Joey Chestnut Answers Competitive Eating Questions From Twitter | Tech Support | WIRED

- 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]