January 1 is here and you’re stressing about the weight you’ve just vowed to lose, right? Well, stop. Turns out the 5 to 10 pounds many of us gained between Thanksgiving and New Year’s may be the greatest gift we could give ourselves. This pertains especially to women over 35, like me and Heidi Klum.

In a recent Self interview, Klum revealed this tip for aging gracefully: “The ultimate beauty secret for a woman getting older is, Don’t be too thin! It is always better to have a little meat on your bones.”

My best friend Sophie Patitz, another German top model who is both stunning and sensible, gave me the same advice a few years ago. At the time I was thrilled to have reached my old modeling fighting weight, only to be advised by her that my thin face made me look older.

After the initial sting, I launched into a hearty meal and have been grateful ever since. Heidi concurs, “When you are just muscle, you end up being gaunt in the face, and that makes you look older by 5 or 10 years.”

Which is why I’ve vowed to gain weight.

If you don’t believe it, check out these before and after celebrity pics:

Could it be Gwyneth Paltrow looks better now than in 2000? A touch of chipmunk, not chisel, suits her better.

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On the flipside…

How can it be that Angelina aged five to ten years in a little over a year? She lost weight. A bit of post-baby fat is a good thing.

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Calista Flockhart seemed borderline anorexic a decade ago. While still svelte, she weighs more than a feather now and has a fuller face. As a result, it hardly looks like these two photos span 11 years.

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Ten years ago, Nicole Kidman went through a thin phase. Now she’s looking more robust and, like Flockhart, possibly younger, not ten years older. Without the extra pounds, we would be talking gaunt or we wouldn’t be talking at all-Hollywood may have written her off as too old.

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Demi Moore must think thinner makes her look closer to her hubby’s age. Not so. A year ago she looked not a day over 40. With a slimmer, more severe look 12 months later, she could pass for her actual age of 48.

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Happy New Year ladies. Go forth and gorge!

Now, first of all, I have an issue with the way this story is framed. The article includes a photo of Ward walking in the Chanel show that apparently did her in. The picture reveals a girl who may be in the “normal” weight range for the general public, but, let’s face it, models are held to a higher standard. Models needn’t be emaciated (more on that later), but they do have to maintain a fairly consistent size so the clients booking them know what to expect. That’s just part of the job. By the looks of Ward’s thighs in this shot, I would say Chanel was betrayed, not the model. It’s one thing to tell a toothpick-sized girl to lose weight; it’s another to tell a supermodel making $3 million a year that if she lets herself go, she’s out. I’d say that’s fair enough. Ward continued to gain weight after her infamous Chanel appearance, which is totally fine—most women do as they hit their 20s (I gained my freshman-15 back then and had a jolly time doing it!). But, by doing so, Ward made the choice to move on, reportedly to acting. Good for her. After making millions, why not?

So why do I say it’s better to be a model than a supermodel? Well, when you are just a lowly model, if anyone is discussing the size of your thighs, it’s a client and/or your agent, not press and bloggers worldwide. Also, you are likely to have a couple of extra inches wiggle room before anyone gets into a heated discussion about your measurements. Most of my 5’10″ modeling friends and I hovered near 130 pounds. According to Horne’s article, 5’9″ top model Natalia Vodianova received complaints from clients when she weighed 115 and 5’10″ Coco Rocha resorted to diuretics when she was told to drop below 108! All I can say is that I, at 124 pounds (achieved due to a crush on a male model, not any extreme diet measures) was told to gain weight (German clients—bless them).

I’m not saying models of the non-super variety are exempt from the weight watch. I did get some flak about cellulite once or twice and about my widening middle when I overdid it at Christmas and showed up for a swimwear shoot packing a few extra pounds. My response? Well, yes, I have cellulite and it’s unsightly stuff, and yes, I shouldn’t show up at a shoot without the waist that appeared on my comp card. That’s false advertising. And I’m not saying the fashion world isn’t vicious at the top or that some of the girls walking the big-time runways aren’t sickeningly skinny and that some of them got that way through sick means; I’m just saying forget the millions at the top and stick with the five-to-six-figure career—there are burgers and beer down here, not barfing and bad press.