Padma Shares the Secret Drink to Shed 'Top Chef' Pounds

Padma Lakshmi always looks good: just take one look at her bikini shots on Instagram. But she admits that when she's filming the series, it's pretty easy for her to gain unwanted weight. So she's come up with a special concoction to help ensure that doesn't happen.

"During shooting, my body takes a toll physically, I normally gain 15 pounds during one season of Top Chef," she tells Food and Wine. "There's a lot of meat, a lot of fat. The contestants are there to win, so they make the food as luscious and decadent as possible."

While that sounds delicious, Padma is sharing her secret to combating those pounds gained from consuming all that tasty food.

"So I wind up consuming a lot of heavy, rich food," she continues. "In fact, I eat double what Tom and Gail and Hugh have to eat on the show because I am there for all the quick fires. I actually created a special concoction to drink during the show."

So what's Padma's secret? "It consists of 4 ounces of pure unsweetened cranberry juice, 4 to 6 ounces of water, one packet of vitamin C powder and one packet of clear Metamucil fiber," she reveals. "I'll drink four to five of these per episode. It's painfully tart and sour, like drinking my own personal Drano."

Once the show wraps up, the work is hardly over. "My doctor and I are very aware of the constant weight fluctuation, so after filming, I go into food detox for 10 to 12 weeks, cutting out meat and bread," she says, adding, "Though I will eat rice. I get very bitchy if I don't have carbs."

[Source: Food and Wine]