New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand said her male colleagues called her "porky" and made other sexist comments about her weight after she gave birth.
Gillibrand, a known crusader against sexual harassment in the military, recalls in her new book the harassment she endured when she went from size 4 to size 16 after childbirth.
"You know, Kirsten, you're even pretty when you're fat," one southern congressman told Gillibrand, according to a New York Post article highlighting parts of her book.
"I believe his intentions were sweet, even if he was being an idiot," said Gillibrand, who was reelected to the Senate in 2010. She served in the House from 2007 until 2009 when Governor David Paterson appointed her to the Senate.
The remarks got more outrageous, with one male colleague telling her at the House gym one day it was a good thing she was working out, "because you wouldn't want to get porky!"
"Thanks, a-- hole," the mother of two said in her book "Off the Sidelines: Raise Your Voice, Change the World," which comes out Sept. 9.
Even after losing 50 pounds, the remarks about her weight still came pouring in.
"Don't lose too much weight now," one of Gillibrand's favorite male senators said as he came up behind her and squeezed her waist. "I like my girls chubby."
Gillibrand's book is filled with examples of the sexism she experienced in the nation's male-dominated legislature - there are 20 women in the Senate and 79 in the House.
Things in state legislatures are not much different. Women comprise 24.2 percent of all the state legislators, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Gillibrand has previously spoken out about how more women need to be elected. In an interview with People magazine promoting her book, the senator said she will do all she can to help Hillary Clinton run for president if she decides to do so.
But Gillibrand herself has no plans to run in 2016.
"I really like where I am," she told People.
