To increase your stomach capacity so that you can win your food challenge or eating contest, it is definitely recommended to use an increased amount of food AND water during your training regimen. Along with an increased amount of food typically comes an increased amount of calories though, so you need to be careful while training to not gain excessive amounts of weight. Gaining excess fat can not only potentially harm your health and figure, but it can also decrease your optimum performance level during your challenges & contests. Most active competitive eaters are aware of a concept developed years ago called the “Belt Of Fat Theory.” There is some scientific jargon involved, but the theory basically states that the more body fat you have around your waist and midsection, the more restricted your stomach muscles are from expanding to their maximum potential. Larger individuals with high amounts of stomach fat are not able to eat as much because all of that stomach fat restricts their stomach muscles from really expanding so that more food can be consumed. The “Belt Of Fat Theory” explains why the best competitive eaters today are fit and in shape, without a lot of body fat around their midsection. This also explains why very large individuals are not able to eat a lot in one sitting, even though there is a very common misconception that they can. This theory works for both men and women, which explains why there are some 110 pound females today eating more than their giant 350 pound male competitors. To be an elite professional eater, you need to maintain great physical health and fitness.

By reading Stomach Training Tips For Hardgainers, you learned that people with high metabolisms looking to gain muscle weight are able to eat a wide variety of high calorie foods during their stomach capacity training sessions. Since their goal is to gain weight, they get to have a lot more fun with all of the training options that are available to them. For people who do not have extremely high metabolisms that are prone to gaining weight, like me, we have to be very conscious of what foods we train with. If we have too many calories consistently for any period of time, we will gain excess stomach fat. The extra calories don’t just go away, and therefore they get stored as stomach-restricting body fat. While we cannot train with extra large deep-dish pizzas and all-you-can-eat pasta buffets, there are still many options that we can choose from. Many of these options are fruits and vegetables that are high in fiber and filled with quick digesting water. Here is a very solid list of lower calorie foods that competitive eaters train with to increase their stomach capacity while limiting excess weight gain:

Lettuce, Salad, Spinach, Cabbage, and Other Leafy Vegetables – The choice is up to you, and you can even choose multiple options, but these leafy vegetables are all extremely low in calories. No option is significantly better than the others, and it really just depends on what your preference is. The cabbage can be eaten raw or cooked depending on your preference. Along with the low amount of calories, there is a low amount of taste. To be able to enjoy whichever option you choose, you may need to add a low calorie or zero calorie sauce or salad dressing. Just remember that a bowl of salad drenched in high calorie salad dressing isn’t exactly the best option. One drawback to eating leafy vegetables is that it takes a lot longer to eat lettuce because of the texture. Remember when you are at the grocery store that it will take quite a bit of these options to reach a point that is beneficial to increasing your stomach capacity. You may have 1 pound of bricks and 1 pound of feathers, but know that it takes a lot more feathers than bricks to equal that 1 pound, so choose wisely.

Steamed Mixed Vegetables – While it would take forever to eat a large amount of raw broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, and peppers, it takes significantly less time to eat them when they are cooked or steamed. The added moisture and softness allows them to be eaten and swallowed much quicker. Vegetables such as broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, peas, and brussel sprouts all have a few more calories than the leafy green vegetables mentioned above, but they have a lot less calories than fruits, and more flavor than salad and cabbage. You may use a small serving of butter or cheese while cooking the mixed veggies, but don’t go overboard. You may be better off eating the veggies with low calorie sauces such as Frank’s Red Hot Sauce, Sriracha sauce. and mustard. Some may be included, but do not focus mostly on vegetables such as potatoes and corn because they have a high amount of carbohydrates. Eating five pounds of corn and potatoes would have a very high amount of calories. If you are financially able to, it may be easiest to buy many different bags of frozen mixed vegetables at the grocery store and cook them all together at home. That is what I usually do when training at my home.

Watermelon – This is option #2 for me, after the cooked mixed veggies mentioned above, because it is one of the lowest calorie fruits and also one of the least expensive too. Watermelon can be very delicious depending on whether it is in season or not. I typically buy a large enough watermelon to weigh around 10-12 pounds after removing the rind exterior. Seedless watermelons are loaded with water so you are able to get the stomach expanding benefits without a really long period of discomfort after training. It makes a great max out meal!!

Cantaloupe & Honeydew Melon – These are also popular fruits that are used by eaters to increase stomach capacity that are relatively inexpensive and lower in calories than many other foods, and quickly digested.

Grapes – There are many competitive eaters that train with grapes, but grapes are one of the more expensive AND caloric fruits that are available, and therefore not really the best choice. If you do train with grapes, make sure to chew the grapes and do not swallow them whole, which can definitely be a serious choking hazard.

The options above are all the easiest lower calorie foods to buy in bulk and conveniently eat large amounts of quickly. Training for your event should not be an extremely time consuming event, and therefore you should choose foods that are convenient. It will take some time to prepare whichever foods you choose, but some take longer than others. You can use fruits such as pineapple and grapefruit, but it will take many different ones to total up to a large amount to train with, and therefore be very time consuming. Along the same lines, you can eat apples, plums, and oranges, but it takes a lot of those fruits compared to preparing just one big watermelon. There are other vegetables too such as asparagus and green beans that can be thrown in with your other mixed vegetables, but the ones mentioned above are the most widely used and easiest to prepare. Buying pre-sliced fruit is an option, but with the added convenience comes a much higher price tag, so be sure to consider that.

If you are lucky enough to live near one, you may consider going to an all-you-can-eat salad bar buffet. Some grocery store salad bars have this option (more often in the USA of course) and some do not. These are very convenient and really cheap compared to the price you would have to pay for everything you ate separately. Combining different fruits and vegetables rather than just eating 1 particular food is a preferred method by many people because you are able to experience multiple different flavors which helps you eat more. You may want to try eating salad or cooked mixed veggies along with some fruits. That will also save you more calories than if you just ate the better tasting sugary fruits. These fruits and vegetables mentioned above are digested more quickly than other solid foods and are therefore great options to be used during your max out meal 18-22 hours before your competition. In today’s world, some fruits and vegetables can be more expensive than the others, so please check out the Stomach Capacity Training On A Budget article if you are concerned about that issue. Focusing on lower calorie foods when training will help you reduce your chances of gaining weight and excess body fat so that you can stay in shape and at the top of your game. If you know of a particular food that I have not included which should be on the list, comment below and I will get it added above for everyone else.

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A common complaint heard from people after losing an eating competition is that they didn’t have the money to train enough to win the competition beforehand. While it may be true that he or she is not loaded with money, using your low bank account as an excuse for not preparing well enough is not really a valid argument. In just about any kind of activity you do, there are ways to make it expensive and there are ways to make it pretty inexpensive. There is a difference between wanting and needing. You may want to increase your stomach capacity using steak and crab legs, but you only need a large watermelon and a large cup of free tap water. Here are ways to increase the size of your stomach without really decreasing the size of your precious bank account:

Cheap Fruits & Melons – Prices of different items always vary depending on where you are out shopping. Produce may be cheaper at one store while all of the other items you need are cheaper at another store where the produce is a little more expensive. You may have to briefly shop around, but typically you can find large melons for an inexpensive price. You can usually buy a large watermelon for the same price as a small bag of apples and oranges. Cantaloupe and honeydew melons are typically cheaper than other fruits too. This is not always the case, but typically the larger the fruit, the less expensive it is after factoring how much you need to train with. 3 cantaloupe melons may cost the same as 6 grapefruit, but it may take 12 grapefruit to add up to the size of the 3 cantaloupe, causing the use of grapefruit to cost twice as much. As mentioned in Lower Calorie Stomach Training Foods, pineapple, oranges, and other fruits can be used, but they are a little more on the expensive side if you factor in how many you need. Watermelon is typically the best value if available.

Cheap vegetables – While watermelon and other melons are typically cheaper than vegetables because it takes a large amount of vegetables to equal the weight of the melons, there are still some pretty inexpensive vegetables that you can train with. The most popular inexpensive vegetable is cabbage which can be eaten raw, cooked, or steamed. Spinach is usually a little more expensive but iceberg lettuce is usually pretty cheap too. Sometimes, it just depends on what deals are going on at the grocery store. You may be able to buy multiple different vegetables cheaply that all add up to form a significant and low calorie stomach training meal.

Water is typically FREE – While it is not recommended to train with water only, it is recommended to train with both food AND water. The most important thing is that you eat a significant amount of food, and it doesn’t really matter what it is. It may not even fill you up, but it greatly reduces the amount of water that will fit into your body that has to be processed. Eat a significant meal and then finish your stomach stretch with water. Just make sure to not go overboard though and make yourself get sick and throw up. Even if you are trying to minimize your calories, having a large higher calorie meal topped off with a large amount of water may be less calories than an extra large meal using a less caloric food. You just have to figure out what works for your body and budget, but don’t forget tap water is free. Water is your best friend, so use some to help you safely expand your stomach.

Find cheap all-you-can-eat buffets – These are not as plentiful around the world as they are in the USA, but try to find a restaurant that hosts a cheap all-you-can-eat buffet. Typically the weekday lunch price is the cheapest time of the week, but make sure to check with the restaurant. Even if you are watching your calories, you can still find healthy options to eat a lot of no matter where you go. All buffets have at least some fruits and vegetables. By doing this, you are able to eat as much as physically possible for a cheap fixed price. There are expensive buffets (sushi), and there are some cheap buffets (pizza or Chinese). You just have to find one that fits your budget. Many buffets offer coupons, so look for those and try this for a cheap stomach training meal.

Find cheap all-you-can-eat specials – Some restaurants may not offer an actual buffet, but they may offer particular all-you-can-eat specials where you get to eat as much as you want of a particular item. Some of these specials can be really cheap depending on the restaurant offering the special and the day of the week. Keep your eyes and ears open and try to find any really good all-you-can-eat specials that exist in your area whether they be for tacos, fish, ribs, pancakes, or anything else. This may fit your budget too and be a very satisfying and effective training meal. There are always some ways to save money. You just have to search a little harder!!

Finances may be a reasonable excuse for not being able to travel to a contest 3 hours away, but it is not a valid excuse for not being able to train for it. If you decide to do a challenge but you cheap out on the training meals and don’t really ever have any bigger meals with water to stretch your stomach, you will most likely fail the challenge. Yes you may have saved a few dollars by not training, but you spent all of that money plus more paying for the challenge you lost, which would have been free if you trained harder the week beforehand. The math doesn’t really make sense does it? If low finances are actually an issue for you, that is no big deal and it should not stop you from training. Be resourceful!! Remember that you can finish any meal you have off with a significant amount of water to help increase your temporary stomach capacity so that you are ready for your competition. If I you have a cheap way to train that is not mentioned, comment below and I will add it above.

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While it’s definitely best to start training multiple days in advance for an eating competition so your body has time to gradually adapt to the changes you are wanting, sometimes things come up suddenly and there is nothing you can do about it. This situation happens to me sometimes, and I know that it happens to other eaters too, where we may find out about an eating competition just a few days before the event. Because most eating contests are not marketed very well, this will more than likely happen to you too, where a friend tells you about a contest just 2 days in advance. You may want a week to train for your competitions, but if you want to compete in this contest you only have 48 hours to get ready. While you don’t have the time to reach your maximum potential, you still have plenty of time to prepare enough to get close. Lucky for you, we have prepared a simple, effective plan and schedule that you can use to train for your eating competition starting 48 hours in advance.

The 48 Hour Stomach Crash Training Plan

Before reading this plan, make sure you have read How To Expand Your Stomach Using Food, How To Expand Your Stomach Using Water, and Expanding Your Stomach Using Food AND Water. Without understanding those 3 articles about how to prepare in a week, you won’t fully understand this article crunching everything down to just 2 days. Also read The 24 Hours Before Your Eating Competition to find out what to do the last 24 hours beforehand if using one of those 3 plans. In all four of those articles, you will find mentioned that you need to do a “max out meal” around 18 to 22 hours before the competition. That is your last meal eating solid foods before the competition so that your body has time to flush out all the food you have eaten so that you are ready to fill it back up to capacity with more food during the event. This meal still applies to the 2 day plan too, so make sure to schedule time for a max out meal between 18 and 22 hours before your eating event so that you can be ready.

For this example schedule, let’s set the date and time of the event to be on a Saturday at 12pm (noon). This is pretty typical because many eating contests are on a Saturday, and many restaurants don’t start really promoting it hard until the Wednesday or Thursday beforehand, trying to get customers to come and watch. Let’s say you get tagged by a friend on the contest’s Facebook event page on Thursday morning, and you start your preparations at noon which is 48 hours in advance. Follow these easy steps to make sure you are ready:

Set the time of your max out meal – You may have 48 hours before the competition, but you don’t have 48 hours to prepare using food. As stated above, the max out meal needs to be 18-22 hours in advance, and is the most important event in your training plan, so establish when you will be doing it. Let’s say you work a full day on Friday and then do your max out meal at 6pm which is 18 hours in advance. It’s not the end of the world if you can’t do it until 7pm or 8pm obviously, but the more time you allow your body to empty itself, the better.

Water, water, & water – All of these tips throughout this website are meant for people 18 and older, and if people are tagging you in a Facebook event page for an eating contest, you are probably already a bigger eater and water drinker regardless of training or not. Therefore, it is okay for me to recommend drinking a lot of water on that Thursday and then Friday too. Start off your preparations on Thursday at 12pm with chugging 1 quart (liter) of water. Then continually work your way up throughout the day, and then repeat the cycle on Friday. Increase by 1 pint (16 fluid ounces) every few hours, depending on how the last “chug” went. If your 1 quart chug went just fine, step up to 1.5 quarts 2-3 hours later. If that goes fine, step up to 2 quarts 2-3 hours later. If the 2 quarts did not go down that easily, try the same amount again 2-3 hours later. More than likely, it will go down easier the 2nd time. Don’t advance too quickly, and let your body adapt gradually. This will allow your stomach muscles to relax more so that they are more accepting of an increased amount of food while you attempt your challenge.

Big Meal #1 – Have a regular lunch on Thursday along with an increased amount of water (to start your water training), and then don’t snack so that you can have a big meal on Thursday for dinner. Since your max out meal will be Friday at 6pm, try to schedule a large meal on Thursday at 6pm. You don’t want to completely max out, but you want to make the meal really big. You can have meats like chicken and fish that are more easily digested, but focus a lot on quickly digested and water-filled vegetables and fruits. After your big meal, make sure to chug more water until you feel your stomach stretch. This will help you be ready for Friday’s max out meal. You don’t really want to chug water after this meal because then you will be up all night peeing.

Friday before the max out meal – Because of the big meal and stomach stretch on Thursday, you will find chugging your water (2 quarts max) a little easier on Friday morning. You may want to just have 1 quart when you wake up with a normal breakfast and then 2 quarts two hours later after your body has woken up a little. Chug water throughout the day on Friday (never increase by more than 1 pint) up until 2 or 3 pm so that you can be ready for your max out meal at 6pm. Hopefully people aren’t mad at the increased # of bathroom breaks!!

Max Out Meal (Big Meal #2) – You are not going to eat a lot on Saturday at 12pm if you don’t train by eating a lot too, so go all out, but don’t be stupid and eat so much that you throw up. Like any max out meal, focus mostly on vegetables and fruits that are easier on your digestive system. It is okay to throw in a few meats, carbs, and other foods, but make sure to focus on veggies and a few fruits for flavor. When you get to the point when you can’t eat any more and you are chewing without wanting to swallow, finish off your training with a pint or two of water. After this meal, you are done consuming solid, heavy food until eating competition time on Saturday.

Saturday morning (competition day) – Hopefully you were not out partying until the early morning hours on Friday night and got a good night’s sleep (I know from experience that it is not smart). Since your eating competition is at noon, you may want to get up a little earlier than normal so that your body is awake and ready to eat. Wake up around 6am and then chug some water just to wake your stomach muscles and body up around 7am. If you are a person that cannot function without eating something for breakfast, make sure to have something that is not solid such as a protein shake, meal replacement shake, or yogurt. Have this before you chug your water at 7am. Again, I don’t suggest chugging over 2 quarts (liters) of liquid. If chugging 2 quarts was easy, then it is okay to step up to 3 quarts as long as you do have a protein shake or some yogurt beforehand and mix in some type of liquid with electrolytes such as a sports drink. Once you are done drinking, don’t eat or drink anything other than a few sips of ice water until the timer starts to begin your BIG eating competition.

That is a really good example schedule and training plan to help you train for a last-minute competition. Obviously, you need to design your training plan based on your own schedule and when your event is. I have related training for eating competitions to training for other athletic events in many of these Stomach Capacity Training articles, and the comparison applies here too. Many studies have been done on runners and other athletes to compare “crash training” to training over a longer period of time. All research has shown that it is much more effective to train and prepare hard over a longer period of time than it is to train really hard for a shorter period of time. For maximum results, you need to let your body gradually adapt to changes rather than expecting it to change rapidly in just a few days. As you know, True Stomach Expansion Takes Time, and therefore it is better to train hard for a week than to train really hard for just 48 hours before an eating competition. Contests do come up spur of the moment though, so now you have a very good foundation of information to base your training plan off of so that you can make sure you are ready to dominate and win!!

Before you begin chugging water, make sure you have read The Extreme Dangers Of Water Training.

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The sole purpose of this article is to stress that while food challenges and competitive eating can be very enjoyable and entertaining, you will gain weight if you don’t practice moderation and watch your daily calorie intake. People ask me all the time why I am not 600 pounds, and I laugh every singe time. The professional in me gives an answer related to how I don’t eat like that every day and I maintain a low calorie diet when not competing along with getting plenty of exercise, but all I am really wanting to do is answer them by saying, “Because I’m not an idiot.” Before continuing, if you think that food challenges and competitive eating promote obesity, please read Do Food Challenges Promote Obesity? to find out how wrong you are and why it does not. Whether you are actively competing in eating competitions or not, if you consume more calories that you burn off on a consistent basis, you will gain weight and it won’t be lean muscle tissue (unless you are training and eating with that as your goal). I will be the first person to tell you that. Anybody that has been following me on my social media over the past few years knows that I have had to diet multiple times to get my weight back down to where it needs to be. Sometimes I do get out of control, which is why I do have to take breaks to diet every now and then, but I also understand nutrition so it is never a big deal for me to have to lose the weight. If you are wanting to get more active in eating competitions, you need to understand that you have to be careful to avoid getting out of control and gaining excess weight, which can easily happen, and can’t be fixed quickly.

If you think that you can actively train for and compete in eating competitions without adjusting your daily nutrition habits accordingly (unless you are a really hardgainer), you are seriously incorrect and setting yourself up for failure. When I am actively competing and doing food challenges almost every week, I am basically on a diet and exercising every single day that I am not competing. That is my job, hobby, and the lifestyle that I have chosen for myself though, and that is what I enjoy. The easiest way to avoid gaining weight without really changing up your diet and exercise program is to severely limit the number of events that you do to just a few per month at most. Also make sure to train with lower calorie foods during the days before you do actually compete. The more active you want to be, the more you will have to exercise and diet when not competing. It is recommended that you maintain a healthy diet and exercise plan whether you are a competitive eater or not, but since you are wanting to eat more than most people, you have to diet & exercise more than most people too. If staying fit while being a competitive eater was easy, more people would do it. Competing at a high level while maintaining great physical shape takes dedication and hard work. There is a lot of trial and error involved.

This article is not meant to discourage anybody from entering the world of food challenges and competitive eating, but it is meant to make people aware that it is not all fun and games. Like any sport, it requires a lot of time and effort to be good at it. If you train with food and compete often, you need to adjust your diet and exercise program accordingly to make sure you are not gaining excess weight. If you have not already, please read Lower Calorie Stomach Training Foods to find out about the “Belt Of Fat Theory” and why having an increasing amount of fat around your waist can lead to decreased performance at the eating table. Actively competing in high calorie challenges and contests without watching your calories during the other days can cause you to gain a lot of weight quickly which can lead to severe health problems later if not kept in check. Consuming too much of anything is not a good thing, and that of course also applies to competing in eating events too often. Practice moderation, and don’t be afraid to take a short break from “eating” if necessary.

Another thing to note is that if you are wanting to become a competitive eater, you should not try to be a competitive “drinker” too. I know from experience that eating a lot AND drinking a lot of alcohol is a bad combination that can cause you to gain a lot of weight quickly. Like many foods, most alcoholic beverages are filled with calories, and therefore combining a lot of both will cause you to gain a lot of excess fat. This idea applies to people whether they are “eaters” or not. There is a reason that people use the term “beer belly.”

If you practice moderation and understand that you may have to “diet” for a few days after a competition, gaining weight will not be an issue. You also need to eat less calories during the other meals of the day when you are training. There are some professional eaters that fast for days from solid foods while drinking nothing but water, protein shakes, and meal replacement shakes before a really big competition, but as an amateur you don’t even need to be considering doing that. You may watch my YouTube videos and follow my trips around the world where I eat tons of food and have a great time doing it, but know that I put a ton of work in “behind the scenes” doing all of the required tasks that allow me to do those things. Calories are exercised away and metabolically burnt off on all of the days where I consistently consume less calories than I burn. I don’t just take a pill and have them magically go away. Contradictory to all of the advertisements that you see and hear by rich($) diet & supplement companies, the only way to lose weight weight is by consistently consuming less calories that you burn off. Competitive eating can be a lot of fun, but remember that weight (fat) gets added on a lot faster than it falls off, so make sure to keep your competition frequency, activity level, and diet all controlled and monitored so that you don’t gain too much weight. By doing this you will be able to have a lot more fun and compete at a much higher level while safely maintaining a nice physique you can be proud of.

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During quick eating contests and challenges that don’t really require a high stomach capacity, one of the main differences that separates one eater from the next is jaw strength. There is a reason that Joey Chestnut is nicknamed “Jaws” and you know that too if you have watched him eat. Like your stomach and the rest of your body, your jaw is full of muscles, and some people’s jaws are genetically stronger than others. Because it has muscles though, there are ways to train your jaw, no matter how strong it currently is, so that you can increase both your jaw strength AND endurance. Having great jaw strength is important because it helps you bite and chew through the tougher and more chewy foods such as meats and breads. Having great endurance is as equally important, if not more important, because it allows you to bite and chew hard for longer periods of time. Eating challenges and contests involving chewy foods such as thick crust pizza and steak require great jaw strength with an even greater amount of endurance. You may have great jaw strength for 3 or 4 minutes, but if your jaw starts hurting and your eating speed decreases, people with less strength but more endurance will pass you up and you will lose. You also need endurance to finish your larger and longer food challenges. With all of that being said, here are easy ways to improve your jaw strength AND your endurance that anybody can use.

Chew gum – The most widely used training method is chewing “sugarless” gum since it is virtually calorie-free and very affordable. It is also a very convenient way to train both your strength AND endurance. Using gum containing sugar, like any candy or sugary food, can cause damage to your teeth if used often for a long period of time. Adding additional pieces will increase the gum’s “resistance” so you may want to add a few extra pieces every now and then, but there is no need to be wasteful. You don’t necessarily have to chew a full pack at once to receive strength training benefits. If you add extra pieces, chew for as long as you can to help increase your jaw endurance at the higher amount of resistance. This will help you during longer challenges and contests.

DO NOT FREEZE CHEWY CANDY – I once read in an article about competitive eating that an eater trains his jaw using frozen Tootsie Rolls, and that is one of the dumbest things that I have ever heard related to the subject. Don’t freeze anything. While chewing a frozen Tootsie Roll is a lot smarter than chewing ice cubes and jaw breakers, it is a lot safer and smarter to chew gum. Plus, candy only stays hard for a short time and then you have to eat more which just adds more calories each time. Gum lasts as long as you want it to, most of the time, and it is a lot less calories. You want to strengthen your jaw safely without breaking all of your precious teeth!!

Train with food – The best way to to train your body to eat a lot of food is to practice by eating a lot of food, and the best way to train your body to chew food faster is to practice chewing food faster. Perfect practice makes perfect. For some of your meals, eat chewy foods, depending on whatever your taste buds like. If you can afford the calories, thick crust pizza and soft pretzels are known to be chewy along with sandwiches made with really tough and chewy breads (French). Meaty foods such as steak are chewy too. Improve your jaw strength by actually chewing your foods. Take bigger bites, and then chew the food as fast as you can. Then repeat the process, and don’t swallow until the food is a very easy consistency to swallow. This will help train you to actually enjoy your food normally too rather than eating like somebody is going to come in and take it away.

One thing that many eaters don’t consider when training their jaw to chew faster is the role that your tongue plays during the process. Your tongue moves all of the food around your mouth so that the pieces can be chewed when necessary or swallowed when it is broken down enough and you are ready. That is why you should not fill your mouth to capacity, because then you can’t move the food around with your tongue and swallow it fast. There is one way to train your tongue strength and endurance if you are over 18, but in an effort to keep this website child friendly I will just let you think of what that is. Just be conscience when you are training your jaw strength to practice moving your food around with your tongue. This will help you in your future eating events.

When you are training for jaw strength, you are not doing it right if your mouth and jaw is not tired by the end. If you are chewing gum, chew until it hurts, and then chew some more. Just don’t do it all day every day. You may have heard or read that professional eater Takeru Kobayashi once had jaw problems that stemmed from his involvement with competitive eating. Being afraid to train and increase your jaw strength because you read that is about as smart as it is to be afraid of the effects caused to your body after eating 69 hot dogs in 10 minutes. You and I are both NOT Takeru Kobayashi or Joey Chestnut, both legends of the sport, so do not waste your time and thoughts comparing yourself to them and their training methods or physical condition. Biting your tongue is one thing, but hurting your jaw is not even listed as one of The Dangers Of Competitive Eating, because 1 person hurting his jaw who makes a living using it does not make it a danger to people who aren’t nearly as serious who have not been doing it nearly as long. For normal people, that isn’t an issue so there is nothing to worry about.

There are 2 aspects to eating faster, and the first aspect is obviously jaw strength & endurance to chew the food. The second aspect is the ability to swallow the food quicker, which basically means that you need to train yourself to swallow larger chunks of food at a faster rate. It is recommended that you train one aspect at a time, and do not combine both. You cannot really train your jaw strength while also trying to swallow bigger chunks of food faster. You also cannot really train yourself to swallow larger bites faster if you are focused on chewing. Train each one separately. You now know how to increase your jaw strength and endurance, so to learn how to train yourself to swallow larger chunks of your food faster, please read How To Train Yourself To Eat Faster.

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While having a large enough stomach capacity plays the major role during most longer food challenges, speed eating definitely plays the main role in most shorter eating contests. When you are attempting a large food challenge, you typically have a lot more time to work with than you do during eating contests. A majority of challenges have a time limit ranging between 30 minutes and 1 hour, while very few challenges have time limits lower than 15 minutes. It is totally the opposite for eating contests. Most contests are 10 minutes or less, and there are very few actual eating contests longer than 15 minutes. In the sport of track & field, there are sprinters and there are long distance runners, and then there are just a few people that excel at both. Sprinting takes speed while long distance running requires a heavy amount of endurance. Not many sprinters can compete in long distance races, and not many long distance runners can compete in sprinting. There are some people that can do both though, and this same concept applies to the world of food challenges and competitive eating too. There are some people that will dominate eating competitions less than 5 minutes because they are great speed eaters, but they don’t have the stomach capacity to compete in the longer events. Then there are some people that can dominate large food challenges in under 1 hour, but they cannot compete with speed eaters during eating contests. Then there are some people that can do both because they have a large stomach capacity and are also great speed eaters. Which category do you think applies to you and your competitive eating skill level?

Almost all of the Stomach Capacity Training articles apply strictly to helping you train to increase your body’s stomach capacity. You may also have read the article How To Increase Your Jaw Strength which shows you how you can train to increase the strength and endurance of your jaw and mouth muscles during competitions. As mentioned in that article, the 2 major factors involved with speed eating are having a strong jaw with a lot of endurance, and also having the ability to swallow larger chunks of food at a faster rate. The key to speed eating is to focus on swallowing rather than chewing. You need the strong jaw strength to bite the food and chew it up a few times (if even necessary), but then you have to have the ability to swallow it quickly so that you can move on to taking more bites so that you can swallow again and keep repeating the process. You will learn how to eat fast by reading Speed Eating: How To Eat Food Faster in the Eating Contest Tips section, but in this article you will learn how to train yourself to become able to eat fast, which really isn’t that hard if you follow these tips:

Practice swallowing with your head up – If you ever watch some of the top competitive eaters speed eat, you will see them holding their head up during almost the entire contest except for when they are grabbing more food. The best way to explain why you should do this is by explaining one of the first steps to giving somebody CPR (mouth-to-mouth resuscitation). Before breathing into their mouth or performing a series of firm chest compressions, you have to tilt the person’s head back to allow air to flow more freely in and out. During CPR you do not want the person’s airway blocked, and air won’t flow freely if the person’s head is down. This applies to speed eating and swallowing too. Do you ever chug liquids with your head down? Keep your head up while you are eating and swallowing will be much easier for you. Practice this during all your regular meals at home.

Practice with water first – Before practicing with food, train with water. You goal is to be able to swallow more food at one time, so practice swallowing as much water as you can. By doing this, you are able to get your throat used to swallowing more while also eliminating the risk of choking. You can do this anywhere you are allowed to drink water, which is basically everywhere. Tilt your head back and fill your mouth with as much water as possible, almost to the point where it is dripping out, and then try to swallow. You may not be able to the first time, and you may therefore need to start with a little less water in your mouth. Keep on practicing and building up until you can swallow the whole mouthful of water. Then you are ready to practice safely with real food.

Train with real food – To train your body to hold more food, practice by eating real food. To train your jaw to chew food harder and faster, you need to practice by chewing real food harder and faster. Therefore, to train your body to swallow more food faster, practice swallowing larger chunks of real food faster, but be careful.

Try softer foods first – Now that you know to keep your head up and esophagus open, and you can swallow an entire mouthful of water at one time, you are ready to practice with food. It is not smart to go straight from swallowing water to bigger pieces of steak though, so start by training with softer foods like oatmeal. Cook up some oatmeal for breakfast or as a snack, and then practice swallowing large mouthfuls of it. Feel free to chase the big bites with some water. Definitely keep water on hand either way though because the water will come in handy if you are struggling to swallow the oatmeal after your throat starts getting dry. You may have some other softer foods in your pantry too. Rice, quinoa, and other moist foods can work well also. Using foods like this help you establish great form while all but eliminating your chances of choking. Always train safely!!

After you have progressed from step to step and now feel comfortable swallowing larger chunks of food, you are ready to start training with real foods. You basically want to practice speed eating without worrying about increasing your jaw strength. As mentioned in How To Increase Your Jaw Strength, you want to do one or the other, and you can’t really do both. You can do this with any regular meal, but I prefer training with easier to chew and swallow foods like large sandwiches. Unless you are practicing for a steak challenge, really tough foods like steak aren’t great for practicing to swallow and eat faster. Those are better for training your jaw strength. The main thing that you need to do is to make sure you don’t go crazy. You DO NOT want to risk choking, and therefore you should NOT practice swallowing extra large bites. That is also why you don’t want to train at home with really tough foods. You may not want to train when you are out to dinner with your girlfriend, but it is smart to have somebody around you just in case. You can choke anytime at any meal if you are not careful, but your chances increase drastically if you are attempting to speed eat. Always have water or some other type of liquid handy in case you need it. Competitive eating is meant to be fun, and you do not want to hurt yourself doing it. Now that you are trained and ready to practice, read Speed Eating: How To Eat Food Faster.

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Win Before You Begin!! This is the official motto of FoodChallenges.com when teaching people how to win eating challenges and contests. It is adapted from some of the teachings found in the book The Art Of War by Sun Tzu, an ancient Chinese military general and strategist. In the book, Sun Tzu states, “Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win.” He also says, “The good fighters of old first put themselves beyond the possibility of defeat, and then waited for an opportunity of defeating the enemy.” These two simple quotes explain the full meaning of Win Before You Begin. You need to win your food challenge before it even gets placed on your table in front of you, and you do that by following the three parts (you must do all 3) of Win Before You Begin. You must TRAIN, STRATEGIZE, and DOMINATE!! Before continuing below, please check out our video that explains the meaning of all three aspects of our ultimate mindset:

The Three Aspects of Win Before You Begin

Train – As stated throughout many of our articles, you cannot just wake up one day and decide to attempt a food challenge. It takes a lot of effort, training, and hard work to fully prepare yourself for a large eating challenge. If you can win easily without any training, it cannot really be considered a real challenge for you. You need to prepare your body for the food challenge by training to increase your stomach capacity. Do this by using the articles featured in our Stomach Capacity Training section. There are even articles to help you increase your jaw strength and endurance, and to help you train yourself so that you can eat food faster. If you do not train your stomach to be able to hold all of the food, your strategy and mindset will not matter, and you will surely lose.

Strategize – As also stated throughout many of our articles, you cannot just pick up a 5 lb burger and start eating, hoping that you will win. Before you even get to the restaurant, you need to plan out the strategy and technique that you will use to break down and consume each component of the challenge so that you can finish the entire meal before the time limit expires. You should know the order that you will consume each part of the challenge so that you can continually move from one component to the next without any hesitation. There are over 28 different types of food challenges around the world and each type involves its own basic strategy. You cannot attempt to eat that 5 lb burger with the same strategy you would use to eat a 6 lb bowl of pasta or 18 scoop ice cream sundae. Be sure to check out all of the articles in our During The Challenge section, and you definitely need to check out the article and video pertaining to the particular challenge type that you will be attempting. Those articles can be found in our Strategies Per Challenge Type section. Designing the perfect strategy can take some extra effort, especially if this will be your first or second challenge, but you will definitely be happy that you did once you begin eating. Your confidence level will be through the roof!!

Dominate – If you have trained properly and developed a solid strategy that you will use during the challenge, you have done everything that you can do, so now you need to make sure you are confident that you will win. As soon as you see the challenge coming out to your table, you need to already be visualizing the victory. There have been many times where the challenge has been placed in front of me, and then someone asks me if I think I will finish it. If I am on a trip in a new area where I don’t know anybody, I typically respond “I did not come all this way to lose.” If the people watching already know who I am, I usually smile and respond “this challenge is over before they even start the timer.” I know that my stomach is ready and that I have a solid strategy put together based on years of experience, and therefore I have no doubt that I will dominate the challenge. You need to have this mindset during your challenge. Know that you are not just going to win, but you are going to leave no doubt, and dominate the meal in record time. Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you are right. Don’t think you are going to win. Know that you are going to dominate, and that is what you will do!!

You must involve all three aspects if you really want to defeat your challenge, and you cannot just include two of them, especially the first two. If you only train without putting together your plan of attack, and if you only strategize without doing any significant training, you can only have “false hope” at most which is not true confidence. If you make sure to include all three aspects into your challenge preparations, you will be able to “put yourself beyond the possibility of defeat” so that there is no question whether you will win or lose. You are definitely going to dominate!! Win Before You Begin, and you will be a very successful competitive eater.

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One of the most common mistakes that many people make before attempting a food challenge is that they select a challenge to attempt that they cannot even win. Two star eaters try to attempt three and four star challenges all the time, and usually they end up not being able to complete the challenge. Then they wonder what they did wrong and why they could not win, and really the only thing that he or she did wrong was deciding to attempt the challenge in the first place. You can try as hard as you can, but you will not fit 5 lbs (2.28 kg) into a 4 lb (1.82 kg) bag, and a person isn’t going to fit 5 lbs of food into his or her 4 lb capacity stomach either. The only exception to that rule is really easy to eat quickly items such as burritos, ice cream, and milkshakes. This rule also applies to team challenges too. A person may have a 6 lb (2.73 kg) capacity, but if the partner only has a 4 lb capacity on a great day, the team more than likely will not be able to finish an 11 lb (5 kg) pizza in just 30 minutes. The math just doesn’t work, and you can’t do anything about it, so in the beginning of your eating career, until you gain experience, you need to select challenges that you at least have a chance of beating.

Finding eating challenges around you is now easier than ever. There are certain criteria though that you need to consider when you are selecting which food challenges you want to attempt. As you gain experience and also develop a better understanding of your body and stomach capacity, you can begin venturing out and trying riskier challenges. In the beginning though, you need to select challenges that you have the ability to win so that you can build your confidence which you will definitely need when you go to attempt riskier challenges later on. Here are the initial steps that you need to take to select the food challenge that is right for you:

1. How much can you eat? – All food challenges in our database are rated on a 5 star system, and the same system can be used to rate eaters too. If you are not already part of the community with your own profile, you need to figure out where you stand in the rating system. If you cannot eat more than 3.5 lbs (1.6 kg), you would have a 1 star rating. If you can eat more than 3.5 lbs but you know you cannot eat 5 lbs (2.28 kg), you would have a 2 star rating. If you think you can eat 5 lbs but you know you cannot eat 6.25 lbs (2.75 kg), then you would have a 3 star rating. If you think you can eat over 6.25 lbs but not 8 lbs (3.5 kg), you would have a 4 star rating. Anyone that can eat over 8 lbs gets a 5 star rating, but know that their are currently less than ten actual 5 star eaters in the world right now. How much can you eat? Please be honest with yourself because this rating you give yourself decides what challenges you can attempt. If you overestimate your capabilities, you will more than likely pick an eating challenge that is larger than you can handle, and therefore you will fail your challenge.

2. Set your limit – Whatever you selected as your rating, make that rating your cut-off point for the food challenges that you are checking out in step 3. If you are a 2 star eater that has never tried a food challenge before, you should NOT consider attempting a 3 star challenge. Just like stomach capacity, you need to start small and build gradually. It always blows my mind when a 2 star eater attempts a 4 star food challenge.

3. Search for challenges around you – Use the Map Search or List Search features to search for all of the food challenges around you. If you are a 2 star eater, only consider the 1 and 2 star challenges that around you. Be aware that some of the 1 star challenges are spicy challenges, so be careful to avoid adding those to your list of options, unless of course you are wanting to take a spicy challenge. Spend some time examining the available challenges that are within your driving limits. Eliminate the challenges you know you definitely won’t like.

4. Build your list of options – This may require a pen and paper, but make a list of the challenges that you are interested in attempting. Some cities have many challenges and many do not, so your list may not be that long if you are in a smaller city. Also, if you are a 2 star eater, your list may be a little smaller since you eliminated all 3, 4, and 5 star challenges. That is okay though, because it is better to have a list of three to five solid challenge options than to have to weed through a list of 20 options that you aren’t confident that you can handle.

5. Compare and decide – Now that you have your list of options, it’s time to compare and decide which challenge you want to attempt first. It doesn’t have to be the smallest. It just has to be the one that feel comfortable attempting. Check out the time limit, rules, and components of each challenge. Make sure you feel comfortable with the rules and time limit of each challenge. If the challenge has a low time limit, make sure that you are confident eating that amount of food in that amount of time. Know that you can just attempt it later if you are not fully confident you can do it. Then consider the prizes, and check to see whether the challenge is free, discounted, or if you have to pay whether you win or not. If it is your first challenge, paying for the challenge should not be a big deal. You may be paying for the meal, but you are getting the experience and confidence which money cannot buy. If you bypass an easier challenge that you would have to pay, and decide to attempt a larger challenge that is free if you win, you may lose and still have to pay for the meal anyway. Then you paid for a meal and got the experience, but you killed your confidence, which is what you have to have to win your future challenges. After choosing which one you want to attempt first, save that list because then you already have the list of challenges that you want to attempt next, avoiding having to do this process all over again later!!

You can train everyday for a month to increase your stomach capacity (which you should not do), but your body has certain limitations that are above your control. Don’t set yourself up to fail by selecting a challenge that you cannot win. You can hope and pray all you want, but your body can only do so much, so don’t bite off more than you can chew. Once you have a challenge selected and you Fully Understand The Challenge Details, you’re ready to Set The Challenge Time And Date when you call ahead to Confirm The Details With The Restaurant.

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If you are new to the always expanding world of food challenges and competitive eating, and even if you’ve watched every episode of Man v Food, you may not completely understand what all the details are to a food challenge and what they mean. It is pretty hard to Select The Food Challenge Right For You if you don’t fully understand the basics. Therefore, here is a list of the main details of a food challenge and what they mean:

The challenge meal and components – In order to have a food challenge, you have to have a challenge meal. There are 28 different types of food challenges, so there are many different menu options that may be available around you. Some meals consist of a main entree served with one or more side items, and some challenges such as taco, hot dog, and wing challenges typically just serve many of each item without having any side items. A majority of challenges around the world are burger challenges, but there are obviously other types of challenges available. There are food challenges ranging in all different sizes that you can possibly choose from too. The selection just depends on the location you are in and the different restaurants around you hosting them.

Time limit – 95% of food challenges have a time limit involved, meaning that you have to eat the particular quantity of food within the particular amount of time set by the restaurant. Some challenges (the other 5%) just have “one sitting” as the time limit which typically means that you can take as long as you want provided that you don’t get up and leave or go to the bathroom. If the restaurant has a “record challenge” where a customer is required to beat the previous time limit set by a previous customer that beat the challenge, that previous record time is the time limit. Larger eating challenges typically involve longer time limits, but sometimes there are exceptions to that rule. The time limit is always labeled clearly for you on the challenge’s page on our site.

Challenge rules – Some more professional restaurants have a clear list of “house rules” published but many restaurants do not. Every challenge has rules though that are set by the restaurant. If the rules are not labeled on the challenge page or on the restaurant’s website, you may need to contact the restaurant yourself to find out any specific rules. For most challenges though, the main rules are that you cannot get up and go to the bathroom, you cannot get sick and throw up, and you have to finish everything on the plate in front of you. Typically, you get disqualified if you break any of the particular restaurant’s rules, and some restaurant’s are more strict than others. The restaurants that are more strict typically have a larger prize involved, and they don’t want people cheating to win. You definitely should find out the basic “house rules” before arriving.

Price – The price of the challenge varies depending on the location and restaurant hosting the challenge. It also depends on the size, type, and components of the meal. Many larger challenges are awarded free or at least discounted in price if the customer wins, but everybody that fails the challenge typically always gets charged full price. Every now and then you will find a challenge set up so that a portion of the price goes towards a particular charity in the local community. The price is always labeled clearly on the challenge’s page.

Prizes – The prize awarded definitely depends on the restaurant and size of the challenge. Prizes always vary, and some restaurants are much more generous than others. The prize is what you win if you complete the challenge within the required time limit. There are many different prize options that restaurants can award. The most typical prizes are awarding the meal free along with awarding free t-shirts and putting your name and photo up on the Wall Of Fame hanging in the restaurant. The prizes are also listed on the challenge’s page.

While there are only 5 main details that eaters care about when checking out challenges, there are 8 details that restaurants decide upon when creating a food challenge. To learn more about the different challenge details, check out the Creating A Challenge section under the Promoters tab. Make sure you understand these basic details before you start really searching for food challenges. Otherwise, you may find yourself lost and not fully understanding things that you see. The 5 star rating system that you may see while searching around for challenges is an exclusive system developed by FoodChallenges.com. For a better explanation of that system and what each star means, read Selecting The Food Challenge Right For you. Once you understand the details above and have picked a food challenge to attempt, you are ready to Set The Challenge Time And Date and then Confirm The Details With The Restaurant. Then you can start training for your upcoming eating challenge!!

These are all basic details that you need to know so that you can understand all of the other aspects of food challenges. For a great list of specific rules and questions that you need to clarify before the challenge so that you don’t end up getting disqualified, please read all of the Questions To Clarify Before You Begin Eating.

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Setting the date and time of your food challenge is the first thing to do after deciding upon a challenge, because that information helps plan out your training regimen that you will follow so that you are prepared to win that challenge. If using the stomach capacity training schedules in How To Expand Your Stomach Using Food, How To Expand Your Stomach Using Water, or Expanding Your Stomach Using Food AND Water, you can’t plan out training days one through six if you don’t know when day seven is. You also can’t plan The 24 Hours Before Your Eating Competition if you don’t know what time the challenge is at. You need to carefully Select The Food Challenge Right For You, but setting the date and time is what really kicks off your training and strategy preparations beforehand. Here is a short list of tips to help you plan the time and date of your challenge:

Is it only allowed on certain days? – Some restaurants have restrictions on which days they allow customers to attempt their challenge. There are 2 reasons that this may occur. Some restaurants host a food challenge just once per week when they have a particular special going on at the restaurant. For example, a restaurant may have a taco record challenge on Taco Tuesdays or they may have a wing challenge on nights that chicken wings are on special. The other reason is that some food challenges take more time, space, and people to actually prepare and host the challenge. Restaurants can’t make regular customers wait on their food while preparing your food challenge, so busier restaurants may not allow challenge attempts on most weekends, which is understandable. If that is your only time open, you should contact the restaurant to see if you both can work something out. The restaurant isn’t busy every single hour of the entire weekend and may make an exception.

Is it only available during certain hours of the day? – For the same reasons explained above, many restaurants make the decision to not host food challenges during peak hours of the day. Peak hours typically include the prime hours of the day when most people go to lunch and also when they go to dinner. Some restaurants don’t have the space or staff to host challenges during busy times of the day, so they choose to avoid serving them.

Do you want a crowd or not? – If you pick a time during peak breakfast, lunch, or dinner hours, know that there is a possibility that the restaurant will be full of people. Since you are taking the challenge, many people will probably be watching and taking pictures. If you are the kind of person that does not like attention or people watching you, you need to schedule your challenge during times of the day when not too many people will be there. If you like being the center of attention, schedule it when you think people will be able to be there.

Are you wanting friends to come watch? – It can be very motivational if you Bring Friends And Family For Support, but you need to schedule things around them too if you want them to come, which can be hard.

Is your challenge celebrating a special event? – Some people decide to do a challenge on their birthday, or some people decide they want to do a challenge during a particular special event. If this applies to you, you already know the date, so you just need to pick a time that works for everyone coming to watch the food challenge.

Is the challenge at a diner? – Make sure to check the operating hours if the challenge is at a diner or cafe. Many diners close at 2pm or 3pm in the afternoon, depending on the restaurant, so you need to plan around that.

The best time to schedule a food challenge is anytime in the afternoon because it allows your body to wake up and it also allows you to have 1 last small liquid stomach stretch in the morning after your protein shake or other non-solid breakfast of choice. You may not want to schedule it too late in the day though since you won’t be eating any solid foods. You want to be hungry but not too hungry. If the event is going to be later in the evening after dinner, that is not a big deal at all. You just have to adjust your schedule for the day. To find out more information about what to do on competition day, which will also help you plan what time you want to take your challenge, read The 24 Hours Before Your Eating Competition. If your challenge is going to be really early in the morning, please read Preparing For An Early Morning Challenge. To find out if there are specific times or days that the challenge is available, check out the restaurant’s website, if the restrictions are not already listed on the challenge’s page. If there are no restrictions listed, it is most likely available any time during regular business hours, as long as you call ahead in advance. Once you have a good idea as to what day and time you want to take the challenge, you are ready to call ahead and Confirm The Details With The Restaurant.

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