Eating competitions and people seeing just how much they can eat have been going on for centuries, but the idea of a restaurant hosting an actual food challenge is a little more recent. 2 of the oldest restaurants credited with beginning the food challenge revolution are The Big Texan Steak Ranch in Amarillo, Texas and Crown Candy Kitchen in St Louis, Missouri of the USA. Crown Candy Kitchen has been open since 1913, and for all of those years it has had a milkshake challenge requiring customers to drink five 24oz milkshakes or malts (120 ounces total) in less than thirty minutes. Winners get all of their milkshakes or malts free along with a free shirt and their picture goes up on the old plaque of malt drinking champions that hangs in the corner of the restaurant.

While The Crown Candy Challenge is much older, the most globally known and recognized food challenge is The 72oz Steak Challenge at The Big Texan Steak Ranch in Amarillo, Texas. To read the entire story regarding how the legendary steak challenge began, click here. To briefly sum it up though, The Route 66 Big Texan hosted a steak eating competition on a Friday night back in 1962, and the winner ended up eating 72 ounces of steak along with a side salad, order of shrimp cocktail, baked potato, and a bread roll, all within 1 hour. After the competition, owner Bob (RJ) Lee stood up and proclaimed that “from this day forward, anyone who could eat the entire 72oz steak dinner in one hour gets it for FREE.” Since that famous day in 1962, over 50,000 people have attempted the challenge. More importantly, it helped spark a revolution, and now there are over 50 large steak challenges around the world that are basically a “copy” of the Big Texan’s original steak challenge with sides.

While Crown Candy Kitchen, The Big Texan Steak Ranch, and a few other restaurants in the United States were the original pioneers of the food challenge revolution, the spark did not turn into a wildfire until the show Man v Food with host Adam Richman first aired in the United States on the Travel Channel back on December 3, 2008. In each city around the USA, Adam visited 2 different restaurants to sample their food, and then went to a third restaurant to take on their food challenge. Man v Food lasted 3 seasons and ended in October of 2010 after 58 episodes. Adam Richman then hosted Man v Food Nation which was a 27 episode series airing from June 1, 2011 until April 11, 2012 in the United States that involved local people in each city taking the challenges while Adam coached them to victory. Since that series ended, host Adam Richman has really transitioned over to being more of a food critic and an author and has hosted a variety of other food related shows. In 2013, he lost over 70 pounds (32kg) in just 10 months which was a very major transformation. For a brief story on that, click here.

The show Man v Food quickly became very popular, and it was by far the Travel Channel’s most successful show that it has ever aired. Most importantly, the show inspired restaurants all over the United States to join the revolution and create food challenges for their customers. Most of the restaurants also had a hope to one day be featured on a future episode of the show. Even to this day, restaurants in the United States are creating food challenges and claiming that Man v Food was the inspiration. There were very few challenges available before 2008, but now there are over 2,300 food challenges available throughout the United States. Feel free to use our List Search or Map Search applications to find the challenges in our database that are available around you.

The idea and popularity of restaurants hosting food challenges soon spread to other parts of the globe, and now there are restaurants in over 15 countries hosting food challenges around the world. Other than the USA, food challenges are most popular in Great Britain (and Ireland too), Canada, and Australia. A big reason for the spread was that past episodes of Man v Food and Man v Food Nation began being played on UK and Australian television channels. Just like in America, the people of the UK and Australia quickly became intrigued too, and the food challenge revolution began to spread rapidly throughout those areas. The most published and globally known food challenge in England is The Kidz Breakfast Challenge at Jester’s Diner located in Great Yarmouth.

There are now over 400 food challenges available in England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland, and Ireland. There are over 100 challenges available in Australia, and 100 more now in Canada. There are also challenges available in Mexico, Belgium, Sweden, Thailand, Philippines, India, France, and more are continually popping up. What Man v Food began, FoodChallenges.com is going to continue, but 1000 times stronger because we are not just inspiring. We are teaching both restaurants and their potential customers the missing piece to the puzzle… HOW. Feel free to browse all of the articles available throughout the site that teach restaurant owners how to create and market proper food challenges, and also teach “eaters” how to train, strategize, and win them. To find out how you can #feedthemovement and become part of the food challenge revolution, click here. As one focused & centralized global group, food challenges and contests are going to become globally “accepted” and we will make a permanent mark on the history books of the restaurant, food, and business worlds forever.

Thanks for reading this brief history of food challenges, and thanks for checking out FoodChallenges.com!!

To go back and view other Food Challenges 101 articles, click here.

From a restaurant’s perspective, the purpose of a food challenge is to help market the restaurant and get more people into the door to experience the menu and atmosphere. From an eater’s and normal customer’s perspective though, we just want to have fun taking the challenge!! There are many different reasons that food challenges can be fun, and winning a food eating challenge can also be very personally rewarding too. You cannot just wake up on a given day and decide that you want to take a food challenge. If you can complete the meal easily without preparing for it beforehand, then it wasn’t much of a challenge. Just like most achievements and personal records during your life, it takes some training and a lot of effort to win a real food challenge. Millions of people around the world have attempted a food challenge, and the major similarity between each and every food challenge related photo is that nobody is ever frowning. There is always smiling and laughter. Food challenges are meant to be fun for everyone including the audience, and not just the customer(s) taking the challenge. Have you ever considered trying a challenge? If you have not taken a food challenge before, here is why attempting one should really be on your bucket list:

– Now you know HOW – Before FoodChallenges.com, there has never been any website for a person to go to for tips and advice teaching him or her how to train, strategize, and win food challenges. Of those millions of people that have attempted food challenges, sadly most of them lost. For many of those people though, the reason they lost was not because they physically can’t eat that much. It was because they had no idea what they were doing. It’s pretty hard to have fun and enjoy something that you don’t know HOW to do. Check out the eating TIPS and STRATEGIES sections to find out every food challenge and contest related tip you could ever want to know.

– You can say you tried one – How many things in your past have you done just to say you did it? Do you really want to have to tell your sons and daughters that you have never tried a food challenge? No you don’t!!

– Victory is very satisfying – If you train and work hard to achieve a certain goal, whether it be for an athletic event, job, hobby, or even to beat a video game, it is very self-satisfying when you reach that goal and achieve victory. There are food challenges of all kinds, sizes, and types. You just have to pick the right one for you. You may watch a UFC or MMA fight and wish you could do that too, knowing that you never ever will. You may watch a poker tournament on television and wish you could win that much money, knowing that you never will even try. Anybody can win a restaurant food challenge, and you don’t have to just watch. You just have to choose the right one, and luckily you have over 3,000 to choose from. I have done many tough challenges, and I can tell you from experience that the personal satisfaction is worth significantly more than the awarded prizes and/or free meal.

–Challenges are more fun than an all-you-can-eat buffet – You can eat as much as you physically can at an all-you-can-eat buffet, even until you are sick, but you will never win anything but an upset stomach. On top of that, you still have to pay for your meal. Even if you put an entire tray of food on your plate and eat it, more food will soon be brought out for everyone else, and you get to walk out only with the satisfaction that you “got your money’s worth.” A food challenge is a limited amount of food, and once you are done, you are done. You get to walk out victorious, knowing that you are one of the elite few to win, and you also have the shirt to prove it. Many times you don’t even have to pay a dime for the awesome experience (please tip your server though!!).

– Everyone else is doing it – We were taught in school that “everyone else is doing it” is a terrible reason to try drugs, but we aren’t talking about doing drugs here. If you frequent a restaurant with a food challenge, and hundreds of people have tried the particular challenge, all hanging up on the Wall Of Fame or Wall Of Shame, what is keeping you from being next? Are you too cool? All of those people are smiling for a reason. It’s fun!!

– It’s fun to compete – Every person in the world eats/drinks food for energy, and every person is qualified to attempt a food challenge no matter what their age level, race, gender, body type, financial income, or degree of athleticism is. You may not be able to compete on a field or court, but you can still compete in something. In this case, that something just happens to be at the dinner table (or breakfast). Athletes and all naturally competitive people never truly lose that will to compete, so get that old competitive spirit back again by training for and attempting a challenge. Then you can feel the thrill of victory again, which is something money can’t buy.

– It’s bulking season – If you are into lifting weights or wanting to gain muscle mass, you need to be eating real food, and you need to eat BIG in order to get BIG. Why not try a food challenge? Even if you don’t consider yourself a big eater, just try a smaller challenge. Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you are right. Since you will need to train your stomach the few days beforehand by eating more, this gives you a reason to eat BIG, which will help you reach your goals. You aren’t wanting to add tons of fat, so just make sure to choose a challenge loaded with protein and not just fats & carbs like a dessert challenge (one won’t hurt you though).

As you can see, there are many different reasons that you should attempt a food challenge or at least try attempting a food challenge once in your lifetime. If your favorite food is pizza, try a pizza challenge. If you “can eat Mexican food all day and night,” then try a burrito or taco challenge if there is one near you. Try a challenge on your birthday in front of all your friends, or try one when you are on vacation with your family. If you have never tried one, you have no right to criticize other people that do. If you have tried one before and lost, and you did not have an enjoyable experience, did you know what you were doing at the time? Check out the TIPS and STRATEGIES pages to find out what you need to do on your next attempt. Every challenge is very different. If you learn the HOW, I guarantee that your next experience will be much more pleasurable than your first attempt.

Thanks for reading why you should attempt food challenges, & thanks for checking out FoodChallenges.com!!

To go back and view other Food Challenges 101 articles, click here.

Back in February 2010 when I decided to attempt my very first eating challenge with my friend, the first thing I did after making the decision was to Google search “how to become a competitive eater” so that I could find out what I needed to do to make myself and my stomach ready for the big 28″ team pizza challenge. I was in the middle of a very important body transformation contest at the time, and I was easily able to find hundreds of articles about how to train for a bodybuilding contest so that I could optimize the look of my final photos. No matter how hard I searched though, I could not find any reasonably accurate articles about how to train for a food challenge or competitive eating contest. It was absolutely stunning at the time, and it is even more stunning that still no other professional eaters have tried to help “beginning” eaters learn what they need to do to prepare for eating challenges and contests. After over 4 long years and winning over 170 food challenges, I have learned A LOT about all of the different aspects of what it takes to conquer food challenges and eating competitions. That information is passed on throughout all of the articles featured on FoodChallenges.oom. The best part is that I am 200% sure that I don’t know everything there is to know yet, so there will constantly be more articles written as time goes on and as more people ask questions that I have never even thought of before. FoodChallenges.com is everything that I wish was available 4 years ago when I first began my journey. To start though so you don’t make the same mistakes I did, here is the article I wish was available when I first searched “how to become a competitive eater” that very first time:

Do these things to become a successful competitive eater:

(I would put FIND first, but you have already found this website with everything you need to know.)

LEARN – There are over 100 articles throughout the TIPS and STRATEGIES sections that contain information about almost everything you can want to know about training for eating competitions along with what to do before, during, and after your challenge. There is even a TIPS section dedicated to advice for eating contests too. There are 28 different types of food challenges that you can attempt, and the STRATEGIES section covers how to beat each and every one of them. When it comes to food challenges, you can never know too much, and you should learn as much as you can beforehand so that you can train safely and smarter, & not just harder.

FIND – Now that you have studied all of the tips & advice articles and you have a pretty good idea of what it takes to win food challenges and eating contests, now you need to find and select which challenge or contest you want to try first. Since food challenges only involve you and nobody else, I suggest trying a food challenge first so that you can accurately gauge your current abilities. There are not always eating contests available around you each month because contests are typically held only once per year, but challenges are available every business day or once per week at the very least. Perform a Map Search or List Search to find which food challenges are available around you. Select which challenge you feel most comfortable attempting based on size, type, and the time limit. Now you know what you need to train for, and you can set the challenge up when you want to and when you are ready for it, rather than adapting to fit somebody else’s schedule. Dominate your challenge, and then you will be more confident during your first contest. Make sure to start slow & safely!!

TRAIN – Put what you learned by reading and watching videos into practice and start training your body so that you can prepare yourself for your upcoming competition. As mentioned above, please start slow and build up gradually. You won’t start out being able to beat seasoned professionals, and every big journey starts out with a few small steps, just like mine. As you continue to train, you will figure out what works for you and what does not, and you will quickly be able to decide which training methods work best for your body and stomach.

CONNECT – Every single “eater” that is a part of the FoodChallenges.com community joined because he or she enjoys attempting food challenges and/or competing in eating contests. We are also committed to helping to #feedthemovement and expanding the FoodChallenges.com “brand” which also means helping beginners and amateurs just starting to get involved. If you have not set up a profile yet, please do, and feel free to follow and interact with your favorite eaters. Every eater has different techniques and training methods, so if you have a favorite eater, try to find out what he or she does. Please do not be annoying though, and know that some people will offer more help than others. If a local restaurant owner (promoter) is part of the community, feel free to ‘friend’ and follow that person too. If we all help each other together, “the movement” will grow much quicker and stronger which will lead to bigger and better things for everyone involved. If you are traveling to a city and are wanting to attempt a team challenge, feel free to Find An Eater in that particular area to team up with and contact that person to see if he or she is interested. You will have a lot more fun if you are active in the eating community rather than just sticking to yourself. Feel free to interact on the Forums too. Remember also that food and fun are for FoodChallenges.com, so please keep all negative drama and problems on Facebook.

CONQUER – After putting in the work and effort to train and strategize for your challenge, it’s time to have some fun conquering the particular challenge you have been preparing for!! If you are wanting to find a local eating contest to compete in, your best resource is currently Eatfeats.com. There is an outstanding database of eating contests available around the world, mostly focused on the USA though, that is well maintained and updated. FoodChallenges.com currently does not have the staff and budget to maintain a calendar of events or schedule, and only the database of food challenges, but it is a future goal. Conquer, conquer, & conquer!! You will get even better and smarter as you continue and gain experience. Please be sure to #feedthemovement along the way!!

LEARN MORE -You can read and study all the materials available, but there is no substitution for experience. After every food challenge and eating competition, critique yourself and decide what you did well and what things you can improve on. If you are not getting better, you are getting worse, and there really is no such thing as staying the same. Keep learning and figuring out new ways to get better. If you come across a problem and there are no articles that answer it, please contact us with the question. We will do our best to get the problem answered and use it as future content for the website, because chances are that other people might be having the issue too. Like everything in life, you have to be genetically and physically able to excel, but to become one of the best competitive eaters, you have to put forth the most effort. There is no simple quick & easy solution. Lucky for you though, the food challenge and competitive eating world that you are entering into is 1000 time easier than when the “older” veterans started, thanks to FoodChallenges.com. Please take advantage of it, and also please share the website with your friends and family so that the community can continue to grow, creating better opportunities for everyone involved. Your help is surely needed & very appreciated!! #feedthemovement

To go back and view other Food Challenges 101 articles, click here.

Out of all the articles in the Food Challenges 101 category, this is definitely the one that I have been the most excited to write because the term “professional eater” is the most misunderstood label / title throughout the entire world of food challenges and competitive eating. There are extremely ignorant restaurant owners and people all over the world, especially in the United States, that use the term “professional eater” without having any clue or idea what it truly means to be a professional eater. These people seem to think that we are like “mutants” in X-Men, and that “professional eaters” were just genetically born to eat more, eat faster, and be better at eating than everyone else. Some restaurants have “professional eater clauses” that prevent better eaters from taking their challenge because they have a higher chance of winning. Some small restaurants host eating contests and restrict “professional eaters” from entering the contest so that it is more competitive for the more novice local contestants. The problem is not that they don’t allow professional eaters. The problem is that they have no clue what a professional eater is, and therefore they restrict contestants from entering that should not be restricted. Believe it or not, other professional and competitive eaters and I were not created in a sports science laboratory, and the only real difference that sets us apart is that we actually have a work ethic to go along with the desire to be a professional and/or competitive eater. The point of this article is to clear up what it means to be a “pro” so promoters can at least know who to wrongly discriminate against:

The Current Definition Of A Professional Eater

I have been very active in following the world of food challenges and competitive eating since beginning in 2010. Since beginning, I have always been public about my challenges and I don’t even do a challenge unless it is being videoed so that a YouTube video can be produced. I even have my own website RandySantel.com. Therefore, the search for “Randy Santel” comes up with thousands of different results. I have dealt with the “professional eater” misconception many times, and I know many other eaters that have dealt with it also, and therefore this issue “hits home” for me. In today’s world, there are 4 “definitions” for the term “professional eater” used by restaurant owners, staff, and promoters which I have derived from past bad experiences:

1. Professional Eater – Any person that has won money for winning an eating challenge or contest

2. Professional Eater – Any person that has won an eating competition before

3. Professional Eater – Any person that competes “in that hot dog contest on TV” (Nathan’s on July 4th)

4. Professional Eater – If eating contest or food challenge posts show up when your name is “Googled”

As an avid food challenger, there are few things more irritating than when a restaurant owner claims that they created their challenge “just for local people” and that it wasn’t really meant for “professional eaters” to attempt. Just recently, I had to listen to a chef use this line when referring to their TEN POUND sandwich challenge. I just kept my mouth shut, shook my head, and walked away laughing at his ignorance, counting the number of eaters that can defeat a 10lb (4.54kg) sandwich challenge with just my 2 hands. That “small-minded” thought process is why his restaurant had very few people on a Saturday evening during prime dinner hours.

What Those 4 Definitions Really Mean In Plain English

When I was getting proposals to create this website, I had 2 different companies mention that they did some work for other professional eaters, and they gave the particular person’s name as a reference. Both individuals should not have even been considered an amateur or even a competitive eater at all, and therefore I threw both proposals into the trash because I knew they were not the right company to get the job done. I can shoot and dribble a basketball, but I am not a professional basketball player. I wrote and edited this article, but I’m not a professional writer, and I don’t want to be one either. I did not even really consider myself a professional eater until I became only the second person to have 100 food challenge wins around the USA. Calling yourself a “professional eater” after 5 food challenge wins, or labeling a person as a “professional eater” that has won just two or three eating contests is just plain ignorant and disrespectful to all of the actual veteran professional eaters that have helped build the world of food challenges and competitive eating into what it is today.

If a restaurant uses any of those 4 definitions when referring to their food challenge, in plain English they mean that, “We want to receive the marketing benefits that come with hosting a food challenge, but we don’t want anybody to actually win the challenge, causing us to have to give away the meal for free or pay the cash prize we advertised.” If a restaurant or promoter uses any of those 4 definitions when referring to their eating contest, in plain English they mean that, “We want a local regular customer to win the event so that the prize stays local, and we don’t want anybody coming in from out of town and beating all of the locals.” Whether you want to believe it or not, both of these statements are true, and there is one major similarity between all restaurants that share this way of thinking. They are “small-minded” with a “small-minded” way of marketing, and unfortunately small minds don’t make large amounts of money. Without risk, there will be no reward.

The Real Definition Of A Professional Eater

By actual definition, the word professional refers to “a person engaged in a specified activity as a main paid occupation rather than as a pastime.” Going by this definition, there are less than 5 eaters currently in the world that can be considered an actual professional eater that makes a majority of his or her annual income from competing in eating contests. I am not even a professional eater YET if you go by this definition. Most of the “professional” competitive eaters that compete in the annual Nathan’s Hot Dog Contest on July 4th actually spend more money traveling to the different Major League Eating (or IFOCE) events each year than they really make in prize money. Also, competitive eaters that are signed with the International Federation Of Competitive Eating (or MLE) are not even allowed to participate in your unsanctioned food challenge or eating contest due to their extremely restrictive contract stipulations, so definition number three makes absolutely no sense at all.

To separate professionals from amateurs, from this point forward, a “professional eater” shall be known as any person deemed worthy to be considered a 4 or 5 star eater ranking on FoodChallenges.com. To be rated 4 or 5 stars, an actual food challenge must weigh over 6.25 lbs (2.75 kg), and therefore a 4 or 5 star eater must be able to consistently eat over 6.25 lbs (2.75 kg) of food in one sitting. A 5 star eater is able to consistently eat over 8 lbs (3.5 kg) of food in one sitting. The only exception to this rule is eaters that focus mostly on speed eating contests, but even these eaters are rated at least 3 stars, meaning that he or she can eat over 5 lbs (2.25 kg) of food in one sitting. While some 3 star eaters can arguably be considered professional eaters, restaurants and promoters that deem 1 or 2 star eaters as restricted “professionals” are just plain ignorant. No 4 or 5 star eater began their career being able to eat 3 kilograms (6.6 lbs) of food in one sitting, and it took years of hard work and training to build their capacity up to the point where it is at today. Like any career, it takes a lot of training and effort to become a true professional, and it does not happen in just one month or even in one whole year.

Smart-minded people and successful marketing professionals already know this, but you should be proud that actual professional eaters are wanting to compete in your contest or attempt your food challenge. If a pro comes in and smashes your food challenge, you should be contacting every local media outlet around you to see who is interested in picking up the story. Depending on the day and location of your restaurant, you will more than likely be able to find at least a few media outlets interested. People hearing about the story will think, “If he ate it in 10 minutes, I know I can eat it in less than an hour.” In regards to eating contests, professional eaters make the events much more exciting. How many people want to watch a contest full of people that look like they are eating a normal lunch? More than likely, the value that a professional eater brings to your small restaurant is worth more than the prize you are offering, so to restrict “professional eaters” from competing is just plain stupid from a business standpoint. Contestants that complain about a few “professional eaters” being in a contest need to realize that we live in a world that doesn’t celebrate people winning 9th place medals. He or she needs to accept personal responsibility and put forth the effort to train and win the competition, just like the actual winner did, rather than taking the easy way out and complaining like a little whiny baby. Like in every sport, some eaters are naturally better than others, but hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard.

Hopefully this article settles the debate about what it means to be a professional eater. There are too many restaurants creating massive food challenges while thinking any “professional eater” should be able to finish it. The most ignorant explanation I’ve heard is that “a professional should easily be able to defeat it because its their job, you know, it’s what they do.” Actually, almost all active “eaters” have regular jobs just like normal civilians, and competitive eating is just a fun hobby. Believe it or not, but a restaurant’s $100 cash prize for winning their food challenge is not going to feed that eater’s family for the month and pay the mortgage. If you are an active “eater” in the community wanting to enter an eating contest or participate in a food challenge, and the hosts are trying to restrict you from entering simply because you have won a few prior competitions, please contact us and provide the restaurant’s name and information along with an accurate email address. We will be happy to send the restaurant or promoter an email supporting your argument to see if changes can be made.

To go back and view other Food Challenges 101 articles, click here.

If you are just beginning to explore the world of food challenges and competitive eating, WELCOME to the community!! We are very excited that you are interested in competing in different eating events. There are over 3,000 food challenges throughout the world and there are different eating contests popping up all of the time too. More and more opportunities will be created as we continue to #feedthemovement and increase society’s level of acceptance while building the popularity of food challenges and competitive eating. Hopefully you have a few favorite professional and competitive eaters that you follow, and thanks to FC.com you can now learn HOW they got to the level that they are currently at, and you can also learn WHAT you need to do to become an elite eater too. So that you don’t end up disappointed, please know before you start your journey that “Rome wasn’t built in a day.” You may have seen Joey Chestnut eat 69 hot dogs and bun in 10 minutes during the annual Nathan’s 4th of July Hot Dog Contest, but know that he was not able to eat that many when he first started. Back in 2005, he won his very first Nathan’s qualifier with just 20.5 hot dogs and buns, and then went on to finish 32 at the finals that same year, placing 3rd. Even with 32 in 10 minutes which is more than most people can eat in a day, that is less than half than he can eat now.

Tiger Woods, one of the most dominant golfers to play the game, started as a young child by making a few simple putts. Serena Williams, one of the most dominate tennis players to play the game, did not start out as a World Champion. Lou Ferrigno, the legendary professional bodybuilder (and one of my heroes), was not born weighing 295 lbs and standing 6’4″ while having a size 34 waist. It took years of training and perfecting their game along with gallons and gallons of blood, sweat, and tears to build themselves into who they were at their peak. This same theory holds true in competitive eating too. The elite eaters in the sport today have spent years training and competing, while constantly trying to safely improve their abilities. You may have read somewhere that the legendary Takeru Kobayashi can drink 3 gallons of liquid in one sitting, but he was not born with that ability. He may be genetically gifted, but he spent years perfecting his game and training so that he could reach the level he did. The elite eaters of the sport are self-made through extreme effort, and not just born that way.

This towering burger is called The Stellanator and is located in Omaha, Nebraska of the USA at Stella’s Bar & Grill. There are six 6 ounce burger patties, 6 eggs, 6 pieces of cheese, 12 pieces of bacon, vegetables, and both buns are covered with peanut butter. The burger is delicious, and it is the 4th food challenge that I defeated back in 2010 on my birthday, with a time of 25 minutes. I had a rough night afterwards too while attempting to celebrate my birthday, mostly due to my body not being used to eating that much food at one time. Over 40 food challenge victories later though, I went back and smashed the exact same challenge in just 7 minutes and 26 seconds, and then was able to party like I hadn’t even eaten dinner. My body was now used to my new lifestyle.

If you begin your career thinking that you will immediately be able to defeat professionals that have been competing for years, there is a high percentage chance that you will be disappointed and end up discouraged. If you decide to attempt a massive eating challenge that is just way too tough as your first challenge, there is a very high percentage chance that you will fail, and again end up discouraged. Every journey starts out with just a few small steps, so make sure to start slow and build gradually. The main purpose of competing in challenges & contests is to have fun, and it is not fun losing. Therefore, do not set yourself up to fail. Make sure to read and study all of the advice and secrets throughout the TIPS and STRATEGIES sections. Your favorite elite eaters have trained using very similar methods and strategies. The difference between you and them though is that they had to figure things out the hard way through the old method of trial and error. They did not have this website to help them when they were first starting out. Please make sure to take full advantage of this great resource.

To go back and view other Food Challenges 101 articles, click here.

If you specialize in a particular field and are very knowledgeable about the various related topics, it is usually pretty easy when talking to a person to tell whether he or she understands what you are saying. On the other hand, when that person is commenting, it is even easier to tell if that person has no idea what he or she is talking about. There are usually certain “triggers” depending on the particular field that just scream “I have no knowledge about the subject I am commenting on.” Since competitive eating is a sport that hardly anybody actually understands, and it involves food and nutrition which most people also don’t understand, there are numerous “triggers” that pop up all the time on different articles, YouTube videos, and social media posts. Most of those “triggers” are health related, which is why the purpose of this article is to answer the question “Are food challenges healthy?” It would be silly for me to tell you that eating a 5,000 calorie burger challenge in less than 30 minutes is good for you, because that would be a huge lie. At the same time though, it is not nearly as bad as most people think. As with absolutely everything in life, competing in food challenges and competitive eating events will not damage your health if you practice MODERATION. Too much of anything can be very unhealthy. It is possible to eat too many carrots and peas, just like it is possible to drink too much water. It is not healthy to run marathons (26.2 miles), and there are multiple people that die each year competing in various races around the world. I know from experience that you can definitely workout too much and suffer from “over-training” if you are not careful. A small glass of red wine and a portion of dark chocolate have been shown to have health benefits, but it’s not exactly healthy to have a box of wine with a 1 kg dark chocolate bar. Eating events can be very fun and won’t damage your health if you practice moderation.

Responses For The Different Health Related “Triggers”

These are the most widely used comments on food challenge & competitive eating articles, videos, and posts that are completely inaccurate which need to be addressed so that people become more knowledgeable:

Anything related to diabetes – I don’t know who taught your last health class, but no person that actually has diabetes got it because of one or even 10 specific meals. I have beaten numerous large ice cream and dessert challenges with thousands of calories from sugar and saturated fat, but I did not wake up the next day with diabetes. No active eater has experienced this issue and none will anytime soon if they practice moderation.

Anything related to giving yourself a heart attack – I have defeated massive cheeseburgers along with other greasy challenges, and one time I defeated a challenge consisting of 6 lbs of fried foods all smothered with mayonnaise between two buns, all within 15 minutes. Not one time did I have a heart attack while taking the challenge or even later that night. Your heart and body will have to work overtime to get all the food digested, but it won’t be reaching any dangerous levels. Heart attacks not stemming from being genetically predisposed are due to years of having a poor diet paired with a lack of exercise. If you do not use your heart, you will eventually lose it, but there are even some people that suffer heart attacks due to too much exercise. If you maintain a proper diet and exercise regularly, a few eating competitions will not damage your health. Worry about your friend that drinks a daily 24oz energy drink before worrying about healthy professional eaters.

Anything related to causing high cholesterol – There are vegetarians that exercise regularly that still have high cholesterol levels due to poor genetics, and there are people that eat high cholesterol foods daily that still maintain a low cholesterol due to good genetics. Either way, one 13-egg omelet challenge is not going to cause you to have high cholesterol levels. Doing one each and every day for a long period of time might have an effect on your health and weight, but there are only a few eaters in the world that will do more than 1 competition per week, and most eaters do only a few events and challenges per year. Every blood test I have ever gotten (my last test was after win #150) came back saying my cholesterol is low, mostly because I exercise regularly while maintaining a healthy weight and diet when not doing challenges. I’ll get test again when I reach 200 wins.

How do you eat like that and not gain weight? – I have won over 185 food challenges around the world, and I did not get to that number by doing one per month. I am by far one of the most active food challengers, and I will be the first to tell you that you will gain weight if you do too many eating challenges too often without giving yourself a break to burn off the additional calories. Lifting one day per week while doing nothing the other 6 days will not make you much stronger, and doing one eating competition per week while eating light the other 6 days will not make you gain weight either. Physically fit eaters don’t eat like that 7 days per week. We practice moderation and live an active lifestyle, and know that having a few less calories during the week is worth all the fun we will have on weekends doing food challenges and competitions, and believe me, the sacrifice is worth it.

Comments related to throwing up after every challenge – Any active eater who regularly competes in eating competitions that says he or she has never gotten sick afterwards at least once is lying to you, but no eater purposely throws up after every eating event, or even 1/4 of them. While it is not exactly healthy for your body to process thousands of calories at a time (many eaters use digestive enzymes to help the digestion process), it is definitely not good for your body and digestive system to throw up constantly. Similarly, it is not good to throw up after drinking too much alcohol either. Eaters that are physically fit are that way because we exercise often and eat right most other days of the week, and not because we are simply throwing up after every single event.

Comments about how many calories there are – Most people don’t know or understand this concept, but the high number of calories is not the most unhealthy part of the challenge. The most unhealthy part of a food challenge is the massive amount of sodium that many larger challenge meals have. The day after a challenge, an eater may weigh over 10lbs more than before attempting the challenge less than 24 hours ago. The number of calories in the challenge has little to do with this huge fluctuation. The large amount of sodium you just consumed is causing your body to retain all of the liquids you consumed along with and after the big meal. Therefore eaters need to consume a lot of water on the days right after a big challenge so that they can flush all the sodium and retained water weight out of their body. The extra calories factor into the temporary excess weight gain too, and must get burned, but not nearly as much as the truck-load of sodium does. Have you ever thought about that?

There is a big misconception that most eating challenges are completely unhealthy, and that is completely ridiculous. If you are wanting to run, you don’t have to run a marathon. You can have just as much fun running a 5 km (3.1 miles) race. If you are wanting to attempt a food challenge, you don’t have to try to eat a 4,000 calorie 5lb burger challenge. There are many food challenges where the total calorie count is not even more than your recommended daily amount!! Excess weight gain stems from consistently consuming more calories than you burn off almost every day. As mentioned above, there are very few individuals that actually compete in food challenges and / or eating contests more than just a few times per month, and they are professionals that understand the concept of eating light on days they are not doing events so that they can reach a point of general moderation. If you only do challenges and contests every now and then, and you are gaining a little excess weight, more than likely a poor daily diet and exercise routine is the culprit and not the actual eating challenges and contests you have been doing. Please give the credit to where the credit is due. Competitive eating can be a great and fun activity, but remember that too much of a great thing is not necessarily a great thing. Practice a level of moderation and you will be able to stay happy and healthy throughout your career.

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You can give one hundred different people the same training schedule and have them all try to prepare the exact same way for a specific food challenge, but if you place all 100 people in the same room with the exact same challenge and rules, there will be 100 completely different results and reactions. There are over 7 billion people in the world, and no two people are the exact same, and the same goes with stomachs too. When it comes to food challenges and competitive eating, no two stomachs are the exact same, so you need to consider that when you are training and competing. If you compare yourself to somebody “better than you,” then you are opening yourself up to severe disappointment. Even worse, you can really hurt yourself and damage your health if you attempt to prepare for a competition exactly like somebody else does who is more advanced than you. If one day you decide to attempt to drink 2 gallons of liquid in one sitting just because that is what some of the top elite eaters can do, that may be your last day on this Earth, because there is a high chance that you will drown yourself, and at the very least just get really sick or pass out. Training for eating competitions is just like lifting weights. You can’t just throw 400 lbs on a barbell and expect to lift it. If you haven’t trained yourself to lift that much, that weight will fall right on top of you and you will hurt yourself.

As an example, consider sprinting and racing. There is only room for 1 person to be known as “the fastest person in the world,” and that person is currently Usain Bolt from Jamaica. I could train 24 hours a day for 24 years straight, and I will never be faster than he is, because he is simply more genetically gifted than me when it comes to racing. While it would not be a contest between the two of us on a race track, it would not be a contest at the dinner table either, because he does not train himself to eat/drink a lot. That is what I specialize in, and therefore I would win. With that being said, I could train all day and night for years, and I will never be able to eat 70 hot dogs within 10 minutes. Not only is that physically impossible for my body type, but I also don’t want to be able to eat that much either. For that reason, I don’t use the same training methods as Joey Chestnut, and therefore I have adapted my training regimen to fit my own lifestyle and personal body type. I make sure to train safely and efficiently so that I don’t over-train and hurt myself, halting my progress. Too much of a great thing is not necessarily a great thing, and you don’t want to hurt yourself by “biting off more than you can chew.”

This article mostly applies to large quantity food challenges and individual stomach capacity, but this concept also applies when dealing with spicy food challenges too. Every individual stomach and digestive system handles foods differently. My body may handle digesting ice cream better than yours, and your body may handle processing steak and other meats better than mine. Every individual stomach handles spicy foods differently too. My personal idea of “spicy” is topping my meal with Frank’s Red Hot Sauce or some other type of Louisiana hot sauce. I love pickled jalapenos but rarely eat anything spicier than a raw jalapeno. Habanero peppers and any chilies or sauces spicier than those really tear my stomach up, giving me a bad stomach ache. For many “chili heads” that enjoy extra spicy foods, raw jalapenos are like candy to them, and their bodies are able to handle much spicier foods than mine. Every person has a unique spice tolerance, so you need to remember that before thinking you can beat a really spicy wing challenge just because your friend was able to win without any problems. His or her stomach may handle spicy foods much differently than yours, so please be extra careful.

Please consider this when you are training for your competitions and competing in eating contests. While training and experience will definitely improve your capacity and eating speed, you may never be able to compete with the top elite eaters, or ever be considered a professional. I played 4 great years of high school American football, and then 3 more years of college (university) football, but I knew going into it that I was not genetically gifted enough to actually compete with the professionals in the NFL. I played completely for fun and because I enjoyed the game, and therefore I was not disappointed at the end of my short career. I now do food challenges and competitive eating events all over the world simply for fun, because I enjoy traveling, and because it is what I enjoy. I am 100% sure that I will never be considered the #1 eater in the world, and therefore I always give 110% just because I care and that is what makes me happy, and I never compare myself to other eaters. While there are some eaters that I will never be able to compete with, there are a heck of a lot of people that will never compete with me. I have my own strategies and techniques that work for me, and eventually you will develop your own set of techniques and strategies that work for you. Thanks to FC.com, you now have an excellent starting point, so make sure to take advantage of all the articles and opportunities that it creates. Your body and stomach is your own, so be sure train and compete safely and productively so that you don’t hurt yourself. That will make competitive eating so much more fun and enjoyable for you. #feedthemovement

Thanks for reading how all stomachs were not created equally, and thanks for using FoodChallenges.com!!

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Before writing anything else, I must confess that I have been kicked out of a bar for grabbing food off a stranger’s plate who was going to waste it. Stereotypes exist for most groups of people, but of all misconceptions about competitive eating, calling us wasteful is the most ignorant and offensive. I have worked in the kitchen at multiple restaurants, and I have also worked at a banquet hall. Over the years I have been to many parties where food was served, and I have also been out to eat with many different people. It would be incorrect on any set of standards to say that I do not personally love food. I can confidently tell you that true food challengers and competitive eaters are some of the least wasteful people in the world today. I am not exactly normal, and therefore cannot be used as a case study, but I always make sure to avoid wasting food, and I will put forth additional effort to make sure waste is prevented. When I was in 5th and 6th grade, with the help of my mom and the Weight Watchers program, I lost over 40lbs. During that time, I learned about the weight-loss theory “Which waste (or waist) do you want the food to go to?” People are taught to think about that question before eating food they know will not help reach their personal weigth loss goals. In today’s world, sadly, there are many people that will let the food go to waste, but I personally would choose letting the food go to my waist, and then working out more and eating less the next day to burn the calories.

At a party where dinner is served, where are you most likely going to find the competitive food eater? While everyone else is back to watching TV, playing games, swimming, and interacting, he or she will still be eating seconds and thirds, followed by dessert. I am asked to “finish the last few bites” of a dish all the time because the remaining portion is not really worth saving. 100% of the time, I say yes and I finish it off so that it does not get wasted. I love buffalo chicken related foods, pizza, Mexican food, and all desserts, but my favorite food is cold leftovers that other people couldn’t finish, because I never have leftovers myself. Even on a first dinner date with a girl, I am not afraid to finish off any food she can’t finish. One time years ago I was out to eat with four girls for somebody’s birthday, and I didn’t even really order a full meal because I knew I would be offered the leftovers from at least one of them. I ended up finishing something from each of them, all food that would have been wasted otherwise. Throughout my years in the restaurant business, I watched hundreds of pounds of food get thrown out due to policies put in place by our country’s health department. During my year working at a banquet hall, I watched hundreds of perfectly good “plated dinners” be thrown out because certain individuals did not like the food chosen. Food challenges and competitive eating are not even close to being considered a real contributor to the world hunger problem, and therefore people need to stop using them as a scapegoat.

Feel free to check out the photo used for this article above. That is what my plate looked like after finishing a 5lb meatball sandwich challenge, and it looks similar to my plate after every other challenge I have beaten. There have been challenges that I did not finish, but I took the leftovers home and ate them the next day, just like many people do that cannot finish their normal meal. Just because food challenge meals are larger, that doesn’t mean that more food is wasted, and all possible correlations make no logical sense. If a restaurant is hosting an eating contest and happens to misjudge how much food was needed for the event, there may be a little more food wasted than normal, but typically spectators are allowed to sample and eat the untouched food leftover after eating competitions, and therefore hopefully the food is not wasted if people come and eat the remaining leftovers. In the PROMOTERS section, I offer the article How To Reduce The Waste Of Challenge Food so that restaurants are able to minimize the amount of food wasted at the restaurant due to the food challenge. If both the restaurant and the eaters taking the challenge take the initiative and make sure food is not unnecessarily wasted, the food challenge will be the least wasteful item on the restaurant’s menu!!

I am not going to get into the cause of world hunger or discuss issues with current government issued health policies imposed on restaurants, because all of that would just be an opinion. It is a fact that true food challengers and competitive eaters are some of the least wasteful people in the world today. The purpose of a food challenge is to finish the entire meal within the required time limit. Nobody has ever started a challenge wanting to lose, so therefore nobody has ever started a challenge hoping that food would get wasted. You may witness one person having a majority of the challenge remaining and letting it go to waste, but attempting one challenge does not automatically make a person worthy to be labeled a competitive eater, and therefore don’t judge the entire eating community based on one person who is not even part of it. Millions of pounds of food are wasted each year around the world, and there is nothing that you or I can do about it. All we can do to limit the amount of food wasted is to worry about ourselves and make sure that we are not wasting food unnecessarily in our own lives. A passionate competitive eater will not let cold french fries (chips) go to waste, and we don’t believe in the “Which waste (or waist) do you want the food to go to?” theory. We will chose “waist” almost every time. Before you ignorantly “throw the first stone,” and make a comment about us being wasteful, make sure you don’t waste either. Either way, expect to be offended by our feedback supporting why you are wrong.

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At the very beginning of every food challenge that I attempt, I have my own little personal ritual before taking my first bite to start the challenge timer. and part of that ritual is to make the “sign of the cross.” Therefore, I get comments about gluttony, one of the seven deadly sins, on almost all of my videos by people criticizing that I am praying before eating an over-sized meal. Currently, I am not exactly a “practicing” Catholic, but I was raised Catholic and will call myself a Catholic for the rest of my life. I have my own personal belief in God (or “higher power”), and there is nothing anybody can say or do to change it. With that being said, this website is about food, and there will never be any articles that don’t involve food, and therefore I will never mention any of my religious views and no other future article contributors will either. Because it is strictly about food, and every single person in the world must eat in order to survive, we don’t care what your race, gender, size, or sexual preference is, and we don’t care what your religious and political views are. Any person willing to help #feedthemovement is welcome on this website no matter what, and you will not be discriminated against as long as I own it. Our policy is just like the septic tanks that most food ends up in (because we don’t waste). We don’t treat people differently based on details that don’t humanly matter, and we accept anything that fits, as long as you don’t think your “sh*t don’t stink.”

Reasons Why Food Challenges Are NOT Gluttonous

As mentioned in Are Food Challenges Healthy?, competitive eating is a sport that hardly anybody understands, so therefore it is looked down upon and treated as a scapegoat by many ignorant people that simply don’t know any better and have never taken the time to learn about it. When close-minded people don’t understand a “different” particular group of people, they have a natural tendency to look down upon their way of life without even taking a few minutes to learn why they do the things they do. Food challengers and competitive eaters are not any more gluttonous than anybody else, and maybe even less than most people. Here are the reasons why:

5 pounds is 5 pounds – Most people eat 3-6 meals per day depending on their lifestyle, fitness goals, and calorie requirements. If you eat five meals per day, and each meal averaged a weight of 1lb (.45kg), that is 5lbs total for the day of food. On days that competitive eaters do a food challenge or longer contest, that is typically the only meal of the day. While it took 5 separate meals for you to eat 5 pounds, it took the competitive eater only one 5lb meal, but 5 pounds is still 5 pounds, and you both ate the same weight of food over the 24 hour period.

4,000 calories is 4,000 calories – Using the same thought process as above, and simple math, whether you eat ten 400 calorie meals or just one big 4,000 calorie meal, at the end of the day (or 2 days) it is still 4,000 calories. An eater may have 4,000 calories in one meal, but for the next few days after the challenge, he or she will be eating less than normal, and therefore the calorie totals will all even out so no excess weight is gained.

Some eaters actually use the calories – Back during the 2008 Summer Olympics, millions of people were discussing and sharing articles about the 12,000 calorie daily diet of Michael Phelps, USA’s most “decorated” Olympic swimmer. It was never looked down upon because people recognized that he was burning off all the necessary calories during his intense training sessions. Many people that participate in challenges and eating contests are athletes and people that enjoy exercising often. My good friend Ramsey has over 120 restaurant challenge wins, but he also runs over 75 miles per WEEK!! Needless to say, the calories from his competitions get used during his long daily running sessions. Many other “eaters” have similar active lifestyles too.

Food challenges involve an ultimate goal. All-you-can-eat-buffets do not. – If you are attempting a giant food challenge, there is a certain amount of food that you must finish to win. Even if you are doing a record challenge where you have to beat the previous quantity record, you get to stop once you have surpassed that particular quantity. If you are at an all-you-can-eat-buffet, there is no ultimate goal, and no matter how much food you eat, there will always be more prepared and brought out for everyone else at the buffet. The only thing you can possibly win is a stomach ache, and either way you still have to pay for it. To eat to the point of fullness, and then to over-indulge without any particular ultimate goal or reason to eat that much, that is gluttony. Even in an eating contest, you only get to eat for a set time limit, and then you stop. There is an ultimate goal. Whether you are at your own home or at a buffet, if you have over-indulged without any particular reason to, it would be pretty hypocritical to criticize competitive eaters who actually have an ultimate goal when they eat that much. That doesn’t necessarily make food challenges morally acceptable, but know there are more buffet & AYCE restaurants around the world than restaurants with challenges. Have you ever considered that perspective?

Gaining excess fat stems from consistently consuming more calories than your body burns off on a daily basis through movement, exercise, and natural body processes. If an eater practices moderation and counteracts the excess calories consumed through eating competitions by either increasing his or her amount of exercise or limiting calories consumed the days before and after the event, how is that gluttonous? I absolutely love to travel, which is one of the reasons I created this website, and when I travel to a new area I do as many events as I physically can because I know I won’t be back anytime soon. While this could be considered borderline gluttony since I am eating way more than my daily requirements for multiple days in a row, I spend the next few weeks afterwards (or however long it takes) exercising hard and eating like a bird until all of the excess weight I gained is gone. Then my body is back at normal equilibrium, and no food was ever “reversed” or even wasted.

No matter what your belief system is, and whether you believe in a “higher power” or not, it does not matter. There is no accepted way of thinking that says it’s okay to “sit behind your computer anonymously and be an ignorant asshole.” Whether you agree with what we do or not, the great thing about the world today is that we are free to do it anyway, and i guarantee you that we we will. While you have the freedom of speech, you also have the freedom to shut the hell up, so please avoid commenting ignorantly and offensively about things you don’t care about or understand. There may be a permanent imprint of your butt on the couch in your house, but please realize that other people are out enjoying the world and all the great things that it has to offer, and nothing you do will change that. You may consider some things I do gluttonous, but also know that I am one of less than five people that will consistently do multiple events per week, yet there are thousands (and soon millions) of people interested in food challenges and competitive eating, so I am not exactly a good case study. Eaters that practice moderation and self-control that are not wasteful are not promoting gluttony at all, and know that it is fairly hypocritical to condescendingly criticize a way of life that you don’t agree with while using religion as the foundation of your poor argument. As it says in The Bible, “Why do you see the splinter in your brother’s eye but not notice the log in your own eye?” Please keep all very ignorant comments to yourself.

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As a man who spent most of his childhood years overweight along with about four years weighing over 300 lbs (137kg), who now completes food challenges all over the world while maintaining a lean physique, I have come to know and understand that there is only 1 concept that promotes obesity. I belonged to the last generation of human beings that were able to grow up with out being slaves to technology. I played outside almost every single day and the treads on my bike tires were always low, and thanks to my loving parents I was fortunate enough to play 5 different sports throughout the year, depending on the season. I did not grow up with iPads and tablets being thrown in my face at a very young age. Facebook was not started until I was in college. Even though I was very active, I still found myself weighing 205lbs (93kg) when I was in only 5th grade. Thanks to the help of my mother and the Weight Watchers program, I lost 40 pounds, and through that I started to realize the importance that nutrition plays in your everyday lifestyle. In an attempt to become a better offensive lineman football player, I gained over 100 pounds in one year from my junior to senior football seasons in high school, peaking at 346lbs (25 stone) with a size 46 waist (now I wear a 36). I remained over 300lbs for the next 4 years until I retired from college football in 2007. I spent the next 3 years attempting to lose weight, but I was unsuccessful and I kept letting obstacles get in the way which caused me to constantly fluctuate. In 2010 I was finally able to start correctly placing all of the little pieces into the puzzle, and I proudly won a national Men’s Health sponsored total body transformation contest called The 2010 Men’s Health / Spartacus Transformation Challenge.

I beat out thousands of other individuals throughout the United States and was flown to Auckland, New Zealand to be filmed as an extra in an episode of Spartacus: Gods of the Arena, the prequel to Spartacus: Blood and Sand on the Starz Network. It was not until after the contest was over that I completed my very first food challenge which was back in March 2010. It has been a long 4+ year journey since then, but I now have over 170 food challenge wins in over 7 different countries, yet I am still wearing the same size 36 jeans that I started with. I have never taken a nutrition class, and everything I know has been learned from many years of research along with a ton of failed trial and error experiences. Through all of my experiences, I have been able to establish one fact that I know to be true. There is absolutely no substitute for a proper nutrition program.

The True Promoters Of Obesity

As mentioned in other articles, competitive eating and food challenges get used as a scapegoat all the time by different groups, and there are many people that claim that food challenges promote obesity. They can claim whatever they want, but the fact is that the true promoters of obesity are any person or company that attempts to sell a supplement, workout regimen, diet plan, fitness product, weight-loss product, surgery, or any other health related product/idea without claiming that the person must change his or her lifestyle and nutrition habits in order to get actual results that last. There is no shortcut, and the obesity epidemic will always exist as long as people think they don’t have to fix their nutrition habits. Nutrition supplements and fitness products are a multi-billion dollar industry, and their are thousands of companies making millions of dollars because they are taking advantage of people that think they can achieve lasting results without changing up their diet. I have taken over 25 different supplements over the years and I have tried different workout programs and products too, and I now fully understand that no supplement or workout plan will compensate for a terrible diet. You don’t have to exercise to lose weight, but it is recommended of course, because that really speeds up the process

It is a known fact around the competitive eating community that you are able to eat at a much higher level when you are fit and in great shape. I firmly agree with that too, because I can eat much more when I am weighing 245lbs than I can when I am weighing 275lbs. I know multiple people who enjoy food challenges that used to weigh a lot more than they do now, just like me. They are in better shape now while “eating” than they were before ever even trying a food challenge. For me, food challenges provide great motivation to stay active and continue working out, so that I can maintain a pretty relaxed diet when not doing competitions. If I stop working out, but continue doing food challenges, I will have to reduce my calories more than I currently do to keep from gaining weight. Since I enjoy food so much, I continue working out so that I can eat more of it. I lift to eat!!

You will never find an article on this site claiming that you can participate in eating competitions without worrying about possible weight gain. If you don’t adjust your diet to compensate for the extra calories, you will gain weight if you are doing large & high calorie challenges. You can increase your level of exercise, but most of the time more exercise is not enough. There is obviously an obesity problem in countries all over the world, and you can go into any public place and see that. ZERO percent of those people are obese because of doing food challenges. They are obese because they have poor nutrition habits. It is pretty hard to beat a food challenge if you have no idea what you are doing, and it is even harder to lose weight if you don’t have a clue what to do. 97% of information about health and fitness today is total crap, and the reason is because most giant supplement companies and product manufacturers are spending millions and millions of dollars to make sure that their products continue to sell, and most products would not sell if people actually knew how to eat properly.

People can say that food challenges promote obesity and weight gain all they want, but the real culprits are your “friends” trying to get you to buy some weight loss shake while saying you don’t have to change your diet. Let a guy who doesn’t understand nutrition have the great personal trainer in the world and workout in the most expensive gym. As long as that person never receives nutrition help, and only receives supplements, pills, and personal training sessions, I will dominate him in a weight loss contest using no equipment other than a pull-up bar and a men’s Shake Weight. Suing McDonald’s and trying to eliminate the selling of large sugary drinks is not going to help the obesity problem, and either is totally getting rid of food challenges and competitive eating.

There are overweight competitive eaters of course, but they are not overweight because they participate in eating competitions. Even they will agree with that. They just have not figured out how to control their daily eating habits yet for a long enough period of time. If you practice moderation when doing food challenges and eating contests, and you counteract the extra calories by eating less for a few days afterwards, you will not gain weight, and you certainly will not become obese. If you don’t control your eating habits for a long period of time though, whether you are doing eating competitions or not, you will gain weight unless you are just really genetically gifted. Just because you are thin though, that does not necessarily mean you are healthy. Along the same lines, not everyone that is overweight is unhealthy. However you want to look at it though, food challenges do not promote obesity, so please blame that fact that you don’t understand nutrition yet before blaming the restaurant down the street with a 6lb burrito challenge spicy wing contest. Your problems are not their fault.

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