This is morbid and I'm sure some people will find it tasteless that I bring this up. Sorry if I offend anyone, but my life philosophy has always been to force myself to laugh at things that are too awful to be true.

...but did you ever think with some of the horrible and gross things we do, that we could make a killing entering Man Vs. Food type competitions?! I think about that sometimes. When it comes to "can you finish this giant serving of X" challenges, I think I could stand a chance, I really do.

If anything I find Sonya "Black Widow" Thomas an idol and an inspiration more than anything. She's 5'5 and 100 lbs, active job and lifestyle, and ate 11 pounds of cheesecake in 9 minutes. Unbelievable.

Last week, I was out on vacation with my family, and we happened to catch on TV the hot-dog-eating competition which apparently took place in Coney Island. It was a seriously, seriously disgusting thing to watch, and frankly, I have no idea how people do that...

...with hot dogs dipped in water.

HOWEVER, as my family was all sitting around gagging and going, "OMG, how awful, grossgrossgross," I was thinking, "HM. Now, if those were 13" x 9" yellow sheet cakes... I bet I could compete."

It is icky. BUT if you're going to be a bottomless pit anyway, might as well be one who makes $10,000 for it.

Yupp.. Minus the time restrictions, cause yeh sometimes I eat fast but I could never eat like they do.

There is a 5 pound burrito challenge here, and my brother-in-law can only eat half. I always tell him I could most definitely finish the whole thing. He's challenged me, but I feel like I'd be so embarrassed if I did =(

I used to host my own food competitions in my bedroom. I still hold records in eating the most ---

> Chicken McNuggets
> Jumbo pasta shells
> Cheetos
> Mac & Cheese

OK, sure, I was the only one competing but I will always remember the rush of finishing! LOL Only problem is I wound up being a big, fat loser! Literally.

And hotdogs dipped in water? Disgusting. My gag reflex just kicked in.

Yeah. For the hot dog challenge, they have 10 minutes to eat as many as they can, and since that includes the buns, they have to dip them in water to get them to go down more easily. Or, in the case of one of the dudes, dip them in "carb free fruit punch" which was even more gross as it made everything red. Joey Chestnut holds the world record of 68 hot dogs in 10 minutes. He seems to be the only person capable of out-eating Kobayashi, which up until recently nobody thought was possible. It was horrific to watch. My gag reflex was DEFINITELY working against me.

I dont follow the "sport" or anything - it just happened to be a very informative event!

For real competitive eating athletes (athletes?), it's all about a time limit and the whole challenge part. What I find fascinating is a lot of the competitors are rail thin! O_O

On my darkest days I definitely could eat every single bite of some of those foods that they offer at restaurants. The kind where they ring bells for and announce to the entire establishment that someone is attempting the challenge. Thank goodness the fact that they CALL ATTENTION to it kept me from ever trying! At home alone? Wouldn't have been a problem, unfortunately.

Lol we really are pretty similar except I would use Cookies. Any kind will do and one MUST throw out the evidence afterwards. It's amazing how quickly a person can eat a whole bag of cookies. If nobody sees it it didn't happen right? Oh and cheesies/nachos/chip n dip those big bags are much more economical and why stop once you have started eating? You can down a bag of those fast too. I was a champion food competitor!

Seriously tho, how is the man vrs food guy not huge?

I have seen women engage in competitive undereating at restaurants.

Girl 1: "I'll have pasta.
Girl 2: "I'm going to get the fish."
Girl 3: "I'll just have a salad."
Girl 1: "I changed my mind. I'll have salad, too. With dressing on the side."
Girl 2: "Salad for me, but with oil & vinegar on the side."
Girl 3: "I'll have a dry salad."

I googled her and watched her eat and win.

O my gosh. I want to binge in such a bad way now. I'm going to leave my house to mail some things and talk myself out of it. I'll tell myself that surely as she ages, the effects from this type of eating will catch up with her (consume her, is what I will tell myself).

And then Girl 3 goes home and eats a bag of potato chips.

LOL, I actually have a crush on Adam Richman and I wonder the same thing. I've noticed that he is indeed bigger now than the first season, but he's still adorable.

Speaking of Joey Chestnut, he was on Man v. Food and ate an entire 5 pound burrito in under 4 minutes. I was mesmerized and horrified all at the same time.

One time I ate a 5 lb tub of black licorice. That's my most serious food weakness. If there was ever a competitive eating competition for licorice, I would DESTROY all competitors.

You & I know the same people. Heck, we may be that girl. (Sometimes.)

What's interesting though is how many times the winner in these competitions is a short, very slim asian man or woman (as a sport, eating competitions are more popular in japan and other asian countries than in the USA).

There used to be a couple local restaurants with Pho-eating challenges (Pho is a noodle soup with a variety of ingredients and condiments brought to the table for you to customize the soup to your tastes. It's customary to eat mostly the solids and leave some of the liquid behind). To win the challenge you had to eat everything and drink all the broth from a large bowl (the size of a large mixing bowl - my husband called it "the swimming pool.")

In both restaurants you got your picture on the wall and a free meal if you finished the meal. One restaurant also gave a $10 prize. The bowls were ridiculously sized - and even though my husband and I were both over 350 lbs at the time, and could eat three plates of food at a buffet, we never could finish the MEDIUM bowl. 90% of the winners on the photo wall were thin asian men. 5% were asian women, and the other 5% white and black men (no non-asian women were on the wall at all).

One of the restaurants even gave you 5 hours to complete the challenge.

Krampus-- totally. my husband and I watch MVF and always consider whether or not, in our days of gluttony, we could have successfully competed.
He would win hands down in any ice cream/ milk shake or spicy wing challenge.
That 72 ounce steak challenge in Texas? Sign. Me. Up. I've definitely done more damage than that at a BBQ on my family's farm, or during a trip to Fogo De Chao or some other Brazillian Churrascaria. If waiters disguised as Gauchos bring me hot meat on a sizzling stick? I will throw DOWN.