When Chris Shea found a diet that actually worked, he was excited to share it with the world.

So the chef put his secrets to weight-loss success — including the salad that helped him shed 45 pounds — on the menu of his Midtown American restaurant, the Wayfarer.

“Back in the day, I would have made this dish with 4 pounds of butter,” he tells The Post, pointing to his Scottish salmon entree with a pureed asparagus. “Now, I sweat the asparagus, blanch it in water and puree it with spinach and a little bit of cheese.”

Shea, 41, dropped all that weight over the past year with a modified paleo diet, composed of barely any carbs, tons of vegetables, limited dairy and some healthy fats. The soft-spoken Washington Heights native says a new emphasis on cooking simple but healthy meals has made him a more focused chef.

“Food used to just have to be delicious. But the best chefs want you to feel good, too,” says Shea, who competed on “Top Chef Masters” in its fifth season.

“I’m much more aware of what my meal needs: fat, protein, minimal carbs. Whatever’s on the plate is on there for a reason.”

He wasn’t always such a conscientious eater. On weekends, “I used to have doughnuts for breakfast, pizza for lunch,” Shea says. Those calories added up, and at this time last year, the chef found himself pushing 220 pounds. One day, at his son’s little league game, he could almost feel the extra pounds physically weighing him down.

“It was really hot, and everyone was running around. But I just felt like I couldn’t move — like I wasn’t mobile. It was scary.”

Plus, he adds, “my blood pressure was out of control, and my cholesterol was way up.” Heart disease runs in Shea’s family, and the father of two was getting genuinely worried.

“My kids are 7 and 3. God forbid I have a heart attack,” he says.

With that fear driving him, he got started right away on a diet and exercise plan. He took up kung fu — an old hobby — for exercise.

“It was the first time I wore sneakers in eight years,” he says, with a laugh. “When you’re on your feet all day, you think you’re relatively in shape, but getting back into exercising was a real challenge.”

At the urging of his father, who also eats paleo, Shea tried the protein-heavy diet. He found it pretty joyless at first: “I ate chicken and broccoli because I thought that’s all I could eat.” But after tinkering around in the Wayfarer’s kitchen, he developed what’s now on the menu as the chicken paillard salad — one of the keys to his diet success, he says (see recipe below).

“I ate this every day for months,” he says of the filling entree, packed with vegetables and fruits like escarole hearts and apple, plus plenty of protein-packed chicken. It’s topped with a light, but creamy, dairy-free almond dressing.

He also just introduced a protein shake, similar to the one he now makes for his staff at their pre-shift family meal. The shake he makes has bananas, almond milk, chocolate protein powder, peanut butter and cold brew.

“We have it around 4:30 p.m., and there’s usually about eight to 10 of us, so I make a few blenders of it,” says Shea.

Of course, when Sunday comes along, he cuts himself some slack.

“I don’t squander my cheat day,” he says. “But if I’m gonna have a doughnut, it’s gotta be the best one in the city.”

By the end of the summer, he hopes to drop an additional 15 pounds. All the motivation he needs is right there in his kitchen, from the new paleo foods he’s incorporated into his menu to his newer, shinier self.

“More stuff gets done because I’m more mobile and have a lot more energy,” he says. “If you don’t spend a couple extra minutes prioritizing what you eat, you run on way less than your potential.”

Almond vinaigrette
• 1 cup sliced, toasted almonds
• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
• 1 cup honey
• 1 shallot, minced
• 1 tablespoon fresh thyme
• ½ cup rice wine vinegar
• 1.5 cups canola oil
• 1 tablespoon almond oil
• 1 tablespoon salt
• ½ tablespoon black pepper
Use an immersion blender to combine almonds, mustard, vinegar, honey, shallots, salt and pepper. Slowly drizzle in oils. Loosen mixture with up to ¼ cup water if necessary.

Salad
• 4 chicken breasts
• 2 tablespoon canola oil
• Salt and pepper
• 1 lemon
• 1 shallot, minced
• 1 cup white wine
• 1 cup chicken stock
• 1 sprig thyme
• 1 clove garlic
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• Leaves from 1 head escarole
• ½ head radicchio, cubed
• Almonds
• Granny smith apple, sliced

Pre-heat a large, thick-bottom skillet with canola oil. Season the chicken with salt and pepper and sear until golden brown. Roast at 350 degrees until cooked through (15 minutes). Remove chicken; set aside. Return pan to stove; add shallots and garlic, then deglaze with white wine. Add chicken stock and reduce. Add thyme and finish with olive oil.

Toss greens with almond dressing, almonds and apple slices. Arrange sliced roasted chicken on plate; drizzle with mixture from pan and a squeeze of lemon.