After searching for “The Dangers Of Competitive Eating,” just to see what was already available online, I found a few articles that definitely supported my claim that most people have no real understanding of the sport. There are articles filled with quotes from doctors that don’t even have any research to back up their claims, and there are other articles written by authors that seem like they cannot even finish an entire foot-long sandwich. You can read all of the books in the world, but it is pretty tough to make valid arguments against a particular topic if you have no real experience dealing with that particular field. While I respect doctors and the amount of studying that they do to become doctors, learning from books and learning from real experiences are two totally different things, and I don’t know of any doctors that have ever competed in a serious eating competition before. While competitive eating is not the safest sport in the world, some of the claims against it are very unreasonable. Like any sport, serious issues can occur, but you can definitely take certain precautions to ensure safety so that you do not hurt yourself or damage your health. These are all issues that can occur while participating in food challenges and competitive eating events, along with what you can do to minimize the chances of the situation arising:

You can choke – To be a successful speed eater, you have to focus mostly on swallowing rather than chewing. Because of that, you are swallowing larger pieces than you would be if eating a normal dinner and chewing each bite the recommended 27 times. Combining speed eating with swallowing large pieces of food create a higher possibility of choking especially with foods like hot dogs. While speed eating, make sure to take very many small bites rather than a few large bites so you reduce the need for chewing and the possibility of choking.

You can bite your finger – If you are “in the zone” during a competition, you are focusing on nothing but dominating the tray of food in front of you. Anything that comes near your mouth is at risk, including your fingers. I have bitten a finger during an eating contest, but luckily it wasn’t anything serious. I’ve heard of a few other eaters doing this too. Make sure to not get your fingers too close to your mouth when taking quick, hard bites, just like a carpenter needs to make sure he keeps his hands away from his saw when cutting a board.

You may get sick – Whether you are competing in an eating contest, attempting a food challenge, at an all-you-can-eat buffet, celebrating Thanksgving, or even at your grandma’s house for dinner, if you eat too much there is a chance that you will get a stomach ache or throw up. That’s just common sense, so make sure to be careful.

You may gain weight – Whether you are at Old Country Buffet, doing a food challenge, or even cooking for yourself, if you eat more calories than you physically burn off, you will gain weight. If you eat 3,000 calories worth of carrots and spinach in one day, and only burn 2,000 calories, you will gain weight because those extra calories will be processed and stored as fat. Excess calories get stored as fat whether they are from vegetables or brownies. If you compete in an eating competition without understanding that concept, the competition is not at fault for you gaining weight. You may win a challenge and get the meal free, but you will still pay for it later both at the gym and in your kitchen if you want to avoid gaining excess fat, and there is no way around that.

You can drown yourself if training with liquids – No matter what an eater says, all of the top eaters train for their eating competitions beforehand. You cannot just wake up and decide to compete in a serious eating contest or food challenge. Different eaters have their own way of training. Some train with food, some with liquids, and some train with both. If you attempt to train with water or other liquids, you can seriously hurt yourself and even kill yourself if you are not extremely careful. Drinking too much water at one time can deplete your electrolytes and cause you to pass out or even die. The solution to this risk is simple. Don’t water train!!! If you are wanting to involve liquids in your training, eat a few pounds of food and then drink your liquids. To say that some of the top eaters do not train with liquids would be a lie, but they are professionals that have been building their capacity for many years and have done it safely. Since you are just starting out, do not set yourself up to get hurt. Eating is meant to be fun, and it’s not worth getting hurt while training, so don’t put yourself in danger.

All of the situations above are reasonable issues that can possibly occur while actively competing in eating contests and food challenges. There is one “go to” danger though that doctors typically always reference during interviews, and that is that you can possibly rupture your stomach or esophagus by eating too much and over-extending your stomach or esophagus muscles. I know eaters that have actively been involved with competitive eating for over 15 years. The current #1 eater, Joey Chestnut, has eaten so much food so many times in so many contests since he started back in 2005 that it is pointless to even try to do any calculations. Never in the history of competitive eating has anybody ever ruptured their stomach. Millions of people have attempted an eating challenge or competed in an eating contest, and of course some people are more extreme than the rest, yet there have been absolutely ZERO occurrences where a person’s stomach ruptured. That doesn’t exactly make the possibility of rupturing your stomach a valid safety concern to worry about, so let’s stop bringing that up.

The human body is capable of extraordinary things, and it also has ways to keep you from hurting yourself by attempting to do something you are not capable of. If you chug a 1-liter bottle of 80-proof liquor (vodka, rum, etc…) in 10 seconds, your body will not be able to process that much alcohol that quickly. Since your body won’t be able to handle all the poison you gave it, you will more than likely die, and you hear about stories like that all the time on the news. You never hear about people dying from drinking only 4.2% beer though do you? To reach the amount of alcohol that a 1-liter bottle of 80-proof liquor contains would take a few gallons of beer. It would take 10 hours to drink that much beer rather than 10 seconds. Your body would have a lot more time to process all of it. Along with having more time, your body would shut itself down so that you can’t drink anymore, or it would make you throw up, both way before reaching a level that it definitely cannot handle and process.

While it can be seriously dangerous chugging a liquid if you drink too much of it too quickly, you cannot chug food, and you can only eat food so fast. Even if you are dunking food in liquid so that you can eat faster, you are not eating at a speed that your body cannot handle. If you reach your maximum capacity or any other point where your body cannot handle any more punishment, it will handle the situation by forcing all of that food right back out where it came from, which does happen sometimes during different eating events. 99.99% of the time, your stomach muscles are not just going to tear. If they do, you probably had a very serious medical condition resulting in a weakened stomach lining, and you should not have entered the competition in the first place.

As far as long-term results, there have been no reputable studies done on any competitive eaters, and therefore no meaningful response can be given. I follow just about everyone who is active in the eating community, and I am not aware of any eaters that have any health issues that stemmed from competitive eating. There are some older eaters that are larger than they were back in their prime, but that is not because of competitive eating. Consistently training to increase your stomach capacity relaxes the stomach muscles so that you are able to eat more, but once you stop training, your stomach muscles will contract back to the size your stomach was before you began your training. After taking a few months off, I can definitely tell that I did upon starting back up again because my first challenge back is usually much slower than usual, and therefore I have to get my body back into shape. If you do anything to your body for a long period of time that isn’t exactly great for it, there is of course some risk that goes along with that. There is a reason why so many older athletes have bad hips and joints, because the human body can only handle so much wear and tear, which is why you should not abuse it.

Your internal digestive organs have to work overtime to digest all of the extra food, and there may be some “wear and tear” if you compete without practicing moderation for a long period of time. There are very many examples of highly-trained long-distance athletes that have died of heart failure due to overworking their cardiovascular system for too many years. There are ZERO examples of any digestive organs failing, but it would be wrong to say it cannot happen. With that being said, there is no reason to worry about long-term results if you only plan on doing a few recreational competitions just for fun. All professional athletes know the risks and possibilities that can arise while playing and competing in their particular sport. If careful though, serious health issues are very unlikely to occur. You and I are both not Joey Chestnut or Takeru Kobayashi, so there is no reason to even compare our physical shape to theirs. You can get hurt doing anything if you try to compete outside your limits. Nobody is invincible or immortal, and therefore you must be careful. If you are wanting to compete in an eating competition, please be safe, use our advice, and don’t bite off more than you can chew.

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If you are browsing the web and checking out a few food challenge & competitive eating related articles, posts, and videos, you will more than likely find some random comment with nothing but the three word phrase, “Meanwhile In Africa.” This trend began a few years ago as a joke to make fun of different stereotypes, luxuries, and customs that certain groups of people (mostly Americans) have that less fortunate people in other parts of the world are not able to enjoy. The phrase can also be used to belittle people that are complaining about very insignificant issues that are not really “problems” compared to the real-life dilemmas and situations that other less fortunate people are dealing with around them. Many other countries and continents could be chosen, but since Africa is known to be full of poor, little third-world countries facing a wide variety of problems, it typically is used the most. For example, on a video of an eating contest or food challenge where a large amount of food is being consumed, especially if the winner is being celebrated at the end and applauded, somebody will write “Meanwhile in Africa,” because people over in those starving countries will most likely never get an opportunity to experience anything like that during their lives.

Most people that write “Meanwhile in Africa” do it just to stir up controversy and tick people off, and most of the time time it works because more than 5 people typically respond to each ignorant comment. Some of the online discussions can actually get pretty intense. While that is very ignorant and unnecessary, that is not the main problem. The real problem is that some people criticize competitive eating and food challenges while using the argument “How can we celebrate people eating large amounts while people in Africa are starving?” That is the most ignorant argument that can possibly be used against competitive eating. Here are the many reasons why:

There are starving people everywhere – No matter what city you are in around the world, there are multiple less fortunate families within 5 to 10 miles of you that are dealing with financial issues. Houses and properties are being foreclosed everywhere, and people are being forced out of their homes, and many of those people don’t have anywhere else to go. You obviously have the internet signal required to find this article, but many families around you cannot afford it, & they cannot afford multiple meals per day either. To use a group of people in your argument thousands of miles away that you will never actually help is ignorant. Instead of wasting your time criticizing people that don’t care about your opinion, use that time productively to go volunteer and help the people in need around your local community, which is what many competitive eaters are doing already.

Many eating events and challenges involve charity organizations – Most active competitive eaters and food challengers are well aware that we are very fortunate to be able to do what we do. I myself have gotten over $3000 worth of food and restaurant gift certificates donated to different organizations throughout the USA during my different events. The picture used for this article is from when I beat a 24″ pizza challenge in Kansas. The owner had a ridiculous “professional eater clause” restricting me from winning the $500 cash prize, but I contacted him anyway. Upon winning, I received $500 in restaurant gift cards which were then donated to the local Special Olympics office so that food could be provided at one of their events. I know many other eaters that do what they can to help different charities too. Many restaurants host events where all extra proceeds go to an organization in their particular community, or to a local family in need, and this happens very often.

FoodChallenges.com will be helping the community – Our main goal is to #feedthemovement, but that one goal can be broken down into many different aspects and subgoals. One of those subgoals is that once a strong community of eaters, fans, and promoters has been built up, we will be able to help each other as well as the local communities that we are involved with. As one strong and focused group, we will be able to help a lot more people in a lot more places in a lot more ways. To help other communities while our own people need help is just plain ignorant and a poor use of resources, and that will not happen. Before you ignorantly criticize what we do, why don’t you contact us about setting up an event to help your outreach organization, if you even have one.

Things can get as ignorant as you want them to – To say it is ridiculous to celebrate people being able to eat a lot while other people are starving is ignorant, but it is way more ignorant to use that as an argument while not realizing that there are thousands of other luxuries that we have that some countries and people do not. If you want to get ignorant with us, we can take it as far as you want, and there really is no end. If you take a shower with running clean water, that is two things right there that many people don’t have. To swim in a pool while drinking bottled water, and then stepping out on to a freshly watered lawn, all while many people don’t even have any clean water??? How dare you??? Before you throw a stone at us, know that we have a mountain of boulders to throw back. That doesn’t exactly make what we do right & justified, but it does make you wrong.

I am not an economist or politician, and will not be giving any type of opinion as to why there are starving and less fortunate people in the world, but I do know it is a fact that those people would still be starving and less fortunate even if competitive eating and food challenges did not exist. Feel free to read the article Are Food Challenges Wasteful?, if you have not already, to find out why food challenges and competitive eating are not any more wasteful than anything or anyone else. After reading that article, check out Are Food Challenges Gluttonous? to find out why they are not gluttonous either. Whether you agree with our food challenges and competitive eating or not, please know that we are going to do it anyway. If you are against it, please know that it would be better to focus your efforts on what you do believe in, rather than fighting a battle you can’t win. #FeedTheMovement, or you will get eaten up if you go against it. I will be the first to tell you that I am not the Mother Teresa of our generation, but I am always willing to help others and give back when I can, and I will never look down up or criticize other people helping others either. With that being said, if you have any ideas that can involve FoodChallenges.com helping the community (hopefully food related), please make sure to contact us.

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It is just amazing how many people think that the television show Man v Food still exists. While building the huge database of food challenges, I spoke to multiple restaurant owners about their challenge, and they brought up that they have been trying to contact Man v Food about coming to take their challenge. Sadly, I informed them that Man v Food ended in 2012, and I even talked to a few people that did not believe me. If you check out different food challenge related posts by restaurants around the USA, you may see a comment or two by different people saying that the restaurant needs to get Adam Richman and Man v Food to come to take the challenge. Because the Travel Channel is still playing old episodes of the show constantly, and because most people simply watch the show for entertainment and don’t spend much time caring about food challenges, many people think that Man v Food is still out visiting local restaurants around the country and that Adam Richman is still attempting challenges at those restaurants.

For a little more information about the show, please read A Brief History Of Food Challenges. After 3 seasons of Man v Food totaling 58 episodes, the last episode of the series premiered on October 20, 2010, which was also the last food challenge that host Adam Richman attempted. Adam went on to host Man v Food Nation afterwards which had a similar format, but then a local person attempted the food challenge while Adam coached him or her through it. Man v Food Nation consisted of 27 different episodes, and the last 2 episodes premiered on April 11, 2012. The series was canceled by the Travel Channel after that. Since hosting the Man v Food series, Adam has gone on to host shows such as Best Sandwich In America and Fandemonium, but he has not done any other food challenge related shows. Recently, Adam slimmed down 70 lbs in just 10 months through hard work, diet, dedication, and exercise. For an article about his transformation with before and after photos, click here.

Man v Food won’t be coming to take your challenge and promote your restaurant, but FoodChallenges.com can!! There are many different ways that we can work with you to promote both your food challenge and restaurant. Please contact us for more details along with letting us know what you have in mind. #feedthemovement

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

The use of steroids and performance enhancing drugs is a very serious topic in sports such as baseball and football, and every person in the world heard about the “doping” scandal that Lance Armstrong was involved with after winning the world famous Tour de France for so many years in a row. You may be the top athlete in your sport for 10 years, but if you get caught using steroids and other performance enhancing drugs, you will be known as a cheater, and your entire career will be be looked down upon after retiring, even if you didn’t start using the drugs until that last year when you got caught. The most examples of this exist in the sport of baseball, where players are always looking for ways to hit the ball harder and further. As far as there being performance enhancing drugs to help you in the sport of competitive eating, you are out of luck. There are many jokes about marijuana helping you eat more because people say the use of it can give you the “munchies,” but having the “munchies” will not help you eat faster. You may think that it is helping you eat more while you are eating your $15 worth of Taco Bell at 3am, but the only way to eat more is through training to increase your stomach capacity. What I am referring to with the title though is different than the actual use of steroids.

If all bicycle riders in the Tour de France were doping, and all professional football and baseball players were using steroids and other drugs, most people would not watch or care about those sports and activities. There would not be 100 million people watching the Super Bowl on television and their would not be thousands and thousands of people packing into a stadium for game 7 of the baseball World Series. People watch a sport because they love the game and they love following the people playing it, and also because it’s fun to watch. They would not follow their favorite sport though if everyone playing it was cheating and playing beyond their real abilities due to drugs. If people didn’t follow the sport and pay for tickets and apparel, or even watch it on television, nobody would be making any money at all. Therefore, the players taking the steroids would not be making any money either. That is the reason why I refer to dunking as the “steroids” of competitive eating.

People watch food related shows because everyone eats and most people love food in some way or another. Man v Food was the Travel Channel’s most successful show ever, and tons of people tuned in to watch it every single week. They enjoyed watching host Adam Richman visit all of the different restaurants in all of the different cities around the United States and sample the foods at each place. People not only enjoyed seeing him sample the different local foods, but they also cheered him on while he was taking the food challenges. Whether he won or lost, people still tuned in the next week to watch again. With that being said, if Adam had dunked his food in liquids and ate like a slob, nobody would have watched the episodes because they would not have been fun to watch. Therefore, there would not have even been a second season, and the food challenge revolution would not be anywhere close to what it is today. People want to watch a person eat delicious food, and the food doesn’t look delicious when it is soaked in water and there is food debris all over the place. That is definitely a fact.

There is only 1 real competitive eating event that people care about, and that is the Nathan’s 4th of July Hot Dog Contest on Coney Island in New York. The contest airs on ESPN and tons of people watch it on television while almost 50,000 people show up to watch it in person. Then even more people watch it once somebody uploads the footage to YouTube. As you already know, that contest does involve dunking, because that is the only way to eat over 60 hot dogs and buns in just 10 minutes. With that being said, this contest is slightly different than others because the eaters are all up on a stage while the crowd is further away, and therefore not able to see all of the hot dog debris and liquid flying everywhere. Even then, this contest happens only 1 day per year. What are competitive eating fans able to follow the other 364 days (excluding all of the many qualifier events of course)? A lot more people would follow the sport if they were not disgusted by how all the competitors eat. The main contributor to the “grossness effect” is eaters being allowed to dunk their food, rather than their table manners.

There may be some people and eaters that disagree with this article, but their little wallet and bank accounts definitely do not. A person can set 100 different eating records for both speed and quantity, but if people can’t watch the eater due to his or her manners, he or she has no real promotional value, and therefore will not get paid for his or her talents. There will be no sponsors paying for that person to represent their company brand. The sport of competitive eating and food challenges will turn into a marketable sport and gain a lot more fans & followers all over the world, but not until eaters take the sport more seriously and start eating with manners and respecting the food. We are eaters, and not circus animals. A person doesn’t get paid to set Guinness World Records but they will get paid if there are tons of people watching the attempt. As an eater, before you mash up that burger or ball up that burrito and get debris all over your hands and face, remember that nobody wants to watch you do that, and that is why eaters are lucky to make over a few hundred dollars per eating event.

Thanks for reading “Dunking Food: The Steroids Of Competitive Eating” and for using FoodChallenges.com!!

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As a business owner, at the end of the day your main goal is for your company to bring in more money than you spend so that you can continue to do business and keep making more money. If your restaurant is not making enough revenue, then it will not be able to continue doing business and you will have to shut down. I have never owned a restaurant, but I have visited over 1000 of them because I love food and I love traveling, and therefore I love trying new food when I travel to new places. I have attempted a food challenge at over 185 different restaurants since 2010, and over 50 of those restaurants have already closed down. I’m definitely not a psychic either, but I am rarely surprised when I hear or read about a restaurant shutting down that I have been to. If not already planned well in advance as an event, I try to do my challenges at peak hours so that customers can watch me win the challenge. When I go to a restaurant for a food challenge during peak hours on a normal day of the week or even on a weekend night, and there is more restaurant staff than customers, that is not a good sign. There are obviously other ways to tell a restaurant is not doing well, but a restaurant definitely isn’t making money if people aren’t there eating, drinking, having a great time, and most importantly, spending money.

You can have the best food at the best prices with the best service, but that all doesn’t matter if nobody knows your restaurant even exists. Your menu, prices, and service can make people want to come back and tell their friends about your restaurant, but you have to get them in the door first. Wherever your restaurant is located, especially if you are in the United States, there are multiple different “big name” chain sit down restaurants and fast food restaurants around you that seemingly have unlimited marketing dollars that have advertisements everywhere. Examples of “big name” restaurants are McDonald’s, Subway, Taco Bell, Applebee’s, Olive Garden, Burger King, Domino’s, Chili’s, and KFC. Then there are probably multiple medium-sized restaurants around you that are able to advertise a lot too. As a small business without a huge marketing budget, you definitely cannot compete with these larger restaurants through everyday standard advertising on the radio and other expensive media outlets. You have to find other unique and less expensive ways to advertise your restaurant and get customers in the door. One great unique and inexpensive marketing tool is hosting a food challenge, which is what this website is all about. There are many different reasons to have a food challenge, but the main purpose of hosting one is to help promote your restaurant and get new customers in the door to try out your restaurant.

These are qualities about food challenges that help successfully achieve their restaurant marketing purpose:

Symbolic – As you will learn in other articles, a food challenge should be created to represent your menu and attitude. If marketed correctly, that challenge may soon become a symbol of your restaurant. Food challenges are becoming more known and recognized every day. Food challenges such as massive burgers are typically outrageous looking to most normal people, and it only takes one brief look to get imprinted into their memory. Food challenges are all about the “wow factor.” Smart restaurants make sure to include the restaurant name on any photo or advertisement they post involving the challenge. Word of mouth can spread fast, and soon people may not even know your menu but they know you have a big food challenge. First impressions are HUGE in today’s world, and if they are impressed by the effort you put into your challenge, they are probably willing to try out your restaurant even if they have no interest in taking the challenge. Once the challenge becomes well known around the community, you can then advertise yourself as “The home of (your challenge name here).”

A food challenge is a challenge – Food challenges and competitive eating are growing in popularity every day and are attracting more and more “eaters” all around the world. There are over 3,000 food challenges in over 15 countries, but there are only a few challenges in each particular city for “eaters” to attempt. Every food challenge I’ve ever done in over 150 cities, I went to that restaurant simply because they had a food challenge, and for no other reason. If they did not have a food challenge, I would not know that any of those restaurants ever existed. Restaurants and cafes may even have more negative reviews than positive on TripAdvisor, Yelp, and Urbanspoon, but a true “eater” doesn’t care and will go to the restaurant simply because they have a food challenge. If you create a food challenge properly, new people will come and they will bring their friends too.

Fun – When a food challenge is going on, people are smiling, laughing, and having fun. An “eater” may not be smiling at the end when he or she is feeling really full, but there is probably a group around that person having fun and laughing at that person. When a food challenge is brought out, everyone in the restaurant knows a challenge is happening soon because customers are taking photographs and staring in amazement, secretly debating whether or not they themselves could finish the challenge. When people have a lot of fun, they will more than likely tell the story to their friends afterwards and your restaurant’s name will surely be brought up. People go to restaurants and bars to have fun and enjoy themselves, and if everyone is having fun at your restaurant, they will definitely want to return, and friends that hear the stories will want to come too.

Social media worthy – In today’s world of social media and technology, paying for older methods of advertising on radio and TV and using printed advertisements is becoming out of date and overpriced. People use internet radio, YouTube, Pandora, and other methods to listen to music now rather than traditional radio, and more people read about stories on the internet rather than in newspapers and magazines. When is the last time you opened a phone book? Many people today spend half of their day on their phone using social media. There are billions of posts everyday around the world made on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Google+, YouTube, Vine, SnapChat, and other social media platforms. People like posting interesting things, and food challenges are definitely social media worthy. Smart restaurants use their social media pages to promote their food challenge, and they also encourage customers to post about the challenge whether they are attempting it or just watching. People enjoy seeing posts about food challenges because they are fun and interesting. Creating a “buzz” of interest on social media can reach a lot of potential customers very quickly, and continually keeping your restaurant in people’s mind is one of the keys to getting customers in the door (constant contact). People are much more likely to share a picture of your food challenge than your daily food and drink specials, so take advantage of that. Most importantly though, using social media is an extremely affordable price… FREE!!

Thanks for reading about restaurant marketing and especially for checking out FoodChallenges.com!!

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There are 28 different types of food challenges, but most people are unaware that there are different kinds of food challenges too. The kind of challenge is more important to you as the business owner than the type of challenge. A burger challenge is a burger challenge to a normal customer coming into your restaurant that is just looking to have fun, but the kind of challenge that you choose decides the type of crowd your challenge caters to, the restaurant atmosphere the challenge creates, the details and rules of the challenge (price, time limit, , and many other factors that you may not have even realized before reading this article. Here are the different kinds of food challenges to offer along with brief business perspective details about each kind:

Very large quantity challenge – Challenges under this category are all 4 and 5 star challenges over 6.25lbs (2.75kg). An extremely low percentage of people are able to eat more than 6lbs (2.73kg) of food, and the percentage obviously decreases as you increase the size and weight of the meal. These challenges typically have a time limit over 45 minutes and they are usually fairly expensive due to the large amount of food. This kind of challenge is more for creating a “wow factor” rather than a fun atmosphere because the challenge more than likely will NOT get many attempts, especially after the first few months it is available. In the beginning, people will attempt it just to attempt it, but as the challenge continues on with only a handful of people getting past the halfway point, the excitement will die down pretty quickly because its not fun when nobody is able to even get close. The only real way to make these challenges successful, especially if you are not in a major city with a prime location, is to offer a large prize for winning, usually cash, because then it compensates the travel expenses for 4 and 5 star eaters to travel there. You also need to use cheaper materials to keep the cost down. If you are going to have a very large challenge item, it would be wise to also offer it as a menu item for groups to purchase and share. These challenges are typically always awarded free if one person finishes successfully. From a business perspective, these are the least profitable challenges to offer because not many people attempt the challenge which then does not bring new customers in, and with larger challenges there is usually some type of special item required which isn’t always readily kept in stock, making things inconvenient for the kitchen staff and causing people to have to call ahead before the challenge which doesn’t always happen.

Large quantity challenge – Challenges under this category are 3 star challenges between 5lbs and 6.25lbs (2.25kg-2.75kg). The time limit usually ranges been 30 minutes and 1 hour, and the cost typically depends on the type of food and the quality of the restaurant. There is still a low percentage of people that can win 3 star food challenges, but a higher percentage of people can get close which is the key to making these challenges successful. A large number of people getting over 3/4 finished, with still only just a few people actually winning, creates hope, and when you combine the male hormone testosterone with the right amount of hope, you are able to achieve a larger number of people trying your food challenge with more people watching too, which is exactly what you want as a business owner. 3 star challenges are typically also offered free if one person can finish the meal successfully. These challenges are much easier to promote than most very large challenges, especially if you add incentives like cash money, gift certificates, and apparel to increase the incentive for people to try it. Large quantity challenges are great for restaurants in bigger cities because their is a higher number of people available meaning that there are more potential big eaters making it not smart financially to offer only a medium sized challenge for free in that particular situation, because then you would lose money.

Medium quantity challenge – Challenges under this category are 2 star challenges between 3.5lbs and 5lbs (1.25kg-2.25kg). The time limit typically ranges between 25 minutes and 1 hour, and the cost varies based on the type of food, and both vary depending on the quality of the restaurant. In the United States where there are a lot more big eaters interested in food challenges, 2 star challenges are typically not awarded completely free, but usually come with a discount or gift certificates to help offset the expense to take the challenge. In Canada, Europe, and Australia where there are not as many big eaters, a large majority of challenges offered are 2 star challenges, and many of them are offered free if completed successfully. A higher percentage of people are able to eat 2 star challenges, giving people even more hope, but restaurants usually lower the time limit to 30 minutes to make the odds more in their favor. If priced correctly, these challenges can be very profitable because many more people are willing to try them, and since they have a higher level of hope and confidence, the “eaters” are more willing to bring friends and family to cheer them on to victory. Also, if you award the winners with gift certificates rather than a free meal, that gets them to come back and hopefully bring different people than they brought originally to enjoy a regular meal. Most 2 star challenges do not involve any custom items making the challenge typically always readily available which makes the challenge easier to sell and promote. Since they are still very tough and large to most regular customers, more people are willing to watch 2 star challenges which create a much more fun and exciting atmosphere for everyone. Lastly, since these food challenges are not completely massive, you will get less backlash from ignorant “haters” claiming that food challenges are wasteful and gluttonous, which reduces the hassle of dealing with negative customers.

Small quantity challenge – Challenges under this category are 1 star challenges less than 3.5lbs (1.5kg), and usually weigh around 3lbs (1.36kg). These challenges are typically never free or discounted, and typical prizes include a shirt or hat, the person’s name and/or picture up on the restaurant’s Wall Of Fame, and/or a certificate of completion. These challenges are typically found at larger and more popular bigger-name restaurants, often times in cities that get a lot of travelers, and are just a fun gimmick used to make money. The meal is typically a little on the expensive side to make up for the price of the shirt because a large number of people win the challenge, and they know that people are more willing to spend money when they are on vacation, especially if they get something in return as a souvenir to remember the experience. Often times, there isn’t even a time limit associated with the challenge. With that being said, these challenges can create a very fun experience for the people involved because many of the people that attempt these would not have a great chance if it was a larger challenge. These challenges are typically always available and there is no need for the customer to call ahead because the materials are readily available and the food won’t take up the entire grill or oven. There is not a big “wow factor” but these challenges are very popular on social media because so many more people order the meal. These are great “starter challenges” too so your marketing return on investment will be much higher.

Quantity record challenge – A quantity record challenge means exactly what it sounds like. The restaurant sets a maximum time limit, and a challenger then tries to eat a higher quantity of a particular menu item than the previous record within that particular amount of time following the same rules as the record-holder. If the previous record was 19 tacos eaten in 30 minutes, then the challenge would most likely be to eat 20 tacos within 30 minutes. Record challenges can be available any day of the week, or sometimes these are held on special nights of the week. For example, a restaurant may hold a wing record challenge on Wednesdays when wings are discounted on special. Typically winners get their meal free or they at least get a special prize. It is smart for a restaurant to only bring out a portion of the food at a time rather than all of it to help save the challenger money in case he doesn’t come close to breaking the record. The restaurant would then charge the customer for the amount eaten, or sometimes a restaurant may just have a flat fee that they charge no matter how much you eat. These challenges can create a very fun atmosphere, especially in the beginning when the numbers are lower and there is a higher level of competition. One drawback to these particular challenges is that an egotistical higher level eater may come in and completely dominate the record, putting the record out of reach for all of the normal customers. In that case, the restaurant may choose to simply restart the challenge.

There is a variation of a quantity record challenge that is becoming popular, where a restaurant has a starting challenge with a specific quantity of food items, and then when a person defeats the challenge they add on to the challenge so the record keeps increasing. For example, a restaurant may start with a 6 patty burger and allow 1 hour to finish the challenge. Once somebody beats that challenge, the restaurant adds 1 burger patty and then usually names the challenge after that person because he or she is the record holder. The challenge gets harder as the record increases and continues to get less and less attempts, so you may want to restart the quantity record challenge when it gets to a certain point to get more people involved and more excited.

Speed record challenge – A speed record challenge can be any size, 1 star all the way up to 5 stars. To win a speed record challenge, you must defeat the particular food challenge in less time than the previous record. If you do, then you win the challenge prize which is set by the particular restaurant. Every now and then a smart restaurant may combine a quantity challenge and speed record challenge, awarding a shirt or other prize if you finish the challenge in under a certain time such as 30 minutes, but then you may get the meal entirely free if you can beat the previous challenge time record. Speed record challenges can be very fun and competitive, especially for 1 and 2 star challenges. There is usually a “leader board” posted in the restaurant that serves as the Wall of Fame. Just like quantity food challenges, a professional speed eater may come in and dominate the challenge, making the time limit unreachable for normal eaters. In this case, the restaurant may restart the challenge. Smaller challenges reach a larger group of people that may be interested in the challenge. Some restaurants just have a “top 10” leader-board, and challengers get on the Wall of Fame if they finish in less than the #10 time. This type of challenge can get really competitive and is more about having fun than it is about beating the challenge. When you have a speed record challenge with a leader-board, it is typically easy to stir up excitement via social media when you post a current picture of the Wall of Fame board, and let fans do the rest.

Speed Challenge – A speed challenge can be any size, typically 1 to 3 stars, and has a time limit of 15 minutes or less. Larger 2 and 3 star challenges usually have a time limit of 15 minutes, and smaller 1 star challenges typically have a time limit of 5 or 10 minutes. These challenges are based more on speed eating than the stomach capacity of the challenger. Speed challenges reach a larger crowd because more people can finish the meal. Some restaurants have a quantity food challenge and a speed challenge simply to reach a larger crowd of people. These challenges usually don’t have massive prizes, and the price of the challenge typically isn’t very high either since the challenger isn’t really able to enjoy the food. Speed challenges can create a very fun atmosphere in the restaurant due to the short duration of the challenge. These are also easier to video and post for people to watch via social media since their is not as much footage required. One drawback is that some people trying to speed eat have very little manners which can be pretty gross for regular customers to watch, particularly burrito challenges, so choose the food wisely, and you may want to monitor the challengers.

Small spicy challenge – Spicy challenges reach an entirely different crowd of people, and many restaurants offer both a quantity challenge and a spicy challenge just to reach almost everybody interested in food challenges. A small spicy challenge is simply a challenge to finish a very small quantity of food that is extremely spicy. Anyone over 18 can basically attempt a spicy challenge since there is not a massive amount of food. Examples of a small spicy challenge are 6-12 wings, 1-2 cups of chili, or a 1/2lb burger or bbq sandwich, each cooked with very spicy peppers. Spicy challenges can be very fun for people to watch because they really are painful due to the intense heat. Small spicy challenges are typically priced fairly cheap, and the prizes are typically pretty small too. Typical prizes are getting the meal free, winning a shirt or hat, and/or sometimes winners get a restaurant gift certificate or bar tab for later. Sometimes restaurants include a glass of milk or cup of ice cream for after the challenge is over to help the person recover. Small spicy challenges are very popular and usually get many attempts because anyone is able to defeat the quantity of food, and they just have to defeat the spiciness of the food. For this reason, spicy food challenges can be a great option to have at your restaurant, and the reactions to the spiciness make great YouTube and Facebook videos which further advertise your restaurant and challenge to potential customers. Just make sure to have ice cream available for dessert.

Medium spicy challenge – These are very rare, and are usually pizzas, but a restaurant may make a medium sized challenge with Ghost Peppers or other really spicy chilies, creating a medium spicy challenge. These get a lot less attempts since they are a combination of both quantity and spice which make the challenge very hard and painful. The restaurant staff may want to have a trash can nearby the challengers just in case he or she starts to get sick towards the end of the challenge. The best way to increase the amount of attempts for a challenge like this is to have a great prize. Not many people are willing to eat 2kg of really spicy food, making themselves completely miserable for several days, just for a free meal and bragging rights, so please keep that in mind,

Team challenge – If your restaurant has a really big food item such as an 11lb (5kg) pizza, 99.99% of people can’t eat that by themselves, and your budget probably can’t afford to hire the few professional eaters that can. Therefore, create a fun team challenge so that more people have a chance of winning. Also, you can have a large challenge item and it won’t require any special materials since it’s a menu item already. 90% of team eating challenges around the world are team pizza challenges, and I know from experience that they are a lot of fun. Team pizza challenges are usually between $40 and $60 American dollars, which is not too bad if split between both eaters. Sometimes for really large pizzas, teams of 3 or more can attempt the challenge. Some restaurants with team challenges allow multiple sized teams, and simply adjust the time limit accordingly. Because more people are involved with the challenge, there is a higher chance that more people will show up to watch, and the challenge will be more promoted via social media too. Most team challenges are based on quantity with a time limit between 30 minutes and 1 hour, depending on the size of the challenge. Some team challenges have prizes up to $500 American dollars cash money for winning teams, and those are by far the most attempted because people are willing to travel and meet friends there to attempt the challenge which will compensate their travel costs if they win. Team challenges involve a lot more strategy too because multiple people are involved. Team challenges are definitely my favorite type & kind of food challenge because they are just so much more fun!!

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Everyone has heard of the old saying, “You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink.” The saying can be adapted to just about any situation, and it definitely applies here too. If you read Marketing: The Purpose Of A Food Challenge, you learned that a food challenge can be a very effective and inexpensive way to promote and advertise your restaurant that will get customers in the door to try out your menu. They can be symbolic, fun, and social media worthy, and they will also attract customers simply because people will want to come try the food challenge. I could show you 1000 examples of successful food challenges around the world and “lead you to the water,” but in order for you to want to “take a drink” and create a challenge for your own restaurant, you have to have a meaningful reason to do it. A food challenge will not be successful if you don’t truly want it to be. Here are many reasons that your restaurant should have a food challenge available for your customers:

Your customers are asking for a challenge – This reason is hopefully a “no-brainer” for you because it is the customers that pay your monthly bills and allow you to provide the food on your own family’s table. If 25 different people mention to you or members of your restaurant staff that it would be neat if you hosted a food challenge, you should probably consider having a food challenge. If twenty people actually spoke up and said something, think about how many people have thought about it and just haven’t said anything. Give all your customers what they want rather than “slapping them in the face” by disregarding their positive feedback.

Challenge your customers – There are millions of people around the world who have never done a food challenge, but deep down they really want to try one. Many of those people don’t even know they want to try a challenge yet because they have never been provoked. If you tell a group of people that they can’t climb a particular mountain because it’s too hard, there will most definitely be a few people in that crowd that want to prove you wrong and climb that mountain. This theory works the same for food challenges. Provoke people to come to your restaurant by challenging them, and then let your customers help spread the word and challenge their friends, all leading people into your restaurant which you turned into the focal point by creating a challenge for your customers. Start the challenge and let it grow via the snowball effect. You will be happy with the results!!

Make a bold statement – Nobody likes “boring” and that is a fact. People like excitement and having fun and they want to go places that they think will be fun and exciting. When you last went out to eat, you definitely did not tell your friends or family, “Hey, let’s go somewhere really boring!!” Tell your customers that your restaurant isn’t boring and create a bold challenge, and then “yell” that you aren’t boring by advertising the challenge everywhere. Don’t just throw some meat on a bun and add french fries expecting people to get excited to attempt the challenge. People get excited when they see a 12-patty burger loaded with cheese and bacon, and not a boring double cheeseburger with a medium fry. First impressions are everything in today’s opinionated culture, and people will think your restaurant is exciting if the first thing they see is an exciting challenge.

Provide an event opportunity for your customers – Like I said above, some people want to try a food challenge but they need the right atmosphere in order to really go through with it. People tend to adapt a much more “free spirited” attitude and personality on certain days of the year like their birthday, while on vacation, on certain holidays, and when celebrating certain achievements and milestones they proudly accomplished. One “crazy” thing they may want to do is attempt a food challenge, and that person may just want to do it on his or her birthday. Is that person going to go alone? NO!!! He or she will bring friends and family to watch who will also eat and drink while watching. Give that person the opportunity to celebrate and attempt the food challenge at your restaurant. If you don’t have a challenge, that whole group will be at your competitor’s restaurant down the street that night spending money that could have been your’s. Some guys may want to settle a friendly bet or argument that they started at work through doing a food challenge, so give them that opportunity, and I’m sure they will have friends their watching too. Food challenges can also be turned into charity events. A person may not want to try to eat 4.5lbs (2kg) of food on a normal day, but they are more likely to want to if they are supporting a charity organization by doing it. Opportunities stemming from hosting a challenge are endless

You don’t know what you don’t know – You could have hundreds of potential customers in your area wanting to take your food challenge, and you could be losing out on a lot of customers and revenue simply because you don’t have a challenge. The truth is though, you have no idea whether that is true or not because you don’t know what you don’t know. The only way to know if a food challenge will work for your restaurant and help it become even more successful is to start one. Then you will know, and you won’t have to wonder what “could have been.”

Put your restaurant on the map – My favorite thing to hear when talking to a restaurant owner is “Our challenge pretty much put our restaurant on the map.” There are food challenges around the world that have had over 1000 attempts and there are hundreds of food challenges with over 100 attempts. If your food challenge alone has been ordered over 100 times, how many normal meals have been ordered during that time? Also, how many meals were ordered by people watching one of the challenge attempts? Get your restaurant and food challenge on the FoodChallenges.com map, and if created and marketed correctly, your restaurant will do well. Become one of the many success stories. Like the voice says in Field of Dreams, “If you build it, he (they) will come.”

Thanks for reading about the reasons for hosting a food challenge and using FoodChallenges.com!!

To go back and view other Considering A Challenge articles, click here.

Hundreds of great things can be said about food challenges, but like every great thing in life, there are also a few possible negative drawbacks which you should be aware of before actually starting the food challenge at your restaurant. If you are aware of the possible negative occurrences that can happen during a food challenge, you can then take the proper precautions to make sure those things don’t happen. If they do happen, you will have already prepared for the situation so you will be able to be proactive rather than reactive, and the possible negative effects will be very minimal, which will make the problem nonexistent. Here are possible situations that can occur during the challenge and/or because you have a challenge, along with how to prepare for them:

People may “get sick” – There are many names for “getting sick” such as vomiting, puking, throwing up, spewing, hurling, barfing, and sometimes it’s even referred to as a “reversal of fortune” at eating contests. Whatever you want to call it, a person “getting sick” is gross to watch for all parties involved. People may laugh, and it may be funny on YouTube videos, but you don’t want it happening at your restaurant. If you create a large quantity challenge or even a speed challenge, the chances that a few people will “get sick” during the challenge are very high because the human body wasn’t made to eat massive amounts of food at one time or even to eat food extra fast (It wasn’t made to run marathons either). Challengers throwing up are most common during spicy challenges though because most stomachs cannot handle food that spicy. A person throwing up is one thing, but having to see the actual “throw up” is a whole different story, and customers definitely don’t want to see it. The good thing is that this is the most simple issue to fix. Place a bucket or trash can near the eating challenger(s)!! It’s amazing how many restaurant owners complain about this problem, but they don’t think to put a trash can near them. Many restaurants have a “cleaning fee clause” listed under the challenge rules saying they will charge challengers extra if they do throw up inside the restaurant, but I’ve never heard of a person actually being charged. Please place a trash can near the challenger(s) and the chances of a negative situation occurring in your restaurant then become extremely minimal at most, and nothing to worry about.

The challenge may get messy – It definitely depends on the type of food challenge that you have, but some food challenges can get messy, and it may become a little hard for some people to watch. I always try to eat very clean and have as many “manners” as possible, but there are still some challenges that do get messy no matter what I do. Even if you don’t allow dunking, some challenges can become hard for regular customers to watch. The challenges most susceptible to being messy are burritos and foods that are really saucy. If foods meant to be eaten by hand are covered in sauce, then sauce will more than likely drip on to the tray, get all over the eater’s hands, and it will also show up on the eater’s drink. Even really saucy pizzas can tend to get messy. As the challenge host, there are multiple things that you can do to minimize the messiness and “grossness” of the challenge. First, don’t create a messy challenge covered with sauce. If you cover your sandwich in mayonaise, chili, BBQ sauce, ketchup, or marinara (red sauce), then it will get messy. If you don’t want that to happen, don’t cover the challenge with sauce. It’s not rocket science. Also, I always laugh when I ask for a towel or napkins, and the restaurant brings out a few tiny napkins. If you have a messy challenge, provide a towel or at least large paper towels so that the eater can wipe his or her hands and face. Also, if you have a speed challenge requiring the eater to eat really fast, that may get a little messy too. The faster a person tries to eat, the sloppier he or she tends to be. If you don’t want a messy challenge, don’t set a really hard to beat time limit. It depends on the situation, but it may even be ok to require the eater to eat with a utensil (spoon, fork, or spork). If you think about this while designing your challenge, you won’t have problems later on with people complaining about it being hard to watch. Sometimes it is not the eater’s fault, but yes sometimes it is too, but you as the host can take the necessary steps to minimize the occurrences so that everything goes well for everyone involved.

People may try to cheat – This happens more often if there is an actual monetary prize such as cash money or gift certificates, but there is obviously a chance that one or two challengers may attempt to cheat so that they can beat the challenge and win the prize. Cheaters (people that hide uneaten food) are typically not too hard to prevent and/or catch if you take the right precautions beforehand. The easiest thing to do is simply place the challenger in a busy area so that your other customers can watch the challenge take place. If strangers are watching from almost all angles, it’s a lot less likely that a person will even think about hiding food or anything else illegal. The next precaution is to have the restaurant staff, particularly the person in charge of keeping the official challenge time, keep an eye on the challenger(s). If a professional eater is taking the challenge, many people will be watching because he or see will be eating very fast, so you won’t even have to worry. Normal challengers don’t eat extremely fast, so if a waitress notices that a significant amount of food is gone after a very short amount of time, somebody should investigate. The other precaution to take is to simply not tempt the challenger(s). Set an empty trash can nearby rather than one with food in it. Have the person or team eat at a table rather than a booth which is easier to hide food at because of all the blind spots. Also, make sure the challenger(s) doesn’t have any bags or clothes nearby that would be easy to hide food in or under. If an eating challenger is caught cheating, he or she should be disqualified immediately and charged full price for the meal. Also, post a picture via social media of the hidden food (you could possibly get in trouble legally if you post their name and/or photo) and warn other customers that they will be caught if they try to cheat. People will get a laugh out of that and will definitely be on your side. Cheaters are rare, and since 2010 I’ve only heard of a few stories, and none that really caused problems, but you should still be cautious during certain situations.

People may complain about you having a challenge – The severity of this issue really depends on the type of community you are located in, but more than likely you will have a few people complain about you having a food challenge. The biggest arguments are that food challenges promote obesity, they are gluttonous, they are wasteful, or that they simply aren’t healthy. 95% of these complaints are via social media, especially as comments under food challenge photos, videos, and articles, because ignorant people tend to feel strong and powerful while typing on their computer, tablet, or smart phone. The most irritating comment which is posted the most is “Meanwhile in Africa…” Particularly in the United States, people feel that “freedom of speech” means they have the freedom to comment on everything whether they are truly educated about the particular topic or not. For whoever operates your restaurant’s social media, especially Facebook, the best thing to do is to completely ignore the comment. More than likely, one of your supporters will take care of the situation and let that person know how wrong they are for commenting. I always respond to comments like these no matter where the comment is posted. Some of my “Facebook friends” even tag me on posts just to see what witty response I come up with. As the restaurant though, it is best to stay out of these types of battles. People go to your restaurant for your food and not for your opinion. Customers already know your stance on the matter because you have the challenge. If a customer is brave enough to complain in person though, which typically does not happen, you will have to “put out that fire.” To help yourself respond to these types of complaints, please read the Are Food Challenges Healthy?, Are Food Challenges Wasteful?, Are Food Challenges Gluttonous?, Do Food Challenges Promote Obesity?, and Meanwhile In Africa: A Totally Ignorant Phrase articles. Feel free to read the The Dangers Of Competitive Eating article too. Comments to a person verbally are just to that person. Your comments to a person online are public for everyone to see. One comment online to the wrong person can spark a war, and you don’t want that kind of attention, so avoid it altogether by ignoring their ignorance. Do not delete the comments either because that is a form of a response which can spark a war. It is completely impossible to make everyone happy, so don’t let the few “haters” ruin the fun for everyone else, but make sure not to get into battles that you don’t have to. If you  think commenting is a bad idea, then it probably is, so please don’t!!

If you set a large prize, know that somebody might win it – As an eater myself, there is nothing more irritating than when a challenger beats a food challenge and then the restaurant tries to avoid paying out the advertised prize. This situation typically only occurs when there is a large prize involved, usually cash money. If you as a restaurant owner advertise a large prize such as $500 American dollars, know that there is a possibility that somebody will win the challenge, so you need to be prepared in case somebody follows the challenge rules and wins. You owe them just like they would owe you if they had lost. Please see the definition of a professional eater under the Food Challenges 101 section, if you have not already. The term “professional eater” does not mean “anybody that is able to beat your challenge.” If you feel the need to have a “professional eater clause” restricting professional eaters from taking your challenge, please let me (Randy Santel – the owner and creator of this website) know about it so that I can add it to the challenge description. To an eater, a “professional eater clause” states “I want the advertisement that comes with having a cash prize for winning my challenge, but I don’t want anyone to actually win it because I’m too cheap and I’m not good enough at marketing to turn the situation into a very positive one for everybody involved including myself as the restaurant owner,” and therefore we as moral human beings can avoid your restaurant entirely. Small minds don’t make BIG money.

Foodchallenges.com promotes restaurants with positive attitudes and great character that deserve success. If a person wins your challenge and prize, your immediate reaction should be to celebrate, and announce the accomplishment to all social media and local news media outlets to see who will cover the story. Contact us too and we will be happy to share the story via our social media and celebrate the victory, especially if that particular winner is a member of the community. Any restaurant deemed guilty of avoiding to pay out a prize to a deserving eater will not be promoted on this website, and will be blacklisted. Just like cheating, I have only heard a small handful of stories about restaurants completely avoiding a payout to a deserving eater, and they were all stories involving prizes worth $200 American dollars or more. The solution to this issue is to not establish a prize that you cannot afford to pay out. Also, solve any possible issues before the challenge begins. Once the challenge starts, the challenge is on and both parties are tied to the previously established challenge rules. If the competitive eater lies to you the owner, then the eater is now at fault so you are no longer liable.

On the other side of the coin, Foodchallenges.com does not support cheating eaters either. If your restaurant has a cash money or high value prize, it is perfectly ok to stipulate that an eater may only win once or 1 time per year. This situation is also rare, but it does happen particularly if a restaurant has multiple locations in some completely different areas, where an eater attempts to defeat a challenge a second time just to win the prize again. Some eaters even give fake names or wear “disguises” to avoid being caught. If you only allow people to win your prize once, it is smart to document the winner’s names (from a legal ID) and keep them on file which is perfectly ok to do, especially if you don’t have a Wall Of Fame. If you catch an eater cheating, please let us know that too so that we can make sure that eater is not promoted on our website or social media, or future events.

These 5 situations are the main complaints brought up as arguments by restaurants who don’t have a food challenge or no longer have a food challenge anymore, and they are not great arguments. As you can see, these 5 situations are easily avoidable or recoverable from. Please remember that not all people that attempt food challenges are disrespectful and have bad manners. Customers like that are very rare. The same situation applies for eaters too. If an eater attempts 100 food challenges, he or she will have a bad experience at one or 3 of the restaurants simply because the restaurant(s) operates very unprofessionally. Not all restaurants with food challenges are unprofessional though are they? No they are not, so remember that the coin flips both ways, and there are plenty of genuine eaters just looking to have fun. If you are proactive and take proper precautions beforehand, then you can easily minimize the chances of any negative situations occurring. If anything does happen though, you will be ready to quickly take care of the situation with few negative effects resulting.

Thanks for reading about things to consider before starting a food challenge and using FoodChallenges.com!!

To go back and view other Considering A Challenge articles, click here.

The geographic location of your restaurant is the most important factor that you need to consider when thinking about the size of the food challenge at your restaurant. One of the things that I stress to people interested in food challenges is that all stomachs were not created equally. No matter how much a person trains, that person may never be able to eat as much as some other people simply because his or her stomach cannot stretch as far. You can put a 5lb burger in front of 10 different people and every single person will have a different result regarding how much was eaten and how long it took to eat that much. An eater cannot base his or her training off other people because other people are made differently with different characteristics. This same theory works for restaurants too, meaning that no restaurant is the same and just because a food challenge works at one restaurant, that does not mean that the same challenge will work at your restaurant too. If you want to create a successful food challenge for your restaurant, you have to consider where your restaurant is located and how that affects your clientele, which is usually always overlooked, and most definitely always regretted.

The best way to describe how geography affects the clientele of your restaurant is by relating it to high school football in America. In most states, schools are divided up into divisions based on school size, and bigger schools compete with bigger schools while smaller schools compete with smaller schools. Every team plays 11 players at a time, but smaller schools can’t compete with bigger schools because the bigger schools have much more talent because there are so many more people to choose from to play on the team. This relates to food challenges and restaurants too, believe it or not. Larger cities have many more people located in the city, and therefore there are more possible big eaters, so restaurants in big cities are able to successfully have larger challenges than restaurants in smaller cities. Restaurants in small towns have less people around and therefore there is a smaller number of big eaters. To make up for this lack of big eaters, smaller town restaurants need to have smaller food challenges, or at the very least they should have a longer time limit for the challenge than a big city restaurant would. Here are some very helpful tips for restaurants and diners based on geography:

Larger city restaurants – If you are wanting to host a quantity challenge in a big city that is free if completed, you should create a challenge that is 3 stars or larger with a time limit over 30 minutes, meaning it should be at least 5lbs (2.25kg). If you want to have a 2 star challenge (3.5lbs-5lbs) that is free if completed, you should make the time limit less than 30 minutes. Bigger cities have more bigger eaters, so you will be giving out too many free meals if you have a medium sized challenge with a longer time limit. If you are set on having a 50 wing challenge, it would be best for a larger city restaurant to have a 30 minute time limit while a smaller city restaurant should definitely have a 1 hour time limit because there are not as many big eaters that can eat as fast as the eaters in the big cities. To make a long story short, it is ok for bigger restaurants to think bigger, just as long as they don’t think too big. If a restaurant wants to have a really big challenge (4 or 5 stars), they need to have a prize that makes attempting the challenge worth the effort for the eaters. It is also ok to think bigger because bigger cities get more travelers than smaller towns, meaning that there are even more possible big eaters that might eat at your restaurant. Before you think too big though, read Bigger Is Not Always Better.

Smaller town restaurants – This article is most important for restaurants in small towns because many smaller restaurants try to create big challenges like they have in big cities, and they just don’t work. If a small town restaurant wants to have a large challenge (3 stars), then the time limit should be no less than 45 minutes. From what I have seen, unless you plan on having a significantly large cash prize, completely eliminate the thought of having a very large challenge (4 or 5 stars) because there just aren’t any eaters around you that can eat that much, making your challenge pointless for your regular customers. If you have a prize though, the challenge can possibly work because a few people will still try it just because of the prize offered, especially if you price the challenge right. You may get a few winners but they will most likely be from nearby bigger cities, just traveling to your restaurant specifically to win your challenge and leave. If you want to actually get local customers involved, then you should consider creating a 2 star challenge. Creating a speed challenge vs a medium quantity challenge is up to you, but at least a few of your customers will have a chance of winning, creating a better atmosphere and more successful challenge so that in the end you will achieve having more customers in your restaurant. That is the purpose of having a challenge in the first place, so please don’t disregard the advice.

Small town restaurants close every day all around the world, and its especially sad to see the restaurants go that had a food challenge. Most of these restaurants had little-man syndrome though and either their challenge was too big or the time limit was too short. Don’t let history repeat itself at your restaurant too, and create a challenge suitable for your smaller clientele. A small guy usually can’t lift as much weight as a big guy, a small school can’t compete with a big school, and a small restaurant typically can’t operate just like a big restaurant. For another example, consider quantity record challenges. Geography doesn’t really affect having a quantity record challenge because your customers set the record level. If you put the same record challenge in both a smaller town restaurant and a bigger city restaurant, I’d be willing to bet that the record is significantly higher in the bigger city. If it isn’t, I’d bet the record holders are both from big cities, making my assumption correct.

Feel free to browse the Map Search feature of the website showing where all of the world’s food challenges are. I spent 3 months looking up and finding all 3,000+ food challenges and studying the size and locations of each challenge. 95% of challenges in Canada, Europe, and Australia are 1-3 star challenges and there are very few very large challenges because those countries don’t have the big cities with big eaters like there are in the United States. Before you set the size and time limit of your challenge, consider where you are located and the potential customers around you that may attempt it. The success of your food challenge really depends on it.

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Everyone can agree that the television show Man v Food starring Adam Richman sparked a large boost in interest for the world of food challenges and competitive eating. Before Man v Food: Season 1 aired on December 3, 2008, there were very few restaurant eating challenges available, and most of them were only available in the United States. If you haven’t already, please read A Brief History Of Food Challenges for more information about the history of food challenges around the world. Soon after the show became popular, more and more food challenges began popping up. Restaurants were wanting to join in on the fun new trend, and all restaurant owners were hoping that their restaurant and food challenge might get featured on an upcoming episode of Man v Food too. As stated in Man v Food Completely Ended In Early 2012, the last episode of Man v Food Nation aired on April 11, 2012. The show ended, but the popularity of food challenges continued to grow, especially in England and Australia which were still airing unseen episodes in those particular countries. In the United States, the Travel Channel still continues to air reruns of the very successful show, and won’t be stopping any time soon.

The show inspired millions of people to want to try food challenges, especially challenges that were featured on the show. Upon airing on an episode of Man v Food, those particular featured restaurants immediately felt the effects and received a large burst in customers, both local and travelers. Some fans would drive hours just to eat at a restaurant featured on the show. Restaurants featured on the show still feel the effects to this day, and most Man v Food featured challenges have been attempted hundreds of times since their particular episode premiered. Restaurants to this day are still creating challenges, hoping to be featured on the cancelled show!!

While inspiring people to attempt food challenges and inspiring restaurants to create food challenges, the show never really showed HOW to do either. Man v Food Nation, the final season, gave out a few tips regarding how to beat the food challenges, but they were very basic, and the eaters chosen for the show rarely ever beat the challenges, so the tips were more for show and didn’t really help anyone. Before FoodChallenges.com, there was no website or place to go for people to learn stomach capacity training tips, food challenge tips, and eating strategies so that they could be better prepared to win the food challenges. Also, there was no website, place to go, or company to hire for restaurants wanting to learn how to create and market a successful food challenge.

During and after Man v Food, people were attempting food challenges without knowing how, and restaurants were creating food challenges without knowing how, which has lead to many restaurant food challenges failing, and many people quitting after trying just one challenge. The challenges featured on the show were not on there because the restaurants paid money for the advertising. The challenges were selected by the show producers because they were unique and different. Over 60% of food challenges today are burger challenges. Some of them are great challenges and are unique in their own way, but many are the result of a restaurant wanting to host a food challenge but not knowing how. You cannot just throw a large burger patty on a bun with cheese and bacon, add fries and a milkshake, and then expect people to bust down your door trying to attempt your eating challenge. It takes a lot of thought, time, and effort to create a successful food challenge, just like it takes a lot of training and effort for a person to beat a food challenge. Hopefully with the help of FoodChallenges.com, the world of food challenges is going to grow even more with a much higher success rate because both restaurant owners & eaters will have a better understanding of HOW, and we can all work together to #feedthemovement.

To go back and view other Considering A Challenge articles, click here.