s kept the weight off with ease over the years. “You don’t have to go through that horrible yo-yo cycle of binging,” she says. “I’ve always been able to satisfy my cravings; it’s just a matter of balancing.”

It saddens her to see her peers struggle with weight. “I pulled an actress friend aside and I said, ‘I get it. I get what it is that you’re trying to do, but there’s being healthfully skinny and then there’s starting to look like a scary alien cat,’ ” she says.

Goodwin has a not-so-flattering name for the diet secrets of some of the rich and famous. “I call it the ‘Cocaine and Cigarettes Diet’ in Hollywood,” says the actress, who also doesn’t believe in a low-carb diet as a permanent solution. “I see girls who haven’t had a carbohydrate in three years. The second you go back to eating right, you’re going to put that weight on. You eat one piece of bread and you are screwed, lady!”

[From People]

A lot of people don’t understand how normal Weight Watchers is, and how it’s more of a healthy lifestyle than a diet. I’ve been on plenty of diets and the only one that really worked for me long term is Weight Watchers. It’s not restrictive and is basically portion control and simplified calorie counting. Whenever I fall off the wagon, like this holiday, I make sure I go back to it (I just do it online) and start counting points again. Even if I exercise like a fiend I also need to watch what I eat or I don’t keep off the weight.

Goodwin looks pretty skinny, and her fiance is almost emaciated looking. I’m sure that skinniness is relative in the circles they run in. I love what Goodwin said about how unhealthy and unrealistic it is to starve and not to eat carbs. High protein diets aren’t bad when you eat healthy carbs, like fruit, but the Atkins diet just seems like torture. You know she didn’t tell someone she looked like an alien cat, though. You say that behind someone’s back, not to their face.

Goodwin recently got engaged to her boyfriend of two years, Joey Kern, 34.

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