The Top Chef diet looks good on Padma Lakshmi.
As the host and judge of the Bravo show for 14 seasons, Lakshmi has previously told PEOPLE that all of those quickfire and elimination challenges add up to about 8,000 calories per day when she’s filming. She even claims to have gained 17 lbs. in one season as she plowed through deep dish pizzas in Chicago.
Now that the cameras are rolling in Colorado for the new season, Lakshmi is showing off those results on Instagram, looking stunning in a royal blue bikini.
“Week 5 of filming and hips getting rounder, thighs getting thicker…,” she captioned the poolside shot with a gorgeous view of the rocky mountains in the background.
“I’m the only person on Top Chef who consumes every single thing that’s made,” Lakshmi told PEOPLE last March. “And I’m doing this every day, for weeks on end. And so, you feel just drunk and full of food.” (Tom Colicchio, for the record, says he losesweight during filming.)
Once the season wraps, she goes into a total “food detox,” cutting out “alcohol, sweets, all dairy, except non-fat yogurt and cottage cheese, red meat, all things fried and all sugar.”
The new season of Top Chef is expected to premiere later this year.