Inside chef Sanjyot Keer's diet and fitness regime: He skips breakfast, still eats roti, treats cooking as meditation

Exclusive interview: Sanjyot Keer is always around food, so how does he actually stay fit? We asked the chef, and his answer is refreshingly simple.

If you watch food videos in India, you know Sanjyot Keer. He’s the man behind Your Food Lab, the chef who made restaurant-style cooking feel doable in your home kitchen, and the co-founder of Kura, a kitchenware brand. But here’s the wild part: He spends 12 to 14 hours a day literally surrounded by ghee, butter, gravies, and dessert. He’s cooking, tasting, shooting, and then tasting again.

So how does he stay fit when his entire job is food? In an exclusive interview with Hindustan Times, Sanjyot broke down his entire lifestyle playbook — from his 2 pm first meal to why he eats chapati and bhakri (millet flatbread), to the quiet Sikh mantra he chants between shots. And honestly? It’s one of the most practical wellness routines you'd hear in a long time.

He treats fitness like a work requirement, not a vanity project

For most, working out is about looking good and feeling good. For Sanjyot, it’s about being able to do his job without collapsing. “I realised this pretty early that if I had to stand for about 12-14 hours in a single day or a shift to just cook in the kitchen, my body needs to be pretty fit,” he says.

His diet isn’t a diet, it’s just home food

You'd expect Sanjyot to say he does a no-sugar diet, or counts every macro, or lives on grilled chicken and air. But that's hardly the case. “A lot of people I meet, they tell me, ‘You are always around food, how do you manage to look how you look right now?’ But it is just about some very basic, small things that you need to take care of,” he says, adding, “You don't really need to go to the depths of following a very specific diet, and being very strict with it. If the food is wholesome and home-cooked, you'll always do well.”

Sanjyot's daily routine is almost intermittent fasting, but not the strict, app-tracked kind. It just fits his late-night shoot life. “For years, I haven’t eaten breakfast. So my first meal is always at around 2 pm, and my last meal of the day, I try to have it before 10 pm,” he says.

And what does a chef who can cook anything in the world actually eat on a normal day? It’s so Indian, so simple, you’ll want to copy it. “Today, for example, I’m going to have lauki (bottle gourd) for lunch. There’s also going to be moong and masoor dal with bhakri. I’ll have a nice bowl of carrots and cucumbers, something like a salad, and a glass of chaas (buttermilk). It’s pretty simple,” he says. “And then for dinner, I think today I’m going to have some chicken and rice at night with some veggies, like a stir-fry," he adds.

'I do a lot of portion control'

Notice what’s missing? No superfood you’ve never heard of. No imported quinoa or kale that you'd have to hunt for. And yes, Sanjyot still eats carbs. “I don’t do a gluten-free diet or anything like that. I like my chapati, I like my bhakri. I think you can eat anything you want as long as you know what your body can withstand. Your body tells you what not to eat," he says.

Sanjyot's only real rule is portion control — it’s intuitive eating, chef-style. “I do a lot of portion control where I eat everything, but then I know my limits. I know how much my body can take, and that’s something I really watch," he explains.

His workout is 50% weights, 50% just going outside

Sanjyot is in the studio almost all day. Cameras, bright lights, heat from the stove. So his fitness has to account for that. He says he tries to lift weights at least four times a week — non-negotiable for burning off all that food testing and tasting. But his favourite workout? Walking. Not on a treadmill. Outside.

“I’m always in my studio. So, and this is not walking on the treadmill, it is just walking outside. I want to catch some light and be outside of my kitchen because I spend about 12, 13, 14 hours a day in my kitchen,” he shares.

He’s also honest about not having it all figured out: “My workout timing depends, sometimes in the day, sometimes in the night. So I don’t have a proper routine for that. One thing I want to do is find more time in the day to work out a little more. Sometimes I tend to skip my workout because of work. If I can dedicate one slot every single day for that, I want to do that.”

Relatable? Absolutely. Even the chef who has millions of followers skips leg day because work got crazy.

He’s not anti-supplement, he’s just pro-common sense

In an era when everyone is pushing protein powder, Sanjyot’s take on supplements is balanced. He doesn’t do a 10-pill morning stack. He uses supplements only when his lifestyle demands it. “I don’t have any issues with protein powders and supplements. Whenever I have a more rigorous training schedule, I don’t mind taking a protein supplement if I’m not having enough protein from my diet. Take supplements wherever you know that your diet, your routine, or your lifestyle is not letting you get that naturally,” he says.

For example, during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival, he goes vegetarian: “During Ganpati, I won’t have non-vegetarian food for like 10 days... So I might pop in a protein bar, a little bit of a protein shake or something like that.” It’s not cheating. It’s bridging the gap. He believes supplements are support, not a substitute — a takeaway more of us need.

His anti-burnout mantra is not what you think

Creator burnout is real. Daily shoots, managing a team, building a brand — it’s exhausting. Sanjyot’s fix isn’t a digital detox retreat in Goa or Bali. It’s gratitude, on loop: “My only mental care check-in is just looking around me and seeing what we’ve been able to achieve and what we’ve been able to achieve to our viewers, to our consumers.”

“Looking at all of that, I always have gratitude. And that comes in 10, 20, maybe 50 times a day — I have a lot of gratitude for the kind of opportunities I’ve got today," he adds. Every DM from someone who cooked his recipe, every person who uses a Kura pan — that’s his recharge.

“When I hear those testimonials, when I see people utilising whatever we have created in the past 10 years, that tells me that you’re doing something right. That, I think, is enough for recharging me," Sanjyot shares.

And then there’s his quiet ritual, rooted in his Sikh upbringing: “I’m a Sikh. My mother, I’ve seen her growing up, and she’s always kind of chanting. She’s always taking Waheguru’s name. So that’s something that is there constantly... whenever I’m cooking, whenever I’m just thinking about product development, about anything, and I’m not talking to anybody, I just keep chanting that in my mind, sometimes loudly, sometimes just within. And that gives me that sense of calmness.”

No fancy meditation app. Just a name he’s heard since childhood, keeping him steady when the kitchen gets chaotic. And when it all gets too much, Sanjyot does what every true chef does — he cooks. But not for content. “Cooking itself has been meditation for me. Whenever I feel low or worked up, I just go and cook without needing to shoot or work. I just cook for my family. I’ll cook for my wife, my parents, and my friends. And that’s the best kind of meditation for me," he says.

The final dish

When asked what Sanjyot would tell his younger self — the kid who just wanted to cook for people — his answer sums up his entire journey: “If I just want to leave people with a message, I’d say that whatever you want to achieve, if you have dreams, just give it a chance. Today, Your Food Lab videos have been watched over a few billion times, not millions, but a billion times. So if I go back and think about that young kid who used to think about creating better kitchen experiences for people, we are right in the middle of that journey.”

And then, classic chef optimism: “Dreams really do come true. Every single day, your dreams just get bigger. So give your dreams a chance to live. Work consistently with a lot of persistence and a lot of belief, and find the right people to work with who make those dreams possible for you.”

No crash diet. No hustle-porn burnout speech. Just home-cooked sabzi and dal, daily walks, a quiet prayer, and a lot of gratitude.

Note to readers: This article is for informational purposes only and not a substitute for professional medical advice. Always seek the advice of your doctor with any questions about a medical condition.