(Cover) - EN Showbiz - Tyra Banks has declared that she never wants to lose her curves again.

The America's Next Top Model host says she has been on a weight rollercoaster for much of her life but now she is at a size that she is happy being.

She told Life & Style that although she is bigger than she was in her modelling days she really likes how she looks.

"I'm proud of my curves and my butt and my bust and my thicker thighs," she told the magazine.

She says that she was a "little bit reclusive" when she was a teenager due to her low self-esteem.

"At 14, 15-years-old I started to gain a little bit of weight and feel better about myself," the tall beauty said.

But when she received negative feedback stemming from a swimsuit photograph of her in 2006, Tyra said she made a decision to be more health conscious and enlisted her Top Model friends for help.

"We all made a pact to do a three-month- health and fitness challenge," the 37-year-old shared.

Although she lost 20lbs she remembered why she did not like being so thin in the past.

"I didn't like myself that small, so I gained back some weight," she revealed.

She says she now stays active but does not obsess about what she eats and has what she wants in moderation.

Tyra has a new book coming out called Modelland and says the message in the book is "really about expanding the definition of beauty". (C) Cover Media