Bollywood actor Taapsee Pannu has spoken candidly about the pressure to achieve a perfectly flat midriff, revealing that she once pushed herself excessively in pursuit of an ideal body image. She urged fans to embrace their bodies and avoid putting themselves through extreme measures merely for social media-perfect photographs.Taapsee Pannu urges girls not to be obsessed with having flat mid-riff.Taapsee Pannu recalls ‘torturing’ herself for a flat mid-riffOn Sunday, Taapsee took to Instagram stories and spoke about the obsession with having a flat midriff and said, "I remember I had this obsession because while growing up, I was extremely fit, but I never understood why the lower belly fat always stayed. I worked out intensely almost to an extent that I overpushed myself, and rightly said, when you overpush yourself, it rings an alarm in your brain that your body needs protection."She further shared a message for fans and said, "So instead of actually losing water retention, the body starts retaining it and then that lower belly fat, which might actually not just be fat, it’s also water retention, it stays, and it increases by overworking out, which I really believe people should not do."Taapsee continued to explain how every woman has a different body and that they should not expect their midriff to look the same every day because a woman’s body goes through several hormonal changes. She said, “It cannot look like any other girl, so you need to accept this. I accepted it very late after really torturing myself, and then I realised that there are some days it happens and there are some days it doesn’t happen. My nutritionist Munmun Ganeriwal explained it to me how it’s actually important to have that little bit of fat, a little bit of water retention under the belly because that’s where your reproductive organs are, and they need protection, and by virtue of being a woman, you need that protection."She concluded, "It's healthy for you. So just to get those picture-perfect Instagram pictures, please don't torture yourself. It's supposed to be healthy to have that little bit of bulge and have that fat there. Please don't torture yourself."Taapsee Pannu's recent and upcoming workTaapsee was most recently seen in the film Assi. Helmed by Anubhav Sinha, the courtroom drama also featured Kani Kusruti, Revathy, Manoj Pahwa, Kumud Mishra and Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub in key roles. The film received critical acclaim but failed to perform well at the box office, ending its theatrical run with ₹14.94 crore worldwide. She will next be seen in the Netflix film, Gandhari.Gandhari is directed by Devashish Makhija and written by Kanika Dhillon, who also produced it under Kathha Productions. It tells the story of a mother who perseveres in her search for her kidnapped child, as per the film’s team. The film is expected to be released on Netflix this year. It also stars Swastika Mukherjee and Ishwak Singh.