It's all not hot dogs and beers...
May 19, 2017 4:19 PM   Subscribe

A lot more. Matthew "Megatoad" Kai Stonie is an American competitive eater and is the number two ranked competitive eater in Major League Eating. Matt won the 2015 Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest.

Stonie, whose nickname “Megatoad” comes from his childhood obsession with the fictional character Todd on Nintendo’s Mario franchise, started eating professionally in 2011. After taking home first place in a local lobster roll eating contest and a modest $1,000 paycheck, the “funny hobby,” as Stonie described, turned into a full-fledged career.

50 Donut Challenge

Jack-In-The-Box


Matt first gained recognition on his YouTube channel where he recorded himself eating massive quantities of food at a rapid clip; one of his more mind-boggling accomplishments is consuming seven McDonald’s Shamrock shakes (5,740 calories) in just five minutes. To date, he’s obtained over 2,650,000 subscribers.

Olive Garden


Red Lobster - 7.5 hrs

With Stonie’s rise to eating stardom, he plans to delay finishing a degree in biology/chemistry and focus on his career in Major League Eating.

Taco Bell

Full English Fry-Up
posted by shockingbluamp (12 comments total) 4 users marked this as a favorite
 
i am this guy when playing RPGs. don't care if my health is 100%, imma eat every single one of those pratchett jellied eels and even the rotten tyvian pears on the floor
posted by Foci for Analysis at 5:24 PM on May 19, 2017 [2 favorites]


I was watching live when he won it in 2015! What a thrill, to see Joey Chestnut defeated.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 6:12 PM on May 19, 2017


When I was in college, we "sponsored" our friend Mark in the Sanchez Burrito Co. burrito eating contest in Tucson, AZ. Mark had about the same build as Matt Stonie, by appearances not an obviously prodigious eater. There were 12 or so contestants. Mark was the only one with his own cheering section (three of us), which the others found somewhat intimidating. These Sanchez "The Works" burritos were about the same mass and dimension as those Chipotle burritos, and Mark downed five of them and started on his 6th when then bell rang. Due to one of those off-by-one counting errors, such as you make when running laps, Mark was cheated out of the first place prize (a $50 gift certificate for more burritos, go figure). The pre-game favorite, a large, wide, confident-looking man, lost his cookies about 20 minutes into it. His name was Ralph. Really. The event celebrated Rey Sanchez's 50th birthday, so Mark had some birthday cake afterward. They never held another contest after that one.
posted by ldenneau at 8:57 PM on May 19, 2017


Todd?
posted by FJT at 8:57 PM on May 19, 2017 [2 favorites]


Followed up with Kai's Power Stools. I AM SO SORRY
posted by Stonestock Relentless at 9:50 PM on May 19, 2017 [2 favorites]


Loved when he ordered the Shamrock Shakes he added the Oh, by the way, one cheeseburger too. The person taking the order did not even as much as hesitate or question the order. Then (spoiler alert) at the end of the challenge, he casually eats the cheeseburger.
posted by AugustWest at 12:23 AM on May 20, 2017 [1 favorite]


one of his more mind-boggling accomplishments is consuming seven McDonald’s Shamrock shakes (5,740 calories) in just five minutes

So roughly the same amount of calories as one Big Texan 72 Oz Steak Meal, here eaten by Molly Schuyler in 4:18. She goes on to eat two more meals in the same session.

(the steak meal might be a bit healthier than those shakes, though :-)
posted by effbot at 12:58 AM on May 20, 2017


He seems relatively graceful about it, too; I feel weird about loving these.

Uh, I was recently in a pizza eating contest, because I've always felt that deep down inside I may be a competitive eater. Turns out I'm not and I never need to do it again, but it was fun.
posted by jeweled accumulation at 1:06 AM on May 20, 2017 [1 favorite]


Mark had about the same build as Matt Stonie, by appearances not an obviously prodigious eater.

There is a longstanding discussion in the competitive eating world over whether big people are at a disadvantage because abdominal fat keeps their stomach from being able to expand under the pressures of fifty hot dogs etc.

Also, the main issue for serious competitors is "meat sweats", where your body is essentially rebelling against the amount of salt you're consuming rather than the sheer tonnage of food.
posted by Etrigan at 2:52 AM on May 20, 2017


Never was the tag [more inside] better used
posted by quarsan at 5:57 AM on May 20, 2017 [4 favorites]


Have someone who knows the Heimlich maneuver at these contests. There are deaths sometimes.
posted by Carol Anne at 6:15 AM on May 20, 2017


I don't consider winning the Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest an accomplishment anymore, after they banned Takeru Kobayashi from their contest. He helped make the contest famous for years. But in 2010, they insisted on a contract that would let them control his career as a condition of entering the contest, which, being a professional competitive eater, he refused.
posted by eye of newt at 7:49 AM on May 20, 2017 [2 favorites]


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