Adam Richman found himself in the midst of a giant controversy last month when a hashtag on Instagram caught the attention of a woman who called him out on it and he responded harshly, leading to a media blitz that brought their online conversation to light and ended with Richman’s Travel Channel show, Man Finds Food, being shelved right before it was due to premiere. Now, however, the foodie and longtime television host has found a new home on NBC with Food Fighters, and has apologized for his reaction on the social media site.

Richman had posted a photo of a suit after losing quite a bit of weight and captioned it, “Had ordered this suit from a Saville Row tailor over a year ago. Think I’m gonna need to take it in a little…. #Victory #EyesOnThePrize #AnythingIsPossible #fitness #transformation #thinspiration”. The hashtag #thinsperation is often associated with pro-anorexia groups, however, and when a woman pointed it out to Richman, he took it as an attack and responded with an expletive-filled rant. He later apologized publicly, saying he’d struggled with body image for a good part of his life.

“I’ve long struggled with my body image and have worked very hard to achieve a healthy weight. I’m incredibly sorry to everyone I’ve hurt,” he said.

Richman says he has maintained his weight loss by staying vigilant about what he eats rather than letting himself get back into old habits.

“A lot of it is just keeping sort of calorically vigilant, for lack of a better term. I’m still going to appreciate something fried or maybe a baked good. But it’s about being kind of shrewd when I choose to indulge and just staying relatively active. It’s just even the difference of parking a little further if you’re driving somewhere, just making sure you get in a certain amount of walking, a certain amount of movement,” he said.

Food Fighters pits amateur cooks against professional chefs and will debut tonight at 8 p.m.

Image via YouTube