Jim and Matt decided that putting down hot dogs was going to be SO EASY this morning. Jim was even so confident, he bought jumbo sized hot dogs… Neither of them realized that they’d only put down less than 4 hot dogs in 5 minutes. Amid a lot of smack talk from listeners watching the contest go down on Facebook Live, they conceded that competitive eating is a LOT harder than it looks.
What they SHOULD have done is engaged in a little bit of training before going into it cold. An article on Mental Floss had some tips on competitive eating, in case you were wanting to try beating Jim and Matt yourself!
- Expand your stomach using water– Some of the pros will drink a gallon of water at a time to expand their stomach and make room for all that food!
- Workout your jaw muscles– those who eat a lot can attest to your jaw getting sore from trying to cram so much food in their mouths. the professionals will chew up to six pieces of gum at a time to help strengthen the muscles. Who knew you could work out your jaw?
- Control breathing like your swimming– get into a rhythm. How many bites will you take before you breathe? Will you breathe before a bite, or after, or in between a number of chews? It sounds silly, but this rhythm is important to keeping pace.
- Get in shape physically– eating a lot sounds counter intuitive to this, but the idea is that if you have less fat on your stomach, there’s more area for your full stomach to expand, whereas if you have fat, it acts as a wall.
- Wear comfortable clothes– Ya know, like Joey’s Thanksgiving pants.
- Don’t sit while eating– it compresses your stomach and you can hold less.
- Water– some competitions will allow you to dunk your hot dog in water, and that helps the food get into your stomach more quickly. Also, water needs to be room temperature, because cold water will make your throat clench and it’s harder for the food to go down as quickly.
- Don’t try to pace yourself– You need to eat as many as fast as you can before your stomach starts sending it’s full signals. So basically the opposite of anything you’re ever taught on a diet.
- Chipmunk your food– Any food that is in your mouth after time hits counts as food eaten, so if you’re getting close to it, just stuff all corners of your mouth with chewed up food!
Let us know if you engage in a competition over the holiday weekend! We’d love to see YOUR video! And don’t miss the Nathan’s Famous Coney Island Hot Dog Eating Contest on the Fourth of July this year. This year is the 100th year of the competition!
-Kristin
