Jennifer Love Hewitt wishes she'd flaunted her body more when she was younger.

Last year unflattering photos of the actress wearing a bikini that showed off her wobbly bits resulted in several media outlets labelling the actress "overweight".

Despite insisting at the time that she was happy with her fuller figure, J-Love has recently been showing off a new, slimline physique.

And the star now says she regrets not making the most of her youth by flashing the flesh back in the days when she didn't have to watch her weight.

Love Hewitt - who turns 30 next February - tells the September issue of Health magazine, "I wish I had been nude from the time I was 12 until I was 28.

“I looked great! I so wish I had listened to my mom and grandma when I was 18 and would complain about some little tiny bump or feeling bloated. I used to scoff and say, 'No, I feel fat today!' Now the joke's on me.

"I want to tell all young girls to walk around in bikinis all summer, because there will be that one day in your twenties when you'll eat a hamburger and actually see the hamburger on the side of your leg."

J-Love shows off her trim new look on a romantic stroll with fiance Ross McCall in L.A.