Gwyneth Paltrow admits it was not easy to lose her baby weight.

The Iron Man star, who gave birth to her second child with Coldplay rocker Chris Martin in 2006, says she found it hard to go back to her sexy figure.

"After my first pregnancy, the weight had come off a little bit better but after the second one it was really stubborn. It was really hanging on," she said.

"It was not easy and, when I started it, it was by far the hardest thing I have ever done - but I really was seeing results so it motivated me to just work through it.

"Every woman can make time - every woman - and you can do it with your baby in the room.

"There've been countless times where I've worked out with my kids crawling around all over the place. You just make it work, and if it's important to you, it'll be important to them."

Gwyneth made her acting debut on stage in 1990 and began appearing in films in 1991. Her performance in Shakespeare in Love (1998) won her the Academy Award for Best Actress.

In 2008, she played Pepper Potts in the highest grossing movie of her career, Iron Man. She reprised her role in its sequel Iron Man 2 this year.