‘Chopped’ Judge Maneet Chauhan Says She Lost Weight Without Giving up Chocolate

There’s a lot to love about Chopped (and Chopped Junior, of course). First and foremost, we love watching the chef’s faces when they open their baskets and are greeted with, say, calf eyeballs and candy canes. And, obviously, it’s always fun to see what wild concoctions the chefs come up with (like calf eyeball ice cream with a candy cane reduction).

But we also love the Chopped judges! One of our favorite judges on the show is Maneet Chauhan, who always has tons of great advice for the chefs on the show. Maneet decided to focus some of her energy on losing weight, and (as with so many of her endeavors) she succeeded with flying colors! Here’s what we learned about Maneet Chauhan’s weight loss journey.

“It was important for me to be healthy not only for the way I look or feel but also for the message that I was sending to my kids,” Maneet said in an interview with Parade. “I was telling them it’s OK to be overweight and not take care of yourself, and that’s not the message I want to send them.” While size is not necessarily an indicator of health, many people do choose to change up their habits as a way to serve as a role model for their kids.

As a chef, Maneet didn't feel as though she could do what many people do and turn to a restrictive diet. “I couldn’t go on a restrictive diet like keto or paleo because I eat for a living,” she said. Fair point! Rather than limiting the types of foods she ate, Maneet decided to track her calories with the help of an app (another type of restriction).

In addition to tracking calories going in, Maneet also took control of the calories she burned by taking at least 10,000 steps every day. Now, she says the changes she made in order to lose weight are just a part of her everyday life. “If I’m at the airport and the lounge is over there, I’m like, ‘No, I haven’t done my steps.’ So I walk from one end of the airport to the other with my suitcase.”

In addition to appearing regularly on Chopped, Maneet has published two cookbooks. Her most recent book, Chaat: Recipes from the Kitchens, Markets, and Railways of India, was inspired by an epic cross-country railway journey where she encountered all types of food from all over India. She and her husband run two restaurants in Nashville, and as previously mentioned, she's a mother of two kids. Talk about staying busy!

You can catch Maneet on episodes of Chopped, which airs on the Food Network Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET.