- I'm Joey Chestnut, a competitive eater ranked
number one in the world. Let's answer some questions
from the internet. This is "Competitive Eating Support." [upbeat music] At @TannerDeanMcCoy wants to know, "What is easier to eat in one sitting, 18 Krispy Kreme donuts
or one large pizza?" 18 Krispy Kreme donuts. Oh my god, those donuts are like air. They go down fast,
especially if they're warm. I love pizza, but crust
always slows you down. 18 donuts, it's so easy. Those won't even make it
home from the drive-thru. At @virgyvirgil: "Woke way too early, and then just wondered, how do competitive eaters not just die from the amount of salt
and [beep] in their body? If somebody tried to eat 70 hot dogs for the first time, they might die. It's kind of like the person
who ran the first marathon. They died, but now millions
of people can run a marathon because they know how to train. Eating 70 hot dogs, I've trained and made my body adapt to it. Our bodies are absolutely amazing. At @notbubbawallace: "I can't understand why anyone
would dunk a bun in water instead of just eating hot
dogs like a sane person and washing it down with some water." Well, apparently notbubbawallace
isn't very competitive in anything. Dunking the bun makes it faster. We're skipping the step of having to drink the water, right, by dunking. I'm eating one hot dog and using the wet bun as a sip of water. It helps swallow the hot dog. That's the way it works with competition. It's not always pretty. For the upcoming contest,
there's a no-dunking rule. I've been practicing eating
hot dogs without dunking. I have to take the right size
bite, right amount of water, see how fast I can get this bad boy down. [clock ticking]
[Joey munching] [Joey groans and munches]
[clock ticking] Pretty slow. [chuckles]
But that's about it. At @jameswbellmusic: "How does one train to
eat so many hot dogs?" My training isn't too much
different from like a runner. Runners have to run, eaters have to eat. It's hard 'cause I can't
practice every day. Once a week I'm doing a practice contest, and then there's a recovery
period, a cleanse, a fast, so I'm empty for my next practice. Day of the contest, I like black coffee. The acid from the coffee gets the things in your stomach bowel moving
around, and you're ready and a little amped up from the caffeine. I wouldn't call it a drug,
but I do think caffeine helps. At @NYDesignGuy: "What do competitive eaters
do after the contest? Do they purge or just digest? Either way, seems uncomfortable." The best competitive
eaters do digest the food. I only get sick if
there's something wrong, if I'm dehydrated or the food's bad. When you say uncomfortable,
that's where I'm really lucky. I kinda like the feeling of being bloated. That's one of the things
that works in my favor. I'm trying to stay vertical
and stay walking around. It helps the food settle
deep and starts digestion. After that, then I'm thirsty
and I just wanna go to sleep and have some crazy dreams. Some contests I'm putting
on a lot of weight. The most I've gained is, I think it's been more than 20 pounds, and it takes about five days for me to get back to my
normal weight, but I love it. At @karliwinning: "Do professional eaters
like lose from stopping because their jaw hurts,
not because they're full?" Yeah, you're absolutely right. Your jaws and your throat
muscles slow down a lot of competitive eaters. Like, the food settles at
the back of their throat 'cause their throat muscles are weak. Really important for us
to train those muscles and get them strong. At @imnastynat: "How do competitive ears not choke, just swallowing whole
hot dogs like nothing?" I have seen people choke. It's always the person,
it's their first contest and they're just trying to keep up. It's always turned out okay. Rundmc_912 wants to know, "Anyone else wonder how people
get into competitive eating? Do they enter regional
tournaments and work their way up? I'm genuinely curious." I did my first contest when I was 21. It was at a casino in Reno. They offered me a free hotel room. I was like, "Heck yeah, I'll do it." I tied for 3rd. Then I was like, "Oh my god, I'm gonna do another local one." Three contests later, I was at Coney Island on the
4th of July, and I got 3rd. In order to be a good competitive eater, you have to love eating. It's always easier to eat a
lot of food if you like it. At @twforfat asks, "How do competitive
eaters not gain weight? Dude, I do gain weight, and it's a battle. I have to be aware of it, because if I lose track of
my long-term calorie intake, I gain weight, and then
I start losing contests. I hate losing. Without getting graphic, I'm taking in thousands and thousands of calories
during a contest. There's no way to absorb
all those calories. Things are running through me. My normal routine after contests
is to eat super high fiber, keep everything moving. Low carb, no starches. Doing cardio helps me with my
breathing during a contest, but I don't depend on cardio
to burn calories necessarily. I try to get into a calorie deficit in order to get back to normal weight. Some people chipmunk while they're eating. They kind of overstuff their mouth and they keep food in their cheeks. Kind of amateur way to eat. You're not moving the food efficiently. You wanna keep everything
moving at the same pace and not letting it build up. At @JIGGY_PA: "Serious question for competitive eaters: Do y'all actually taste
what you're eating, or...?" Of course we taste it. It's like a race car driver. Can they tell if they're
driving on a crappy road? I really like when it's good food. I really hate when it's a food that I love and they did a bad job with it. Oh, there's nothing worse than that. If it's a taste I like,
it definitely is easier. First couple minutes of a contest, I'm a fat guy having fun. If there's a flavor I don't like, it hits me again and again and again. Everything's more work
when it's not a good taste. At @j66dskc: "Do eating competitions have
weight classes like fighting? 'Cause positive that, for my weight class, I could absolutely smoke most people." There's no weight classes. For the most part, men and women
compete next to each other. Big and small compete against each other. The healthier you are, the
harder you can push your body. There are big guys who can
eat a lot of food, great guys, but they can't do it in 10 minutes. All the top eaters are pretty healthy. I wish I was a little bit
more fit, but I love to eat. At @Odyle_ wants to know, "Anyone ever examined the
health of competitive eaters? I wonder, is it any worse than normal?" It's one of my biggest
splurges is my doctor. He does my blood work. And there have been
times where I go to him, and I'm heavy, but he's really happy with the way everything's
working right now. Most competitions aren't
necessarily healthy, any kind of athlete. I don't think we're
much worse than normal. Contests and practice take a toll. Some contests are really hard on the body, it takes days to recover, and some contests are hard on the mouth. If it's a fried food, my mouth
is raw for a couple days. There's always a recovery
period after a contest. You gotta be willing to put up with it. At @3TProductions wants to know, "Who ranks the competitive eaters? Does it matter if you eat
kale, or pancakes, or hot dogs? America needs answers." There is a league, Major League Eating. Right now, I'm ranked number one. They rank based off
performance in contests. There is a kale contest.
There's pancakes and hot dogs. And hot dogs are the most
important contest of the year. Every food's a little bit different. Every eater has their own
strengths, weaknesses. Some people are capacity eaters, some people are good swallowers. My general training method
is building tolerance. If I'm in a kale contest, I
have to practice with kale. If it's hot dogs, I'm building
my tolerance with hot dogs, getting my body comfortable with it. At @smitty83 wants to know, "How do competitive
eaters afford to train? I assume they find all the
all-you-can-eat buffets that they haven't been kicked out of, and plop a chair down,
and just go to town." I very rarely go to buffets. If I'm training for the kale contest, or hot dog contest, or bologna, I have to train with that food. Most of the time, sponsors
will send me the food, which is awesome, but also, the food we're eating in
the contest is not that much when you think about it. It costs about $40 to do a practice. I'm not eating anything for two days leading up to that practice, and then afterwards, I'm
not eating very much. I'm eating vegetables. At @mventre: "Competitive eating crowd, what's your favorite or go-to
donut consumption technique?" For contests or for pleasure? Because I love bitterness of black coffee with sweetness of donut. But for contests, most donut contests we're
not allowed to dunk donuts. Alternate between eating,
sip of water, alternate. You find that rhythm and
don't overstep your mouth. At @sammideedub wants to know, "What do competitive hot dog
eaters do the rest of the year that isn't July 4? Do they have regular jobs, or is there a professional hot-dog-eating international circuit?" Yeah, there's tons of contests. I have records in like 50
different foods, and I love it. Hot dogs is probably the
biggest contest of the year, but I do everything
from wings, ribs, pizza. I stay busy. At @dgjaden wants to know, "How do competitive
eaters not get hiccups? I always be hiccuping
whenever I eat quickly." I never get hiccups. I stopped getting hiccups
after I was like 12 years old. You might wanna go to the doctor, Jaden. I burp. A lot of times during a contest,
we call it catching a burp. You have to stop eating for
a second so you can burp, and you have to be careful
not to nothing comes out. Those are all the questions for today. Thank you for watching
"Competitive Eating Support." [gentle upbeat music]