Supermodel Tyra Banks Reveals What She Eats In a Day That Helps Her Stay In Shape

In February this year, ESSENCE magazine rolled out a story about “the walk that changed the industry.” On the front cover of the issue was the photograph of Tyra Banks; her glossed fingernails resting on her chocolate-toned cheek, her eyes highlighted in hues of silvery charcoal, her sculpted face pouring an attitude of a lioness untamed. Everybody knew. Tyra, a.k.a. “SMiZE,” was back. After a long break of 20 years, the leading fashion model finally opened her doors to the paparazzi as she walked down the runway in 2024.

Cameras blushed with woo and pride as they flashed their lights on the gorgeous supermodel catwalking for Victoria’s Secret in her black and silver ensemble, bedazzled with a fantasy bra, sparkly leggings, strappy heels, and voluminous curly afro hair. Despite juggling with her menopause struggles and losing her home in the California wildfires, the 51-year-old model has returned with a smashdown. “Some strike a pose. I cast a spell,” she recently wrote on Instagram. Her curious fans are now flocking to a 2020 #FoodDiaries episode of Harper’s BAZAAR, where she revealed the secret diet she fuels up on to be the zippy glow-getter that she is.

She starts her day with coffee, the American swimsuit model revealed. As soon as she opens her eyes, she calls in for a cup of sugarless coffee, particularly one flavored with fresh vanilla or caramel. “I love my coffee,” she said. Post coffee, she has her special bagel routine, which is akin to a “science project.” "I cut the bagel in half and then I scoop out all that extra bagel and put that on the side," she told Harper's BAZAAR. "Then I take my whipped cream cheese and I dig deep into that pot of it. And I fill up the entire scooped-out bagel rounds like a moat. But I am not finished yet. Then I take that plate of cream cheese bagel and I put it inside the microwave."  

The breakfast is hearty, but the fashion model slash businesswoman doesn’t get much time to grab her lunch. So, she relies on her “snack box,” which jingles with relatively healthy munchies like sesame bar, soya chips, corn chips, bean chips, natural licorice, and cauliflower puffs. “So I open bag after bag and eat them all one by one,” she described, adding that there are typically as many as nine snack bags in front of her that she gobbles up on as part of her afternoon routine. Sometimes, she orders burgers from multiple restaurants and compares them. Impractical but delicious. In a 2019 post, she also shared her obsession with matcha, the Japanese green tea.

For dinner, Tyra “loves doing something that’s a little special and a little bit indulgent.” She orders the same food item from two different restaurants, like nachos, burgers, or Mexican, and then scores them with her family so they know which restaurant is a better option for the next order. “We line it up, and then we score the different restaurants with the same item. The next time you order, you know where to order from,” the Victoria’s Secret model explained. And given the fact that she runs her own ice cream brand, SMiZE & DREAM, her dinner is not complete without a bowl of cool ice cream. In an Instagram post, she mentioned that she's obsessed with ice cream.

Food, she said, is one of the “most important things in [her] life.” In an earlier episode of The Tyra Show, she stated her non-preference for diets, per US Magazine. She said diets are “a bunch of bologna” and “It's not about being skinny. It's about getting in the best shape that you can be." She even threw a clapback at some nasty body shamers by saying “kiss my fat a**” when they shamed her for her little weight gain, PEOPLE reported. The bootylicious supermodel likes to hold her head up.