# How do competitive eaters eat so much **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 4, 2004, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-competitive-eaters-eat-so-much/253528 "2004-07-04T19:37:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2004, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-competitive-eaters-eat-so-much/253528/1 "2004-07-04T19:37:15Z")
I have heard of a few things they do like ignoring satiety signals to the brain, or bouncing up and down to compress the food, or the ‘belt of fat’ theory. But that still doesn’t explain all of it. I know someone who, when he was in high school, ate 11 domino’s large pizzas in an eating competition. That is roughly 22,000 calories in one sitting and much of it was in the form of bread (which takes up alot of space according to some competitive eaters). Most people i know can barely down 1-2 large pizzas, how did he manage 11? He says he rarely gets full and he has been known to eat 18000 calories in a day and not know it. is it possible that the lower spinchter in the stomach is loose, so food is forced out of the stomach and into the small intestine undigested? I don’t understand how all this food can stay in the stomach unless the person has an abnormal flexibility to the stomach muscles. ---
**Author:** ![alterego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/6bbea6/32.png) [@alterego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alterego)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2004, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-competitive-eaters-eat-so-much/253528/2 "2004-07-04T19:41:40Z")
My step dad used to take me out to eat some of those “eat this steak and its on the house” type deals, and we would simply gorge ourselves on water the day before. 11 pizzas? Doesn’t sound physiologically possible. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2004, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-competitive-eaters-eat-so-much/253528/3 "2004-07-04T19:59:26Z")
_Eleven_ pizzas? :dubious: Did you witness this or just hear about it? My kids used to eat 10-12 tacos at a sitting, but that’s not near the bulk. ---
**Author:** ![alterego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/6bbea6/32.png) [@alterego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alterego)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2004, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-competitive-eaters-eat-so-much/253528/4 "2004-07-04T20:31:39Z")
Ok…I just saw a chinese guy eat 53 hot dogs on the news. WTF? ---
**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2004, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-competitive-eaters-eat-so-much/253528/5 "2004-07-04T21:10:25Z")
> [@](#): > > NEW YORK - For the fourth straight year, rail-thin Takeru “The Tsunami” Kobayashi chewed up the competition at the Nathan’s Famous hot dog eating competition Sunday, breaking his own previous world record. Kobayashi, of Nagano, Japan, **gulped down 53 1/2 wieners in 12 minutes and shattered his own world record by three dogs.** > > In 2002, he had wolfed down 50 1/2. > > The closest competitor Sunday was newcomer Nobuyuki Shirota, 25, of Tokyo, who made an impressive showing but couldn’t cut the mustard with 38 downed dogs. > > Once again, then, the contest’s coveted Mustard Yellow Belt returns to Japan. Since 1996, the Japanese have dominated the competition and only one American — New Jersey’s Steve Keiner in 1999 — has captured the belt at the signature July 4 extravaganza. > > **The 5-foot-7, 132-pound Kobayashi, of Nagano, Japan, employed his trademark method** of snapping the dogs in half before swallowing them to destroy the 19 other contestants. Source: [http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=519&ncid=716&e=8&u=/ap/20040704/ap\_on\_re\_us/hot\_dog\_contest](http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=519&ncid=716&e=8&u=/ap/20040704/ap_on_re_us/hot_dog_contest) I take he didn’t have fries with it.