What's Padma Lakshmi's Dress Size?

Padma Lakshmi’s got a great gig. As the host of Top Chef, the exotic beauty gets to travel the world and taste incredible cuisine. But it doesn’t come without consequences—just look in her closet.

”If you were in my closet, you would see things in a size 2 and you would see things in a size 12,” she tells the Associated Press, admitting that within a season she’ll usually go up two dress sizes.

And some seasons are understandably worse than others based on their locale. “In Chicago, I went up three dress sizes,” she says. “It was that damn deep dish pizza challenge that threw me off in the first episode.”

When she’s not telling cheftestants to put their utensils down and hands up, Padma follows a strict diet, but takes her time losing the pounds she puts on in-season. Typically it takes her twice as long to lose the weight she’s gained.

But she embraces the ability to be exposed to the array of recipes. “I don’t want to live my life scared of food or what I’m putting in my mouth because that’s not sexy either,” she explains.

So how does she slim down in the off-season? By eating a mostly vegetarian diet—and she suggests that you give it a try too. “Try a new recipe in the weekend when you’re not stressed, when you don’t have four hungry mouths to feed,” she says. “Make it a fun activity.”

[Source: Associated Press]