Evangeline Lilly took 2 years to lose her baby weight (and she's not sorry about it)

Don't expect a proclamation from Evangeline Lilly that she bounced back after baby.

Instead, the "Ant-Man and the Wasp" star is refreshingly candid about what it took to get her superhero figure after having two children, ages 2 and 7, with her partner, Norman Kali.

By phone, Lilly, 38, speaks openly about her fitness routine (she's never had a trainer) and her diet (yes, she's tried it all).

"You see those headlines that say, 'I lost my baby weight in three months!' And I used to read that and I would think, why would you want to lose your baby weight in three months? Don’t you need that?" she tells USA TODAY. "I was a nursing mom, so I needed that fat."

Lilly says she was "just very patient and gentle with myself after I had my children. I realized my body was exactly the way my body was supposed to be during that period of my life. And I nursed my children, both of them, for nearly a year. So, after that I didn’t attack my body, like, ‘Now you’re going to go back to where you were!’ "

Instead, the movie star began with baby steps, taking brisk walks or going for a light jog. She says it took her about two years to get back to where her body had been pre-pregnancies. "And I felt really good about two years! I felt like two years made sense to me."

The actress doesn't judge those who shed the pounds faster ("that's their prerogative") — but she pushes back at the notion that new moms should bounce back for their husbands.

"My partner loved every bump and curve of me when I was taking care of our children," Lilly says. "There was nothing sexier to him than me providing those nutrients and love to our children. There is more than one way of doing it, ladies, and my way is two years!"

These days, you can sample Wasp workouts on her Instagram. Though she's never had a trainer or a nutritionist, Lilly spent her twenties experimenting.

"I tried all kinds of crazy stuff: I tried Atkins. For a very brief period, for two weeks when I was 19 or 20, I tried diet pills," she admits. "I tried long-long-long-distance running ... I've been a gym rat. I've tried different styles of eating, like little portions all through the day or big meals three times a day or not eating after 5 p.m. or drinking a huge glass of water before every meal."

Now?

The Marvel star says she stays in sync with her body. "I've experimented with my own body to find my own solutions and my own ways," she says. "And what I feel is the only hard and true rule we can use is that the first thing you have to do is learn how to listen to your own body and then try things. Your body will tell you, this is not good for me."

For more on how Lilly has coped with fame, predators like Harvey Weinstein and the Me Too movement, click here.

WPXI