Singer Embraces Moderation, Slimmer Life and Motherhood

Six years after her gastric bypass surgery, singer Carnie Wilson is keeping the weight off, but the desire to eat remains.

For Wilson, the supermarket is a minefield, especially the aisle packed with carbohydrates.

"I salivate. I flip out. Look at the sweet potato pie, strawberry rhubarb," Wilson told "20/20."

When you love food as much as she does, staying healthy is not easy. "I mean, moderation, not deprivation. That's my new way of living," said Wilson. "I always want more, and that's just my life."

Watching Other People Eat

Gastric bypass surgery successfully shrank Wilson's stomach, but it didn't reduce her passion for food. Now she's content to cook for others -- this poster child for gastric bypass surgery has written the cookbook, "To Serve With Love."

The book combines healthy dishes such as poached fish, with sinful items like macaroni and cheese. Click here for the recipe.

"You got the creamy filling inside. There's five cheeses in there," said Wilson. "I love to watch people eat."

It may be delicious, but a dietician told "20/20" the dish is 800 calories per portion. "Before, when I was 300 pounds, I would eat probably three or four times that amount," said Wilson.

Now, she only allows herself to have two bites of the dish at a time.

"One of the greatest pleasures in life is eating. … We need to eat and enjoy it but control it," said Wilson. "That's what I do now."

Learning to Fight Her Obesity

Wilson's healthy approach to eating is a long way from where she was in 1999, when she had her gastric bypass surgery.

At age 31, Wilson was morbidly obese, like 6 million other Americans are today.

She spoke with "20/20" at that time and described how she felt at that weight. "My feet were hurting; I would be tired a lot, I'd feel sluggish. I started getting paranoid … I felt like I was going to have a heart attack," said Wilson.

She was dubbed the "fat one" in the hit singing trio Wilson Phillips and her weight trouble started early on. She says she picked up erratic eating habits from her famously troubled father, Brian Wilson of the '60s pop sensation The Beach Boys.

Wilson described being the "heaviest" one in her school classes. "I would come home and cry and be just devastated, you know, frustrated, and I would eat more," said Wilson.

After years of disastrous dieting she turned to surgery and vowed it was the last time the world would see her so large. The operation reconfigured her digestive tract and reduced her stomach to the size of an egg, it's a procedure that 145,000 Americans had last year.

And for Wilson -- it was a success. She lost 152 pounds, which she describes as half her own weight.

A year after her surgery, Hollywood was buzzing. Carnie Wilson had a new body, new confidence and a new husband, musician Rob Bonfiglio.

While she's still recording music and is a special correspondent on "Entertainment Tonight," now her real focus is gastric bypass education, including appearing as a paid spokeswoman in an infomercial where she proclaims she has a disease and is "not ashamed to admit it."

She considers herself an "unofficial" poster child for gastric bypass surgery and does not mind the title.

"If I'm known as the girl that lost weight and it's been six years later and I've still kept off the 110 pounds, God bless. Because I never kept off 100 pounds before in my life," said Wilson.

Gaining Weight … For a Baby

Wilson, now 37, is no longer at her fighting weight, but she has a very good reason. She's a new mom, with a 7-month-old daughter named Lola Sophia.

Doctors had advised waiting 18 months to conceive after the surgery, and Wilson could have safely had a baby like any other woman. She waited five years.

When pregnant she often asked her husband, "Do I look like a big, a big cow?,' said Wilson. "He would say, 'You're pregnant, you're beautiful.'"

She gained 70 pounds during the pregnancy soaring to 240 pounds. Obviously, that tiny new stomach can stretch -- and she could eat more since she was eating for two. Now that she's working to shed those pounds, she said the process is the same struggle it would have been before the surgery.

She'll stick to a strict regimen to lose the weight, eating protein first with little snacking and lots of exercise.

"I'm going to go back down to my smallest weight," said Wilson. "I have about 38 pounds to go and that would make me 150.

"I thank God I have enough energy now, where I can stand up without having achy feet. You know I can move around, I can do what I want to do. I'll be there for my daughter. I can chase her around the house when she starts to walk," said Wilson.

She said the weight will always be on her mind, and that's her way of remaining in check.

"My life is gratitude now; it's an attitude of gratitude,' said Wilson. "And I'm grateful that I'm sitting there looking at that macaroni and cheese right there and that, yeah, I want some but I'll be OK if I don't have any … that's big!" >>>>