Hilary Duff and Mandy Moore Dish on Diet Pressure

MSN.COM:Are you constantly watching the ups and downs of your waistline? Just imagine how tough it would be if everyone else were watching, too. Hilary Duff and Mandy Moore are speaking out about the scrutiny they've faced over their famous figures and how they've learned to cope with the pound pressure.

"Being in the public eye, it is really hard," Duff, 19, admits to Shape magazine, which features her on the cover in all her ab-tastic, red bikini-clad glory. "Everyone is constantly criticizing you and picking you apart. You see these magazines and people are enjoying themselves on the beach, and people are zooming in on their cellulite. They notice everything about their body. It is mean and it is hard to stay sane."

Sighs the starlet, who two years ago underwent an alarming slim-down that transformed her from healthy to hollow-cheeked, "People realize when you put five pounds on, or lose five pounds. You are never perfect for those people."

Duff attributes her current hard-bodied look to better eating habits (lots of veggies and protein) and regular exercise (Pilates and swimming).

"Work out," she suggests. "It makes you feel good to work out. It doesn't have to be strenuous and boring. What I [used to think] was when you work out, you have to break a sweat -- it is not about that."

Hilary is equally sensible with her diet, and recommends that you "eat what is good for your body and what gives you energy -- and feed your sweet tooth every once in a while. That is the best way to go."

It's a realistic approach echoed by Moore, 23, who has often talked about the trials and tribulations of being a sensationally statuesque size 6 in a size double-zero world.

"I feel better mentally -- even if I don't look any different -- when I'm putting forth the effort to exercise," she tells Us Weekly. "But having said that, it's not going to push me away if I want to have a cookie at the end of the day. You have to reward yourself every now and then."

Like Duff, she knows the burden of having her figure dissected by those who expect stars to attain an impossible standard of beauty, but she says she's happy to step up and be a curvy role model.

"Personally, if I weren't in the public eye, I would want someone in this position to just be normal because that's believable and that's acceptable and there's nothing wrong with it," maintains Mandy. "This is how we're supposed to look."

Still, that doesn't mean she's unwilling to bow to studio suits who expect a leading lady to be ultra-lean on the big screen.

"It's not a personal thing, it's something that I have to do for my job: shape up a little bit," says Moore, who is currently out stumping for the comedy "License to Wed." "If I have to slim down now for a film, I don't mind. I just look at it like I'm just changing my hair or something. If that's what I have to do for the character, then that's what I have to do."

Just don't expect her to eschew food while chained to an elliptical machine for hours a day.

"Being a young woman in this industry, there's enough pressure, it's hard enough as it is," asserts Mandy. "I felt like, for this job, you sacrifice so much already that the last thing I want to do is make myself feel really horrible."