Padma Lakshmi showed off her Pilates-toned bikini body on Instagram, where she proved she’s as hot as ever at age 46.
Lakshmi, who gains 10 to 15 pounds while filming “Top Chef” every season, stays in top shape with diet and exercise.
Padma’s weight loss secrets are a wheat-free, mostly vegetarian diet, cardio exercise, and Pilates workouts, as Celebrity Health Fitness has reported.
“I have a little poem that keeps me on track when I need to lose weight: No meat, no sweets, no wheat, no cheese, no alcohol, no fried food,” Lakshmi wrote on her blog.
The 5-foot-9 former model eats everything while shooting “Top Chef,” but follows a mostly vegetarian diet when she’s not filming.
Lakshmi said she feels more energetic and healthier on a plant-based diet.
The weight loss and health effects of vegan and vegetarian diets are no surprise to obesity expert and nutritionist Lindsay Nixon.
A diet of minimally processed foods close to nature — predominantly plants — is associated with health and disease prevention, said Nixon, author of Happy Herbivore Light & Lean.
Health expert and vegetarian chef Jonathan Vine agrees.
A vegetarian diet is full of antioxidants which protect the body from age-related damage by free radicals, said Vine, author of Vegetarian Weight Loss.
Other celebrity vegetarians include Madonna and Shania Twain, who both tout the weight loss and health benefits of vegetarian diets.
Lakshmi’s other healthy habits are simple home remedies.
“I drink a homemade cleanse of two ounces of pure cranberry juice, six ounces of either green tea or plain water, one Emergen-C Vitamin C packet, and a teaspoon of fiber powder three times a day,” she revealed.
“I also drink two to three liters of water a day.”
In addition to her dietary discipline, it helps that Padma is a fitness fanatic who typically exercises several days a week for 45 to 120 minutes per session.
Lakshmi, author of the cookbook Tangy Tart Hot and Sweet, boxes, runs on the treadmill and lifts weights to maintain her age-defying bikini body.
Padma also does yoga and Pilates workouts. Pilates is an excellent low-impact way to lose weight and tone your entire body, said fitness expert Cassey Ho, author of Hot Body Year Round.