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Tell these ‘competitive eaters’ to get stuffed and they will, happily

The mere sight of all that super-saturated food would kill most people's appetites, but competitive eaters say 'Bring it on!'

The mere sight of all that super-saturated food would kill most people's appetites, but competitive eaters say 'Bring it on!' Photo: ABC/Lily Meyers

The challenge: to eat a meal containing more than 1.5kg of beef, 1kg of American cheese, a deep fried Brie wheel, more than 3kg of bacon and a 6L mega shake.

Otherwise known as the biggest team eating challenge ever attempted in Australia.

What used to be considered gluttony has now become a professional sport.

“There’s sponsored events, world rankings, points, everything,” said Cal Stubbs.

The competitors say the sport is huge in America and Japan and it is now growing in Australia.

Cal ‘Hulk Smash Food’ Stubbs, Isaac ‘Sir-Eats-A-Lot’ Martin and Jesse ‘Food Coma’ Freeman are three of Australia’s top-ranked competitive eaters. ABC News: Lily Mayers

“To do something like this 10 years ago, the venue wouldn’t have even participated, it would have been stupid,” said competitive eater Issac Martin.

The men said the most frequent question they get was, “Why aren’t you obese?” They said the answer was that they lived very healthy lives between competitions.

“Generally it’s all about having balance, so making sure you work out, make sure you’re used to eating a lot of food on a regular basis, generally just vegetables though otherwise you’d blow up,” Jesse Freeman said.

Believe it or not there are techniques involved.

“We’ll have a max out meal about 24 hours before, do a huge meal,” he continued.

“Then we’ll water train leading up to the event, so we’ll water load to stretch our stomachs and then be completely empty on the day,” said Mr Stubbs.

“Just water training, when you’re eating four or five kilos in a seating, you try to limit the amount of food you eat outside of that,” said Mr Martin.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXH_12QWWg8

But he said not to try it at home.

“Water training can be dangerous and it comes with warnings,” he said.

“But if you do it in a controlled environment, [and] you know what you’re doing it’s the easiest and fastest way to override the stretch of the stomach.”

The result: the team did not finish every bite. But they said they were still happy with the attempt.

“I think the biggest team challenge was 10kg and that was between five guys, so to try and do upwards of 12kg with three guys is unheard of,” Mr Martin said.

For those who do not understand how competitive eating could be enjoyable — the team said it was an acquired taste.

-ABC

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