America Ferrera struggled to stick to triathlon diet

Actress America Ferrera says he had a tough time sticking to a healthy diet while training for her first triathlon because she was 'starving' all the time.

The 32-year-old '

Ugly Betty

' star was one of the hundreds of athletes participating in the Nautica Malibu Triathlon in Malibu, California last month, when she took on the strenuous challenge of a half mile (0.8 kilometre) swim, an 18 mile (28.9 kilometre) bicycle course, and a four mile (6.4 kilometre) run.

America, 32, trained for months for the race, which she tackled with her husband Ryan Piers Williams, and she confesses the hardest part of her triathlon preparation was eating only nutritious foods all the time, reported Contactmusic.

"I trained for five months... It was so hard! Swimming is so hard, and also, when you're done swimming, you're starving. I've never been so hungry than when I'm done swimming," she said.

"Feeding yourself is the hardest part of training, I find, because I'm hungry every hour-and-a-half, two hours. I have to eat something and it's hard to always have something healthy, and it's not just like (any) food, you need food with the right stuff, protein, iron, and all that kind of stuff.