Matt Stonie is a name known worldwide because of his competitive eating. The man has a small frame, but he can easily chomp down the daily calorie intake of a couple of people in one sitting. How does he do it? Does Matt Stonie have a fast metabolism? It is easy to think so. There is no other way he could do that and still maintain his 130 lbs frame, right?
While fast metabolism is one of the factors of his low weight, it is not the main one. Matt Stonie carefully maintains his diet to make sure that his body can retain the number of calories he has to eat. As a competitive eater, this is a general need for him. His background studying these topics helps as well. There are also regular work-outs and conditioning for his body.
Could anybody achieve what he has? Possibly not. Matt Stonie uses his body’s advantages to be a better competitive eater. There are things that you have to understand about nutrition, food, and your body to be able to accomplish his feat.
Fast Metabolism Is Not All of It
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According to Matt Stonie, the people who think he has a superhuman metabolism are wrong. Instead of that, he says that hard work, working out in many different ways, and his body adapting to the changes are what help him stay in shape. He does not completely rule out fast metabolism—but it is a small part of the whole deal.
If you know about Matt Stonie’s physique, it is pretty easy to be surprised how he does it. If you do not know, he stands at five foot eight inches and weighs around 120 to 130 pounds. For a frame that is as small as this, the workouts must be taking the life out of him! According to him, the workouts are indeed a lot of work.
Matt Stonie eats a 2000-2500 calorie diet on a regular day. But when he is training for a competition, his daily calorie count can easily cross 10,000 to even 20,000. He chooses food items that have a high calorie count. Food like hot dogs, ice cream, and any kind of fast food are his go-to meals those days.
The Science Behind Matt Stonie’s Approach
Matt Stonie is a big believer in knowing your body. If you know how your body responds to food and exercises, you can do the guesswork and figure out a way to fit that into your lifestyle. For him, there was a lot of conditioning to make sure he does not get unhealthy due to his passion.
Besides eating meals that could feed a family, he works out at least five times a week. During those workout sessions, he does cardio on some days, lifts weights, and does other workouts that fit his schedule. According to Matt Stonie, he spends a lot of time taking care of himself. So there is hardly any way that fast metabolism is his secret to health.
As for conditioning, his body is now used to his lifestyle. This means that on days when he eats high-calorie meals, his body weight goes up due to water retention. For example, if he eats 15 pounds of food in one day, the next day he will weigh 20 pounds heavier. This water weight eventually comes down. And on another day, he loses ten to 13 pounds, and so on.
What this proves is that the body gives up at a certain point. When you eat a huge amount of food past your body’s limit, it will stop trying to digest it. And eventually, your body will simply discard the extra food without taking the calories. It is all good, though. In the end, good health is what helps Matt Stonie stay on his career path.
How Matt Stonie Figured Out His Routine
Matt Stonie did not just drop into the world of competitive eating. What was it that brought him into it? And how did he figure out the cheats that help him stay in shape? Well, it was a long road. But here is how he figured out what worked for him to get here.
Beginning His Competitive Eating Career
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It might surprise you a little and then make sense. But Matt Stonie had a background in nutrition during his college days at Mission College. So of course, he might already have a lot of knowledge on how the body functions and stays healthy. But how did he start competitive eating? The answer lies in every college student’s financial health.
When you are a college student living paycheck to paycheck, you would definitely go for a competition that offers free food. For Matt Stonie, his beginning was in 2010. He joined a Lobster roll eating contest in his area and ate his way into winning a $1000 prize.
It did not seem like such a big deal then. But he later realized that he could be good at this. And with the bait of free food and a spirit for competition, he started doing it regularly. The event that made him take competitive eating the most seriously, was the Major League Eating competition.
Training on How to Eat
Eating competitions are never as simple as you may think. It is not just eating; you have to expand your stomach and train your brain into thinking that you will be able to eat 10,000 calories in one sitting. How did Matt Stonie do it? Practice, determination, and a lot of work.
The first thing that competitive eaters have to do is to control their reflexes. Our brains will let us know that it has reached their limit and can take no more food. You may feel nauseous, get cramps, and probably end it by throwing up. For Stonie, he had to train to control it by expanding his stomach and lessening the gag reflex.
A regular person’s stomach capacity is about 1 liter. Before a competitive eater competes, they will drink heavy amounts of water in a short amount of time to give the stomach some time to get used to the stretch. And for the gag reflex, they will put their finger down their throats to practice keeping food inside them.
It does not end there. The competitors also have to train their jaws to eat this much. Chewing 20 pieces of gum at once seems like a good way to do it. And that is exactly what people like Matt Stonie have had to do to train themselves.
Facts You Might Not Know About Matt Stonie
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Matt Stonie is not just a competitive eater. There is much more to the man than his incredible stomach capacity and health maintenance skills. While all of his records and achievements are about eating, here are some amazing things about him you might not know.
- The journey into competitive eating was miserable. When he was starting out, he would always leave feeling bloated and dehydrated.
- Despite his whole career being around eating food, Matt Stonie does not have a favorite food item.
- Matt Stonie is an amazing guitarist. And he has a history of doing performances for crowds with his playing.
- While he consumes, he also gives away. Matt Stonie donates a chunk of his earnings to charities and for the less fortunate.
Conclusion
When you are not a competitive eater, it is easy to think that a fast metabolism is all it takes to be able to maintain your shape after so much eating. Now that you know the science and training behind Matt Stonie’s feats.
