Kate Upton.Jordan Strauss/AP

Supermodel Kate Upton may be taking on more movie roles, but she is not acting around when she steps into the gym. In a recent interview with Shape, the 25-year-old actress spoke about how she worked her way up to lifting 500-pound weights and stopped looking at the scale.

Here's what she did to change her approach to diet and exercise.

Hip thrusts, sled pulls, and deadlifts are just a few of the exercises Upton's trainer Ben Bruno has her doing. But Upton had to work her way up to lifting heavy weights and wasn't quick to jump onboard.

"When I started training with him, he would say, 'Let's put 500 pounds on the sled,' and I would immediately say, 'I can't do that,'" she told Shape. "So he started standing on the sled so I couldn't see how much weight was on there. Now my attitude has changed completely, and I'm always pushing myself to do more."

And she actually has been pushing more and more weight on the sled, as Bruno posted to Instagram.

"To me, exercise is about working really hard in the gym to be healthy and feel good and confident about my body," she said. "Weight training helps me do that the best. Lifting heavy weights leans you out if you do it the correct way."

She has worked hard to learn how to lift the right way.

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, especially for Upton who trains earlier on in the day. She likes to eat a lot of protein and calls herself "a female Popeye" because of how much spinach she eats.

"I always have breakfast because I can't do a hard workout if I don't eat," she said. "I usually have eggs and spinach beforehand or an omelet with a bunch of veggies in it and maybe a little feta. If I'm at the gym acting like a badass lifting all those weights, it would be pretty embarrassing if I fainted."

Upton claims that to deal with the pressure of the fashion industry and to have to be a certain weight, she took herself out of the conversation and started focusing on her strength not her size.

"Once I started focusing on being strong and doing weight training, I became the size that I needed to be for modeling," she said. "I changed the battle inside my head to be about strength and having balance in my life instead of fitting into a pair of jeans."

A few of the things Upton mentioned in her interview include wine, french fries, chocolate, chips, cheese, and bread and she definitely isn't into deprivation. While the model likes to stick with healthier options to fuel her everyday, she isn't afraid to indulge occasionally and even eats one "bad" food daily.

"I like to have a little 'bad' every day," she said. "Having a treat makes you feel like it's worth it."

Not only has Upton's confidence been boosted with weight training, but so has her physical strength, appetite, and desire to be a "badass" every day and it's inspiring us, too.

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25-year-old supermodel Kate Upton says weightlifting completely changed her body and outlook on fitness - INSIDER