Tips to Winning an Eating Contest



First of all, you should know eating contests can be dangerous; there are risks of choking as well as the possibility of other complications so always make sure EMT's and an ambulance is on site before starting the contest.

In order to win you need to prepare your stomach to be able to accept as much food as possible. The first thing to know is that if you starve yourself your stomach will shrink so this is counter productive for what we are trying to do.

There are a couple techniques you can use to expand the size of your stomach. First, on an empty stomach, try to consume as many heads of lettuce as you can. Lettuce is mainly water and fiber so it actually uses more calories to break it down and digest than it carries. A well trained eater should be able to eat 3-4 heads of lettuce in one sitting.

Once you can handle 3-4 heads of lettuce, start eating as much boiled cabbage as possible. Cabbage will create a lot of gas once you've hit your maximum stomach capacity which will further expand the size of your stomach.

If you feel you can't eat any more, try standing up and wiggling your hips from side to side to help force the food down into your stomach; this should free up a bit of room or at least cause you to burp.

Once you are capable of chowing down on tons of lettuce and cabbage you should be prepared for the competition. A few things you should know:

Try to drink as little fluids before the competition as possible. Fluids will fill up your stomach allowing less room for food.

When eating, you will need to take in small amounts of fluids or the food just won't go down. Pro hot dog eaters soak the buns in water before eating to avoid having to actually drink water. If you can't dip your food in water, take very small sips between swallows to ease the food down into your belly.